Consensus Unbroken - Thande's New Timeline

Before you ask, no I haven't given up on LTTW/TABAE/Vendetta/Cronus Invictus/whatever. I had intended to use my holiday in Canada to take a bit of time to brainstorm on them and write a bit. Of course, what actually happened (as always) is that when I try to brainstorm on that many projects I have an idea for another one instead. This one.

I am largely self-taught on British political history thanks to the B.E.S., so those of you who eat, sleep and breathe the subject please be kind when correcting me about the colour of Ian Macleod's tie or something. But I do welcome such correction. One of the inspirations for me writing a Seventies political timeline is Drew, of Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail '72, an excellent timeline which I would encourage you all to read, and I admire the gentlemanly way in which he accepts and incorporates corrections - something which I am all too well aware that I sometimes fail to do on LTTW. I would also call attention to V-J (Building Jerusalem), Lord Roem (For the Sake of a Shower) and, of course, EdT (A Greater Britain, Fight and Be Right) as inspirations in leading me to a subject I would once have thought far outside my writing capability.

Right, enough brown nosing in the hope of guilting people into reading this. Let's go!

Prologue.

The election of 1945 is often given as the defining moment that begins the modern history of Britain. It was a dramatic climax to the Second World War, a conflict which still deeply informs the contemporary British mindset and attitudes, and it was a radical shift in the political landscape of the type that occurs only once or twice in a lifetime.

The newly elected Labour government of Clement Attlee, given the largest electoral mandate of any government in British history, proceeded with a bold socialist programme of nationalisation of industries and the creation of the welfare state. However, it suffered from issues with foreign policy at a critical time in the making of the post-war world. Attlee’s legacy in both these areas would stretch decades into the future: the Conservative party would accept the ‘socialist consensus’ and Britain would be run on corporatist grounds, while the establishment came to the collective conclusion that the nation’s military and geopolitical clout was caught in a long unarrestible decline.

In our timeline, this period of consensus came to an abrupt halt in 1979. Public frustration with Jim Callaghan’s Labour Government’s inability to handle widespread strikes, industrial meltdown and aggressive unions in the so-called ‘Winter of Discontent’ led to the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party. Where her predecessor Edward Heath had failed, Thatcher successfully confronted the power of the unions, broke the post-war socialist consensus and introduced monetarist policies. In the process Britain fought the Falklands War against Argentina, startling many both inside and without the country who had believed it had already dwindled to a military husk and American puppet. But Thatcher’s autocratic ruling style and lack of any sense of compromise or compassion bitterly alienated much of the country against her and her party for years to come.

Thus the question arises: did the consensus have to come to an end in such a way? Certainly, the status quo of the late 1970s could not have continued indefinitely, or Britain would have ended up either as an anarchic wasteland or an undemocratic oligarchy in which power rested in the hands of the trade unionists rather than the elected government. There have even been suggestions that there was talk of military coups organised by MI-5 with the intention of installing a military regime under Earl Mountbatten. Yet Thatcher was not the first to try and confront the unions. Edward Heath had been elected in 1970 on a pledge to do just that, yet was forced to back down in the strikes of 1972, showing the weakness of his position. Nor were the Conservatives the only ones to realise that the power of the trade unionists had to be faced down. Jim Callaghan himself repeatedly considered making a television broadcast to the nation during the Winter of Discontent denouncing the strikers and calling for the nation to rally behind him and give him the popular mandate to break the unions. However, he always remained too fearful that the day after nothing would have changed, and he would have made himself look entirely impotent – as the state of the Labour Party at the time, inextricably enmeshed with union politics, had already begun to make him.

When the unions were finally broken by Thatcher, she possessed several advantages over every Prime Minister to make the attempt before her. Firstly, she planned ahead, for example giving in to the National Union of Mineworkers’ initial demands while quietly stockpiling coal, meaning that when she did confront them in 1984, their strikes entirely failed to dramatically hurt the nation’s coal supply the way they did in the 1972 strike and this largely resulted in public indifference or hostility everywhere outside mining villages, giving her a free hand to act. Secondly, she was arrogant, and in politics arrogance can be a virtue. Winston Churchill is essentially lauded for stubbornly keeping Britain in the Second World War as defeat after defeat collapsed the country’s morale around him, when any other leader, one could say any more rational leader, would have seen no other option but to seek a peace with Germany. It was that same brash self-confidence, a willingness to ignore facts and advice, that led Thatcher to grind the unions down – and also to accomplish the third factor.

Britain rose victorious from the Falklands War, regardless of the (not entirely unjustified) claims of many that the Argentines possessed sufficient military strength that war to eject them from the islands would be impossibly bloody, would probably end in defeat, and Britain would have no choice but to meekly negotiate through the United Nations. The Falklands conflict gave Thatcher enormous personal popularity, at a time when the Labour Party was shifting to the far left, was shedding the Social Democratic Party as its breakaway centrist faction, and was unable to keep its policy on the Falklands consistent from one day to the next. At first Labour leader Michael Foot supported the task force, then under pressure from the militant left he reversed his position and lost credibility when war turned to victory. By the time of the 1983 election, even members of the Labour right like Denis Healey were making inflammatory comments about the war being a pointless bloodbath, badly misjudging the public mood.

There are many reasons for the Conservative landslide of 1983: the Labour Party’s far-left manifesto, called by shadow environment secretary Gerald Kaufman “the longest suicide note in history”; the emergence of the SDP-Liberal Alliance helping to split the opposition vote; the improving state of the economy. But there is no doubt that it was the Falklands victory that not only gave Margaret Thatcher the huge electoral mandate in 1983 that let her crush the unions, but also propelled her into becoming the longest-serving Prime Minister since the nineteenth century. After the Second World War, the Falklands War is easily the most continuously influential conflict of the twentieth century upon the modern British national character, and for similar reasons: both fuel a romantic image of Britain ‘standing alone’, abandoned by her allies, facing a foe and triumphing. By comparison, wars in which Britain fought as part of an alliance, such as the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War, have contributed very little to the national character even though many more British soldiers were involved than in the Falklands.

Today things are quite reversed in Britain. Instead of the post-war socialist consensus, a post-Thatcher capitalist consensus has been instituted, with Tony Blair abandoning Labour’s commitment to nationalisation and running an economically right-wing government. Even after the financial crises at the end of the Noughties and the ensuing public hatred of the City, as I write this passage Labour is nonetheless still wary about bringing its message back to the left, illustrating the enduring legacy of Thatcher and her successors. The country has swung from one extreme to the other, and one can make the argument that all this dramatic change stems from a single act of Argentine aggression, thousands of miles away on the other side of the world.

Yet Argentina coveted the Falklands long before 1982. She made her move then due to the impression that Britain was abandoning her carrier capability and power projection, and the Thatcher government’s failure to recognise and respond to Argentine provocations convinced Galtieri’s junta that now was the time to act. Unbeknownst to the British public, though, this was not the first time Argentina had sensed weakness and made such a move; that time, it had simply been more effectively rebuffed.

And so, what if...?

Great stuff, Thande! Keep it coming! I can't wait to see where this goes!

I am getting on early this time, buddy. You're not tricking me like you did with LttW. Waiting until it got to 200 pages and then reading it all in one sitting. Pfft.

This is gonna be great!

I'm following this. Why is anarchy bad though? Orwell seemed to think it was a good thing, and Orwell was one pessimistic sob.

Interesting, consider me subscribed.

A Recap.

A brief history of OTL British post-war political history to help accommodate those unfamiliar with the setting. Those of you who already know Hugh Gaitskell’s inner leg measurement may feel perfectly free to skip this segment.

1945.

Even in all the chaos of the dying days of the Second World War, the world is astonished at the results of the British general election. The British people unceremoniously eject Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party and its National Government allies, giving Clement Attlee’s Labour Party an unprecedentedly vast majority of 145 in the House of Commons.

Full election result (with thanks to the Armenian Genocide)





The election results lend a clue to why the electorate, shocking as it was to those not in the know, punished the Conservatives. Due to the Second World War and the economic chaos of the 1930s before it, Britain had not held an election since 1935. Voters wanted to try something different to the hidebound National Coalition dominated by the Conservatives; Churchill’s ill-advised comments that Attlee’s welfare state would only work if it was enforced by ‘some sort of Gestapo’ further turned public anger on him and his image as a man of the last century. The wreckage of the Coalition can be seen in the bewildering variety of small parties and MP identities in opposition, most of which would soon disintegrate.

Changing government at the end of the war, though – in combination with the death of American President Franklin Roosevelt – did impair Britain’s voice in the post-war settlement.

Arab vs. Jewish trouble in Palestine forces British troops operating there in the Mandate to blockade the harbour at Haifa in order to prevent ships full of Jewish refugees from offloading there. They rapidly become floating slums.

End of the Second World War in Europe and then the Far East, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Foundation of the United Nations, with Britain a founder member. Royal Air Force introduces the Vampire jet fighter – too late to do any good in the war.


Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for Defence: Clement Attlee

Lord Chancellor: William Jowitt, Viscount Jowitt

Lord President of the Council: Herbert Morrison

Lord Privy Seal: Arthur Greenwood

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Hugh Dalton

Minister of Economic Affairs and President of the Board of Trade: Sir Stafford Cripps

Foreign Secretary: Ernest Bevin

Home Secretary: James Chuter Ede

First Lord of the Admiralty: Albert Victor (“A.V.”) Alexander

Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries: Tom Williams

Air Secretary: William Wedgewood-Benn, Viscount Stansgate

Colonial Secretary: George Hall

Dominion Secretary: Christopher Addison, Viscount Addison

Minister for Education: Ellen Wilkinson

Minister for Fuel and Power: Emanuel Shinwell

Minister for Health: Aneurin “Nye” Bevan

India and Burma Secretary: Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, Baron Pethick-Lawrence

Minister for Labour and National Service: George Isaacs

Paymaster General: Arthur Greenwood

Scottish Secretary: Joseph Westwood

War Secretary: Jack Lawson




1946.

The US Congress passed the McMahon Act, shutting off all the former exchange of nuclear knowledge that had persisted during the war, with assent from new President Harry S Truman. Despite the Labour Government’s dovish instincts towards the Soviet Union (for example, giving away British jet engine technology to Stalin) Attlee nonetheless knew that Britain would have to possess her own atomb bomb to be assured of a voice in the post-war world, and took the painful decision – in a land still wracked by rationing and now being forced to feed starving Germans as well – to spend a sizeable chunk of her hollow treasury on developing a nuclear weapon from scratch. The programme was organised by the GEN.75 Committee.

Labour government embarks on nationalisation programmes in earnest, with the railway network, the coal industry and power stations all coming under the control of national boards.

The winter of 1946/47 is bitterly cold and persistent snowfalls and floods wipe out much of the precious wheat crop and sheep flocks, deepening the rationing problem.

Winston Churchill makes his famous “Sinews of Peace” speech in the United States in which he coins the term Iron Curtain and warns of future Soviet aggression.

1947.

After failing to reach an agreement between Hindus and Muslims over the partition of the old Indian Empire, Britain withdraws anyway and conflict ensues. Half a million deaths later, India is partitioned into two states: Muslim Pakistan in the northwest and also a separate enclave in East Bengal, while the remainder of the old empire becomes Hindustan – soon to be confusingly known just as ‘India’. Both India and Pakistan decide to join the British Commonwealth with the King at its head despite becoming republics, setting a precedent for later ex-colonies.

Britain also pulls out of Palestine after the United Nations endorses an Anglo-American partition plan intended to set up Arab and Jewish states side-by-side.

Princess Elizabeth, the heir to the throne, marries Philip Mountbatten, formerly of the Greek and Danish royal lines, and he becomes Duke of Edinburgh and royal consort.

In a cabinet reshuffle, Harold Wilson becomes the youngest cabinet minister in history when he becomes President of the Board of Trade at the age of 31.

Britain and France sign the Treaty of Dunkirk, a mutual defence pact initially aimed at a potentially resurgent Germany.

Conservative Party issues the Industrial Charter, indicating they will abide by Labour’s nationalisations and not attempt to reverse them when they regain power. This represents the start of the ‘post-war consensus’.

1948.

The Treaty of Dunkirk is expanded into the Treaty of Brussels, with Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands joining Britain and France. While Germany is still seen as the potential aggressor, gazes inevitably shift to the Soviet Union. The Treaty is a precursor to both the Western European Union and NATO.

Crowning achievement of Attlee’s government, the National Health Service, is launched. The GCE (General Certificate of Education) is introduced to replace the old School Certificate. The Commons votes to suspend capital punishment, but this is rejected by the Lords. Representation of the People Act abolishes plural voting and enforced one-man-one-vote (previously, for example, a Cambridge alumnus could vote both in his home constituency and in the special Cambridge University constituency).

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and subsequent mourning leads to cooling of tensions between the Indian Empire successor states.

Berlin Blockade and Airlift, signalling the real start of the Cold War.

Start of the Malayan Emergency. The newly independent Federation of Malaya cooperates with British, Australian, New Zealand, Rhodesian and other Commonwealth forces in fighting Communist-backed bandits and guerillas, the MNLA, ultimately the descendants of Communist Malayan anti-Japanese resistance fighters during the Second World War.

Charles Philip Arthur George, future Prince of Wales, is born to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Election in South Africa brings the Reunited National Party to power and they institute apartheid. Among other separations and discriminations, this means the voting franchise is restricted to whites in the future (previously it had been open to both whites and mixed-race people or ‘coloureds’).

1949.

Heated exchanges in the Commons over trade deficits, with sugar corporation Tate and Lyle starting a massive PR campaign to challenge the government’s attempt to nationalise the sugar industry. Sir Stafford Cripps, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is forced to devalue the pound by 30%.

North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington DC between the Brussels Treaty countries plus the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Portugal and Italy. This creates the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or NATO, aimed at mutual defence against the Soviets.

Parliament passes Ireland Bill, recognising Southern Ireland as the Republic of Ireland.

The Communists led by Mao Tse-tung win the Chinese Civil War, with the remnants of the republican Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek establishing an exile regime on Taiwan. Like most countries, Britain is swift to recognise the People’s Republic of China as the new government, with only strongly anti-Communist countries the USA, Canada and Australia continuing to recognise Chiang’s Republic of China instead.

1950.

General election. Labour go from the largest majority in history to the smallest for fifty years, a barely workable five seats. The Conservatives led by Winston Churchill make significant gains while the Liberals led by Clem Davies are squeezed down to just nine seats.





Sino-Soviet alignment. North Korea attacks South Korea, igniting the Korean War. 4,000 British troops are sent to participate in the US-led multinational UN force defending the south.

King Farouk of Egypt demands the withdrawal of British troops from the Middle East. He is forced to back down, particularly since the USA supports Britain over the issue.

Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, future Princess Royal, born to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Labour government has an unfashionably aged image. Sir Stafford Cripps retires on health grounds and a young up-and-coming MP named Hugh Gaitskell becomes Chancellor. The government’s tiny majority means that MPs practically on their deathbed are rushed into the Commons for important votes.

1951.

Labour nationalises the steel industry. Aneurin Bevan, father of the NHS, falls out with the government and resigns over the issue of the Health Service charging for false teeth and glasses. His clash with Gaitskell is sometimes considered the start of the left vs. right conflict within the Labour Party that would become hugely important later on.

Attlee calls another general election in a bid to increase Labour’s majority to something more workable. In the end however the Conservatives under Churchill emerge victorious, forming a government with the National Liberals for a majority of 16. (The National Liberals by this point had been aligned with the Conservatives for so long that they were scarcely a separate party anymore, and would slowly merge into the Conservatives over the next twenty years). Churchill becomes Prime Minister once more: some attribute his victory to a pledge to finally end rationing, particularly of luxuries such as sweets. The new government swiftly re-privatises the steel industry, but abides by the other nationalisations.





In response to Egyptian brinksmanship, British troops seize the Suez Canal Zone.

Start of the Mau Mau insurgency against white settlers in British Kenya.

Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, two of the Cambridge Four group of double agents in the British secret service, defect to the Soviet Union while on holiday.

Festival of Britain held in London, its centrepiece being the Dome of Discovery.

Amphion-class submarine HMS Affray lost at sea, believed due to a failure of the snort mast.

BBC Light Programme begins broadcasting a new comedy radio show called Crazy People, soon renamed The Goon Show.


Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for Defence: Sir Winston Churchill

Lord Chancellor: Gavin Turnbull Simonds, Viscount Simonds

Lord President of the Council: Frederick Marquis, Earl Woolton

Lord Privy Seal: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquess Salisbury

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Richard Austen “Rab” Butler

Foreign Secretary: Anthony Eden

Home Secretary and Welsh Secretary: Sir David Maxwell Fyfe

Colonial Secretary: Oliver Lyttelton

Commonwealth Secretary: Hastings Ismay, Baron Ismay

Minister for Health: Harry Crookshank

Minister for Housing and Local Government: Harold Macmillan

Paymaster General: Frederick Lindemann, Viscount Cherwell

Scottish Secretary: The Hon. James Stuart



1952.

Britain detonates its first nuclear bomb in a test called Operation Hurricane in the Montebello Islands off the coast of Australia. Britain therefore becomes the third nuclear-armed nation after the United States (1945) and the Soviet Union (1949). In order to carry the heavy warheads, a fleet of V-bombers is introduced, so called because their names all begin with the letter V: the Vickers Valiant, Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan.

Britain sends troops to intervene in the Mau Mau campaign of terror in Kenya.

Death of King George VI. His daughter and heir hears the news while on a trip in Kenya with her husband.

Demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa, initially intended as nonviolent in the Gandhi style but nonetheless leading to shootings.

King Farouk of Egypt flees the country, ousted by a military coup. His infant son becomes King Fuad II, with real power resting in the military junta of General Muhammad Naguib, the Revolution Command Council.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran is overthrown in a coup orchestrated by Britain and the CIA. His nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company had made him an enemy. However, he was also a democratically elected popular reformist, and his removal sparks long-lasting anger and paranoia among Iranians against America and especially Britain. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi now governs as an absolute ruler.

Health Minister Ian Macleod holds a press conference at which he announces that British clinician Richard Doll has proven a link between smoking and lung cancer. He slightly undermines this by chain-smoking through the entire conference.

Winter smog in London causes several deaths.

1953.

Coronation of the new Queen Elizabeth II by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. The coronation is televised, resulting in a surge in TV ownership in the country and people crowding around sets.

Mount Everest finally conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tensing.

Korean War comes to an end with status quo ante bellum after the loss of 2 million lives.

Egyptian Revolution Command Council abolishes the monarchy and makes all political parties illegal. Muhammad Naguib is dictatorial president, his deputy being Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden begins withdrawing British troops from the Canal Zone under Egyptian pressure.

Discovery of the structure of DNA at Cambridge University by James Watson and Francis Crick (or, at least, they get all the credit for it).

Winston Churchill suffers a severe stroke that leaves him incapable and the country is effectively led by other cabinet members, principally Eden, Butler and Macmillan. The press agrees to keep the PM’s condition secret.

1954.

Gamal Abdul Nasser overthrows Muhammad Naguib and assumes the presidency of Egypt in his place. He signs an agreement with Britain withdrawing all British troops from the Canal zone.

‘General China’ massive offensive against the Mau Mau launched in Kenya. It fails to have much impact.

Roger Bannister runs the four-minute mile.

Labour Party, in opposition, controversially votes for a policy allowing Germany to rearm.

1955.

Winston Churchill finally steps down as Prime Minister, ironically during a newspaper strike in London so the papers barely covered it. He is succeeded by Anthony Eden, former Foreign Secretary, as Prime Minister – this being before the Conservative Party had a formal leadership election, Eden gets the post through backroom dealing. He calls a general election, which the Conservatives win with an increased majority of 60.





After the election, Clement Attlee steps down as Labour leader and the party holds a leadership contest. In a single ballot, the young Hugh Gaitskell from the right of the party decisively defeats old lefties Nye Bevan and Herbert Morrison.



Launch of the commercial Independent TeleVision service, ITV.


Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury: Sir Anthony Eden

Lord Chancellor: David Maxwell Fyfe, Earl Kilmuir

Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquess Salisbury

Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons: Harry Crookshank

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Richard Austen “Rab” Butler

Foreign Secretary: Harold Macmillan

Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries: Derick Heathcoat-Amory

Colonial Secretary: Alan Lennox-Boyd

Commonwealth Secretary: Alec Douglas-Home, Earl Home

Minister for Defence: Selwyn Lloyd

Minister for Education: Sir David Eccles

Minister for Housing and Local Government: Duncan Sandys

Minister for Labour and National Service: Sir Walter Monckton

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Frederick Marquis, Earl Woolton

Minister for Pensions: Oswald Peake

Scottish Secretary: The Hon. James Stuart

Note: the recap is taking a bit longer than I thought because it's getting more in-depth, so the first couple more updates will just be OTL. However I think it's worth it because it helps set the scene and means new ATL material flows better as a continuation of OTL.

Excellent idea! Does Callaghan this time do what Thatcher is frequently accused of and go warmongering? (I personally believe, as you seem to also, that it was more she blundered into it and used it for that purpose).
EDIT: Although usually abbreviated as Nye like my brother is, Bevan personally preferred the more Welsh Nai. Interestingly, it's widely believed he was Attlee's intended successor and lost because of the walkout, which in turn could have been avoided if Attlee hadn't been hospitalised at the time.

Looking forward to this.

I'm curious to know how the UK will be oriented towards EU and military spendings in this TL and how this will affect WP attitude.

Anyway, an interesting idea for a TL

I may as well get subscribed now instead of having to go through a 150 page archive binge again.

I consider alternate politics a very boring subgenre which usually devolve into THE SAME THING AS OTL HAPPENS except SOME MINOR DETAILS because THERE ARE SOME DIFFERENT NAMES , but I trust you'll do better than that.

Also thank you for the recap for us britonness-challenged. -It may even save me some research when I get to the same era in my own timeline.

maverick said:

Personally, I still think the best way to keep the Consensus was to go back and make Thatcher a Marxist.

Click to expand...

Thande I will love you forever if you do this, make Thatcher head of the CPGB please?

maverick said:

I was referencing Thaxted, in which Thatcher is indeed a Marxist.

http://www.anthonymayer.net/ah/thaxted/thaxted1.html

Click to expand...

oh cool, but I still think Thande should have her as a far left loonie that no one really listens too, a left wing Glenn Back...... or a Male George Galloway

Excellent work Thande, this is already looking far ahead of anything I can manage but I am honoured that I've influenced you in even the most minor way. I agree that the impact of the Falklands is one of the most important in modern British history and as I think that you are using it for the fulcrum of the change in the Post-war Consensus I have very little qualms so far. Looking forward to reading more.



If you're struggling for information on the exact shade of red for Barbara Castle's hair please let me know.

1956

The situation in British Cyprus heats up with separatist tension between the Greeks and Turks. British troops are sent in and the Governor, Sir John Hardin, has the Greek Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios exiled to the Seychelles. This backfires and causes attacks by the Greek terrorist group EOKA, provoking strong criticism of the move by Hugh Gaitskell in the Commons.

After some years of collective rule following Stalin’s death, Nikita Khrushchev now becomes the single ruler of the Soviet Union. He shocks the world by condemning Stalin’s abuses. He then makes a state visit to Britain, with the Government hopeful of opening a new period of relations and warming the Cold War. However, it all ends in tears. Khrushchev gets into an argument with George Brown, the popular but perpetually drunk right-wing Labour politican, over the dinner table which Khrushchev concludes with the outrageous statement ‘If I were British, I’d vote Conservative’. Soon afterwards, a British frogman, Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb, turns up missing his head near the Soviets’ ship in dock in Portsmouth, obviously having been intercepted during an espionage mission. Anglo-Soviet relations are in the freezer.

In Egypt, Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal and sends in his own troops, with the stated intention of charging for canal transit and using the funds raised to pay for the Aswan Dam. This does not go down well, with Eden saying that Britain cannot allow Nasser to ‘place his thumb on our windpipe’. Britain and France team up with Israel and storm the Canal Zone, ejecting the Egyptians but not before the Canal gets clogged with sunken ships. Eden has another memorable quote – ‘We are not at war with Egypt, we are in armed conflict’. The United States is furious and exerts political pressure through the United Nations, forcing an Anglo-French withdrawal and badly damaging those countries’ self-confidence to act independently in the post-war world.

The Suez Crisis has several knock-on effects. The Soviets are able to use international disunity over it to brutally crush a Hungarian uprising, which practically destroys the British Communist Party through infighting as formerly naive ideologues reject Soviet Communism. An oil shortage rocks Britain, with petrol prices skyrocketing and small economical German ‘bubble cars’ becoming popular. In response theBritish Motor Corporation starts work on its own small economical car, which will be launched in 1959 – the Mini.

Britain and France’s close alignment leads to French Prime Minister Guy Mollet suggesting that the two should form a political union. Eden rejects this, though the possibility that France might join the British Commonwealth is also discussed (it comes to nothing in the end).

1957.

Anthony Eden retires, discredited by the Suez Crisis and exhausted. The Conservative Party (still) having no means for selecting a new leader, the choice of Prime Minister falls directly to Queen Elizabeth. On the advice of Winston Churchill, the Marquess of Salisbury, and Chief Whip Edward Heath Her Majesty appoints the current Chancellor, Harold Macmillan, to the post. This surprises some who had expected Rab Butler, not least Butler himself.

The British Gold Coast is granted independence as the Republic of Ghana, while the Federation of Malaya also achieves full independence. Malaya continues to enjoy good relations with Britain due to British assistance with her Communist problem, while Ghana sets the trend for later black African states by breaking with her former colonial master and pursuing either a non-aligned leftist or avowedly pro-Soviet position.

Treaty of Rome signed between France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This creates the European Economic Community. Britain does not participate, which many at the time and later see as a serious foreign policy misstep.

Macmillan famously comments that ‘Many of our people have never had it so good’. Left-wing political cartoonish Victor ‘Vicky’ Weisz creates the character ‘Supermac’ to mock him, but this backfires by actually making him if anything more popular.

The government introduces life peerages for the House of Lords.

Soviets launch Sputnik 1 and 2, kicking off the Space Race. The United States gets off to a bad start when its Vanguard rocket blows up on the launch pad.


1958.

Formation of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, led by Labour politician Michael Foot, philosopher Bertrand Russell, author J.B. Priestley and journalist James Cameron. Its ‘peace’ symbol, designed by Victor Weisz, will go on to become a worldwide symbol of pacifism.

A BEA flight carrying the Manchester United football team crashes in Germany, killing seven of the team and 16 other passengers.

Referendum in France creates the Fifth Republic with a new constitution. Charles de Gaulle is elected the first President under the new regime.

Notting Hill race riots in London, first raising the spectre that the post-war period of Commonwealth immigration might lead to racial tensions. The press are accused of having exaggerated and whipped up the trouble.

Iraqi military coup against King Faisal, backed by Nasser’s United Arab Republic. American and British troops go into Jordan and Lebanon to defend them against UAR aggression. As the UAR is now aligned with the Soviet Union, the Soviets demand Anglo-American withdrawal via the UN Security Council.


1959.

A power-sharing agreement in Cyprus is put in place, with a Greek President and a Turkish Vice-President. Britain withdraws but keeps two military bases.

Start of the ‘Cod War’ between British and Icelandic fishermen over where the exclusive national fishing zone ends.

Harold Macmillan appears on television with President Eisenhower to discuss geopolitical issues.

In response to the European Economic Community, the European Free Trade Association is formed between Britain, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.

Opening of the M1, Britain’s first major motorway.

General election. Macmillan’s Conservatives increase their majority to 100 seats. Gaitskell blames his defeat on divisions in the party. Both Macmillan and Gaitskell, rather prematurely, agree that the class war is dead.







Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury: Harold Macmillan

Lord Chancellor: David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, Earl Kilmuir

Lord President of the Council, Leader of the House of Lords and Colonial Secretary: Alec Douglas-Home, Earl Home

Lord Privy Seal: Quintin Hogg, Viscount Hailsham

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Derick Heathcoat-Amory

Foreign Secretary: Selwyn Lloyd

Home Secretary: Richard Austen ‘Rab’ Butler

Colonial Secretary: Ian Macleod

Minister for Defence: Harold Watkinson

Minister for Education: Sir David Eccles

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Welsh Affairs: Henry Brooke

Minister for Labour and National Service: Edward Heath

Scottish Secretary: John Maclay

President of the Board of Trade: Reginald Maulding


1960.

With a speech in Cape Town, Macmillan criticises the South African apartheid system and warns that a tide of native black power is rising: ‘The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.’ He states that if Britain and the whites in Africa do not change to accommodate this, then the black independence movements will naturally gravitate towards the Soviets.

The speech is not received by some on the right of the Conservative Party, who do not see independence of the African colonies as necessarily inevitable: however, divisions within the Conservative Party remain minor compared to Hugh Gaitskell’s ongoing wrangle with his backbenchers over nuclear weapons.

Massacre of protestors at Sharpeville in South Africa.

Gary Powers’ U2 spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union, resultinf in the cancellation of a planned summit in Paris between Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Macmillan and de Gaulle.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover court case leads to a relaxation of British printing obscenity laws.

End of National Service conscription.

Third child, Andrew Albert Christian Edward, born to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

The death of Viscount Stansgate leads to his son, left-wing Labour MP Anthony Wedgwood-Benn, inheriting the title and thus being disqualified from his Commons seat. Tony Benn (as he is known) begins a fight for the right to disclaim his own peerage.


1961.

South Africa becomes a republic, and while Britain condemns apartheid, in practice links continue behind the scenes.

Berlin Wall goes up, with American and Soviet tanks confronting each other across Checkpoint Charlie.

British inquiries about joining the EEC are rebuffed by the French.

Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space.


1962.

In a shock by-election result in Orpington, Liberal Eric Lubbock defeats Conservative Peter Goldman on a swing of 26.3. Macmillan responds with a cabinet reshuffle known as the ‘Night of the Long Knives’, cutting a full third of the cabinet’s members. Up-and-coming Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe quips ‘greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life’. All of this is considered the start of a new Liberal rally under charismatic leader Jo Grimond.

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 is passed, limiting the rights of less qualified Commonwealth immigrants to settle in Britain. It is condemned by Gaitskell as ‘cruel and brutal anti-colour legislation’.

A new era for British political satire dawns with the arrival of Private Eye and That Was The Week That Was.

A pea-souper fog in London kills at least 60 people.

The Cuban Missile Crisis takes the world to the brink of nuclear war. As part of the tensions, the British V-bomber force moves to Alert Condition 3: at this point, the V-bombers are capable of striking key Soviet cities with nuclear bombs valuable minutes before the Americans could. When Kennedy and Khrushchev back away from the brink, the alert condition is degraded.


1963.

Death of Hugh Gaitskell from illness. The chief candidate on the party left is Harold Wilson, while the most prominent right-wing figure is George Brown. However, Brown’s erratic behaviour and alcoholism lead many Labour right-wingers to instead back Jim Callaghan as an alternative. After two ballots, Wilson is elected leader.



Tony Benn succeeds in his crusade with the Peerage Act 1963. He disclaims his peerage. Soon afterwards, the Earl of Home and Viscount Hailsham both disclaim their own peerages in order to become MPs, as they are both candidates for the premiership and modern sensibilities demand the PM be an elected MP.

Dr Beeching report claims that railways are on the way out in favour of car ownership. The result is monstrous damage to Britain’s railway network, with 2,128 stations being closed.

Beatlemania strikes Britain. For the first time since before the Second World War, Britain is exporting cultural phenomena to the USA instead of the other way around.

Assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. It overshadows the premiere, one day later, of a new BBC science fiction programme called Doctor Who.

Moscow Treaty between UK, USSR and USA bans nuclear tests in the atmosphere or space.

Profumo scandal. The Minister for War, John Profumo, turned out to be sharing a mistress with a Soviet diplomat and had lied to Parliament about it. Macmillan, partly due to the scandal and partly because of a (mistaken) diagnosis of prostrate cancer, resigned as Prime Minister.

To the surprise of many, Macmillan advises the Queen to nominate the former Earl of Home as the new Prime Minister, rather than more obvious candidates like Rab Butler or Reginald Maudling. Sir Alec Douglas-Home (as he now is) becomes Prime Minister, but is considered out of touch and lightweight by such Tory heavyweights as Enoch Powell and Ian Macleod, who refuse to work with him.


Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury: Sir Alec Douglas-Home

Lord Chancellor:Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, Viscount Dilhorne

Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons: Selwyn Lloyd

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Reginald Maudling

Foreign Secretary: Richard Austen ‘Rab’ Butler

Home Secretary: Henry Brooke

Colonial Secretary: Duncan Sandys

Minister for Defence: Peter Thorneycroft

Minister for Education: Sir David Eccles

Minister for Health: Anthony Barber

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: John Hugh Hare, Viscount Blakenham

Minister for Power: Frederick Erroll

Minister for Science: Quintin Hogg

Scottish Secretary: Michael Noble

President of the Board of Trade: Edward Heath


1964.

General election. Alec Douglas-Home was unable to overcome his image of being out-of-touch, being unused to the cut and thrust of the House of Commons and making a gaffe to the press that he used a box of matches to keep track of economic documents. By contrast Harold Wilson successfully created a public image of being new and modernist, embracing the swinging culture of London (not always convincingly) and making much of the importance of technological advancement: ‘the Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated measures on either side of industry’.

The result was Labour’s first general election victory since 1950, with Wilson winning a small majority of four.





Construction of the Channel Tunnel begins, which will continue in an on-and-off fashion for decades.

Illegal pirate radio station Radio Caroline starts broadcasting from a ship anchored just outside British territorial waters.

Youth culture dominated by the clashing subcultures of Mods and Rockers.

Ian Smith becomes Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia.

South Africa jails black freedom fighter/terrorist (depending on who you ask) Nelson Mandela.


Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service: Harold Wilson

First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs: George Brown

Lord Chancellor: Gerald Gardiner, Baron Gardiner

Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons: Herbert Bowden

Lord Privy Seal: Frank Pakenham, Earl Longford

Chancellor of the Exchequer: James Callaghan

Foreign Secretary: Patrick Gordon Walker

Home Secretary: Sir Frank Soskice

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Fred Peart

Colonial Secretary: Anthony Greenwood

Commonwealth Secretary: Arthur Bottomley

Defence Secretary: Denis Healey

Education and Science Secretary: Michael Stewart

Minister for Housing and Local Government: Richard Crossman

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Douglas Houghton

Minister for Overseas Development: Barbara Castle

Minister for Power: Fred Lee

Minister for Technology: Frank Cousins

President of the Board of Trade: Douglas Jay

Minister for Transport: Thomas Fraser


1965.

Death of Winston Churchill at the age of 90. He receives a huge state funeral.

In opposition, Sir Alec Douglas-Home steps down as Conservative leader, but not before changing the rules to create a parliamentary ballot for the leadership similar to the Labour Party’s. Reginald Maudling is considered the favourite, but Edward ‘Ted’ Heath runs a more effective campaign and is elected leader in a single ballot.



Harold Wilson controversially gets the Beatles MBEs.

In Spain, Franco blockades Gibraltar. Spain had begun reviving its claim to the Rock since the 1950s.

Ian Smith of Rhodesia issues Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) after the failure of negotiations over voting reform to widen the franchise to blacks. Under pressure from Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, Wilson commits to the policy of NIBMAR – No Independence Before Majority African Rule. The Rhodesia issue will be a perpetual headache for the Foreign Office for more than a decade. Britain imposes an oil embargo on Rhodesia. Wilson’s policies are criticised by the Conservative right, more sympathetic to Smith.

Wilson’s government also becomes marked for its social liberalism, decriminalising abortion and male homosexuality and ending capital punishment and theatre censorship. This is condemned as ‘the permissive society’ by some, including self-appointed TV censor Mary Whitehouse.

Moors murders shock the nation.

The United States is by now deeply involved in Vietnam, and this year Australian troops also participate for the first time. Wilson, though lending political support to the Americans, is careful to avoid committing British troops to the conflict.

By this point Wilson’s majority has been reduced to just one.

Thande said:

Wilson’s government also becomes marked for its social liberalism, decriminalising abortion, male homosexuality, capital punishment and theatre censorship.

Click to expand...

Erm, while I think I see what you mean, capital punishment and theatre censorship sounds a bit off to be mentioned as ''decriminalised''.

LordInsane said:

Erm, while I think I see what you mean, capital punishment and theatre censorship sounds a bit off to be mentioned as ''decriminalised''.

Click to expand...

All right, edited...

Thande

I think from what you said in the OP I'm guessing the POD and that could have some very interesting affects. Might also hopefully make for a better and healthier Britain as well.

I'm going to be away for the next fortnight so won't be commenting until I get back but will catch up then and be interested in seeing developments. Feel another subscription coming on.

If I'm right you really you will have supporters of a certain individual calling for you're execution.

One query. You mention some deaths from the notorious smog in 1950. Wasn't it several thousand from what I remember reading about it?

Steve