TLIAW: Walking In My Dreams

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“You created a lasting impression
That I haven’t got over yet
Each night I go to sleep
And I can find no peace it seems
‘Cause you keep walking in my dreams”

- Helen Shapiro, Walking In My Dreams


Another one?

Yes, another one.

You really want to get published, don't you? You just want your fifteen minutes of recognition.

Hey! I had requests for more from the fans!

Requests? Fans? Techdread and Daltonia do not a fanbase make.

Whatever... can we just get on with the timeline?

You're just an attention whore, you know that?

I swear to god!

You don't even pick good characters for your TLs! Who's ever heard of Tony Greenwood?

Right! We're moving on!

Who are the other two next to Barbara Castle? I can't even tell if the last one is human.

We. Are. Moving. On.

You're eighteen and you listen to Helen Shapiro.

*sigh* ... I give up.
 
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In The Court Of The Red Queen

Barbara Castle was Britain’s first female Prime Minister – a great achievement for the country and the Labour Party – and, as such, heralded a new era in the social progress of Britain.

A socialist firebrand since her youth and her predecessor’s most loyal minister, Barbara was the obvious Greenwoodite candidate to succeed Tony Greenwood and beat back the candidacies of Tony Crosland and James Callaghan. She would not, however, leave the two men out of her cabinet and both Crosland and Callaghan retained their positions as Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, respectively. On the 17th May 1970, a day after becoming Prime Minister, Castle initiated a cabinet reshuffle to fill the vacancies left by Eric Heffer’s accession to the Treasury. To replace Heffer at the Department of Economic Affairs, Anthony Wedgwood Benn was chosen. In turn, Richard Marsh (the young, charismatic and very much outspoken MP for Greenwich) was made Minister of Technology. Other changes in the reshuffle – moving Bob Mellish to the office of Chief Whip, replacing Denis Healey (Defence Secretary) with Harold Lever and replacing Ray Gunter (Minister of Labour, which was then renamed to Secretary of State for Employment) with Michael Foot – also helped to shore up Castle’s leadership. Mellish was a loyalist before he was a member of the Old Right and Castle knew she could count on his reputation as a bruiser and a man of discipline to keep the party in line. Foot and Lever, on the other hand, were part of Castle’s plan to continue the post-’68 Greenwood strategy of working more left-wingers into the cabinet.

1970 proved a slow and unremarkable year in British politics. Castle’s government carried on over the summer, the Treasury planning for the following year’s decimalisation and the Department of Education and Science formally claiming Merchant Taylors’ School (of which Tony Greenwood was an alumnus) for Fred Peart’s “nationalisation” plan in June, and the mainland generally ignored the small outbursts of political violence in Northern Ireland that broke out between Catholic civil rights campaigners and the Protestant Unionist community. Between the two groups in Northern Ireland, the Labour Party found itself placed as a voice against the extremes of Irish Republican terrorism and hardline Ulster Unionism. Castle was not going to allow the impression to foster that Westminster was unconcerned by the situation in Ireland and paid a memorable visit to Stormont in September 1970. After having made assurances to the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O’Neill, that she wholeheartedly supported the pro-civil rights reforms that O’Neill’s government pledged to implement, Castle found herself egged by a teenage Unionist outside Belfast City Hall. O’Neill told her that she was lucky, to her bemusement. “You’re lucky – they don’t normally choose eggs,” O’Neill explained.

Back in Britain, the economy was improving following the “wobble” of 1969 and the first three quarters of 1970 saw GDP growth average at 1.3%. This was a marked improvement from the latter half of 1969, though not comparable to the higher “slow burn” growth rates following the decision to devalue in 1964. Heffer, as Chancellor, was doing an admirable job at keeping the country’s balance of payments in surplus and made some “tax modifications” that had been planned under Greenwood when Castle was Chancellor in the summer budget of 1971. The capital gains tax was increased from 30% to 40% and a new tax – known as “capital transfer tax” – to replace estate duty was introduced at the same time. According to the media, the strategy of the Castle government was to wage a “war on privilege”. This, understandably, was anathema to the “British establishment”, but played well with Britain’s increasingly unionised and left-leaning working classes. All was well with Labour’s economic plan, despite the threats of crisis in America reaching across the Atlantic.

Castle wasn’t quite “Greenwood in a dress” as many expected, given her more combative style in interviews and the Commons, but she attracted poll ratings not so dissimilar to Greenwood’s at the height of his premiership. Even after England lost 2-1 to Italy in the World Cup semi-final in 1970, Labour’s lead was still twenty points ahead of the Conservatives. Colleagues in cabinet and throughout the party were, in the summer of 1971, urging her to go to the country and ask for a mandate of her own. However, there were two problems that ultimately swayed her from dissolving Parliament and fighting an election for her own five years in office: South Arabia and the new Conservative Party leadership.

On the 15th August 1971, President Abdullah al Asnag of South Arabia was deposed in a coup attempt by a cabal of Marxist army officers, civil servants and trade unionists. A close ally of the British in the Middle East, Asnag’s rise to power had been facilitated by the Foreign Secretary six years before and pleas were immediately made by the pro-Asnag government based in Taiz for British military aid. James Callaghan’s response was an emphatic “no”. Harold Lever and Callaghan were both well aware that cuts to the defence budget had left Britain’s ability to project military power beyond Europe severely weakened. Affording a war against Marxist rebels in South Arabia, who were then followed by an uprising of emirs supported by Saudi Arabia, wasn’t possible if Britain was to afford its nationalised industries, well-funded welfare state and high blue-collar wages.

In the cabinet, domestic concerns trumped foreign concerns. There was to be no dramatic reallocation of funds to deal with the South Arabian Civil War, though many millions of foreign aid was redirected to supporting the “legitimate” Taiz Government led by Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi.

The Prime Minister, her concerns primarily on the state of the country and the defence cuts left by Greenwood, was unable to do more than offer small portions of material aid and her government’s moral support. She was lambasted in the press, alongside Callaghan and Lever, and the government came under fire for “facilitating Arab communism” when the Soviets and the Chinese were supposedly growing more confident in the aftermath of America’s peace accords with North Vietnam. Castle saw her personal ratings drop as Labour’s dropped significantly to only 12% ahead of the Conservatives. She was determined not to wage an election battle when South Arabia would be the one question on everyone’s mind, and so made her decision to wait until 1972 or 1973 after much deliberation with her cabinet.

The Conservative Party was obviously opposed to Labour’s “shirking” of international responsibility in the face of a Marxist coup in South Arabia. However, the Tories had their own problems to worry about.​
 
Chancellor Heffer‽ We really are seeing the rise of the leftwing in government, aren't we?

I've got a bad feeling that we're seeing the beginning of the end for Labour though; the threads are beginning to come undone and I'm not sure how they'll go...

As ever, a brilliant start and I'm looking forward to each & every update still to come! But that's no surprise; I'm one of the fanbase ;)
 
IT BEGINS

...or continues, I suppose. Either way, nice work - I look forward to seeing how long the ascending socialist utopia will last before the Powellgasm ensues.
 
Chancellor Heffer‽ We really are seeing the rise of the leftwing in government, aren't we?

The Labour Left has the reins of power and Castle looks secure, so they're confident enough to purge the cabinet and place their own in the higher offices.

I've got a bad feeling that we're seeing the beginning of the end for Labour though; the threads are beginning to come undone and I'm not sure how they'll go...

Well, I think the next update will enlighten everyone further as to where Labour is headed.

As ever, a brilliant start and I'm looking forward to each & every update still to come! But that's no surprise; I'm one of the fanbase ;)

Many thanks! I don't think I'm good enough to warrant a fanbase just yet, but I'm working on it.

IT BEGINS

...or continues, I suppose. Either way, nice work - I look forward to seeing how long the ascending socialist utopia will last before the Powellgasm ensues.

The word "Powellgasm" is something I wish I didn't have in my vocabulary.

Anyway, cheers for the kind words!
 
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A Very Conservative Coup

The leadership of Enoch Powell was, by the end of 1970, becoming increasingly irrelevant to the concerns of the country. In a nation where just over half of the workforce was part of a trade union, Powell’s diatribes against the likes of “Communist militants” within the union movement went down like a lead balloon. Policy announcements against trade union power, including Thorneycroft’s proposal of forcing trade unions to foot the bill for lost businesses’ lost revenue during strike action, were miles away from where the country stood on the issue of the labour movement.

The Conservatives were at their lowest in the autumn of 1970, when the post-World Cup polls put Labour twenty-one points ahead of the Conservative Party for a record three months. By the end of November, there was a sense of panic amongst moderate Conservative MPs who didn’t share the leadership’s ideological leanings. Whilst Eric Heffer announced quarterly growth unseen since the booming Macmillan era, Powell and Joseph were arguing for a widespread denationalisation programme and severe cuts to the welfare system. Such radical measures, combined with the fear that they might go further, created a feeling of unease in the country and within the party.

On the 24th January 1971, a small group of leading One Nation Tories met at the Selsdon Park Hotel in Surrey to discuss the possibility of deposing Powell before the Prime Minister could call an early election later in that same year. Robert Carr, Francis Pym, Maurice Macmillan, Anthony Barber and Iain Macleod came together as a group of possible future leaders of the Conservative Party and endeavoured to discuss a plan for who would succeed Powell. The discussions, it was later reported, were practically fruitless in their earlier stages due to the exclusion of the Opposition Chief Whip, William Whitelaw. An experienced One Nation Conservative, he should have been the first of many moderates to be called upon for the forced ousting of Powell. He was, however, adamant that he couldn’t take part in the discussions due to his role as Opposition Chief Whip. To plot against his leader would have been “near-treasonous”. A sense of paranoia grew as the conspirators of the plan, later known as the “Selsdon Plot”, believed that Whitelaw would try to quash their rebellion before it had even begun. He didn’t, however. Had Whitelaw played the role of Powell’s snitch, then the future of the Conservative Party and the 1973 general election would have been very different indeed.

In the early hours of the 25th January, the “Selsdon Five” adjourned their meeting with a moderate leader-in-waiting to thrust forward once the time was right to push Powell aside.

The release of the “Joseph Budget” – a counter-proposal to the Chancellor’s budget in March 1971 – did little to engender confidence in the Tory Party’s claim to being an alternative government. Criticised in Iain Macleod’s anonymous article in The Times as a “patchwork budget”, the Joseph Budget countered Heffer’s tax increases with promises of tax cuts, privatisation and, most unpopularly, the reintroduction of prescription charges. To pay for the rising costs of the National Health Service alongside the population increases in births and migration, the prescription charges were rationalised by the Conservative leadership as a necessary way of “ensuring a quality service”. Taken together, the various measures that the Conservatives were pushing for did not look like a coherent plan but an ideological shopping list of policies. When Keith Joseph organised a press conference on the day of the alternative budget’s announcement, he struggled to keep his cool under intense scrutiny by the press. After being questioned on the fact that the economy was improving and his programme of economic reforms looked unnecessary, Joseph appeared uncharacteristically flustered and simply restated the intention of his programme. “We must – and it is imperative – make the most of Britain’s innovative spirit. It is not enough to coast along whilst keeping British workers in this new serfdom.”

The use of the word “serfdom”, sensationalised in the press as “slavery”, blew up in Joseph’s face with so much force that he considered resigning as Shadow Chancellor. Iain Macleod, a former Shadow Chancellor himself, offered Joseph some very self-interested encouragement to carry on.

Just as had happened during the last days of Maudling’s leadership, soundings were taken amongst the Conservative backbenches to determine who would have the most support in the instance of Powell resigning the leadership. Of 110 backbenchers, sixty-two responded “Iain Macleod”, twenty-three responded “Keith Joseph”, and the remaining twenty-five responded with a variety of names, including “Willie Whitelaw”, “Julian Amery” and “Edward du Cann”.

After making the soundings just prior to the party’s October conference, William Whitelaw reported back to the Selsdon Five to inform them that Macleod had the most support of any hypothetical candidate. However, the Selsdon Five would become the Selsdon Four after Iain Macleod suffered a heart attack and died on the 28th September 1971. The man that the Selsdon Park meeting had decided upon as the alternative leader to Powell and had been reaffirmed by a majority of his Commons colleagues had passed away just before the coup against Powell could come to fruition.

On the 4th October, a new face came to the fore as decided upon by the surviving members of the Selsdon Plot and the wheels were set in motion. A series of shadow cabinet resignations, including Angus Maude as Shadow Education Secretary and William Whitelaw as Opposition Chief Whip, triggered a crisis of confidence in the leadership. When Powell scrambled to find replacements, he found that most MPs were unwilling to join the shadow cabinet so long as Powell led the party. Frustrated, yet unwilling to admit that defeat was imminent, Powell reaffirmed that he would be staying on as leader and he dared any of his critics to come forward and challenge him in an announcement on the 6th October. This was a bold move, but Powell was a bold man.

Later that same day, Edward du Cann made the announcement that he would be standing for the leadership of the Conservative Party and had the backing of a number of MPs and Tory grandees to do so. He had pre-empted Maurice Macmillan’s announcement, which took place the following morning. Nobody truly believed that du Cann had the necessary backing, but the determination to depose Powell was clearly there.

Edward du Cann’s platform concerned the modernisation of the Tory Party – he wanted to make it more professional and business-like. There would be little time for diatribe and racist discourse in his party, especially when even businesses were beginning to see the Conservatives as a dangerous rabble. Thus, du Cann focused heavily on bringing some of Powell’s radical ideas and some of Maudling’s One Nation ideas together to synthesise the two disparate wings of the party.

Macmillan, on the other hand, was campaigning on a platform of consensus. He argued that the Tories had moved so far away from the country and that Powellism was simply populist extremism with no real values to sustain it. It was a message that rang true for many moderate Conservative activists and politicians who still hankered after the days of Maurice’s father. Name connotations were another important part of his campaign, as the name “Macmillan” conjured up more nostalgia in the minds of Conservative MPs than derision.

The first ballot was called on the 12th October, just two weeks before conference was supposed to officially start. 270 votes were cast: 75 for du Cann, 89 for Powell, and 106 for Macmillan. There was no clear winner, though Macmillan had a plurality of the votes. Powell was willing to stay on for the next ballot, but found himself dissuaded by many of his ideological allies in the shadow cabinet. It was subsequently suggested, on the 14th, that Keith Joseph should stand in his place as the standard bearer of Powellism. Joseph rejected the suggestions outright, leading to Julian Amery coming forward to stand in Powell’s place. Though there was some serious unease about Amery standing, the rest of the shadow cabinet stood firmly reluctant to stand. Macmillan and du Cann, emboldened by the votes they received, continued in their campaigns.

On the 18th November, the second ballot took place. The result saw Macmillan take 174 votes, du Cann take 51, and Amery end up with 45 votes. Amery and du Cann promptly withdrew their candidacies and Maurice Macmillan became leader of the Conservative Party.

On the first day of the Conservative Party Conference six days later, Maurice Macmillan took the podium to a round of thunderous applause that lasted for almost ten minutes. It was unprecedented, but to expect less would have bene foolish. Finally, the Tories were out of the wilderness.​
 
James Callaghan’s response was an emphatic “no”. Harold Lever and Callaghan were both well aware that cuts to the defence budget had left Britain’s ability to project military power beyond Europe severely weakened. Affording a war against Marxist rebels in South Arabia, who were then followed by an uprising of emirs supported by Saudi Arabia, wasn’t possible if Britain was to afford its nationalised industries, well-funded welfare state and high blue-collar wages.​
I have a vague recollection of something similar popping up in Africa at a time when I believe Denis Healy was in charge of Defence or the foreign office or some such. His answer to have a quiet word with the chaps from Hereford who quietly nipped in country had a few quiet words and left again with the government back in place.​
In this situation I'd suspect that the response once again, with Healy in charge would have been for a Squadron, or half squadron of those chaps to nip in country and do what they do best in such circumstances. At worst a squadron of Strikemasters and maybe a company of Guards may have been placed on detached to provide some support.​
I'd be unsurprised to see the Conservatives adopt a similar strategy in the future.

 
I really like this. This sort of era is one of my favourites in British politics to read about, so I hope this continues.

Also, Maurice Macmillan is a very nice choice for Tory leader.
 
Tories gon' Tory.

I like the choice of Supermac 2 - Enoch's Buggered It For You.

I wonder how Der Leebrals are doing atm.
 
I really like this. This sort of era is one of my favourites in British politics to read about, so I hope this continues.

Also, Maurice Macmillan is a very nice choice for Tory leader.

Tories gon' Tory.

I like the choice of Supermac 2 - Enoch's Buggered It For You.

Thank you very much. Maurice is an obscure choice, I'll admit (he's slightly better known than Greenwood, but he's not exactly Macleod or Powell).

"Supermac 2" is definitely the image he'll be going for ITTL.

I wonder how Der Leebrals are doing atm.

Not great - Lubbock and co. are struggling, as ever, to appear relevant.
 
Interesting. You'd think they'd be doing better between 'COMMUNARD' and 'LITERALLY ENOCH POWELL'.

Oh, well they're doing worse now that Maurice "I'm literally my dad, I swear" Macmillan is in charge of the Tories.

Of course, from '69 to '71, we can all imagine a strong showing from the Liberals posing as the "sensible centre".
 
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Staying Afloat

The Castle honeymoon wouldn’t last forever, but the end wouldn’t exactly originate within Britain. Instead, events across the Atlantic would come together to threaten the new Greenwoodite consensus and bring Labour and the Conservatives neck-and-neck in the polls for over a decade.

Although George Romney was viewed very favourably in Britain and in Europe, his domestic position was faltering by 1971. The withdrawal from Vietnam the year before had hawkish politicians enraged by Romney’s “surrender to communism” and, due to the confusing logistics of America’s strategic retreat from Indochina, had drained even more dollars in compensatory foreign aid than had been expected. Combined with the increased money supply due to Romney’s commitment to protecting the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson and, in some cases, expanding them to help combat inner-city poverty and racial inequality, the situation of the United States dollar as the world’s reserve currency was simply untenable. This, of course, led to instability in the worldwide trade of currency and caused dollar reserves to be sold by countries across the globe during the autumn of 1971.

The panic spread to Britain, where Chancellor Heffer swiftly responded with strict currency exchange controls that would lead to a brief moment of respite for the British pound in relation to the dollar. Romney, however, was adamant that more had to be done for the dollar to save the currency. He made personal pleas to Castle and Heffer for the pound to be revalued upwards to try and save the balance of payments deficit in America. A new tariff on imports was forced through when, on the 17th December, talks broke down between U.S. Treasury Secretary John Connally and Eric Heffer over the revaluation of the pound.

Britain was coming close to losing its renewed friendship with America

A harsh budget was delivered in 1972, which included another small rise in corporation tax, a rise in purchase tax, and, most astonishingly, a rise in the basic rate of income tax from 35% to 40%. People of low and middle incomes all across the country were livid at the sudden jump in the basic rate of tax. To the Conservatives, this measure served as a particular sticking point in their attacks against Labour. Now, it seemed, Labour was endangering people’s standard of living to make a political point against the Americans. The arguments of Heffer and Benn, who were equally worried about the loss of trade with America, concerned the fact that the money from raised taxes was needed to redirect British manufacturing towards a wider global market. They wanted Britain to look towards the Commonwealth and the developing nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America. But, to do so, tax revenue was needed to smooth over businesses’ fears of a pre-Greenwood era trade deficit and to stifle domestic demand for British products for the benefit of exports.

Amidst Labour’s panic over the economy, the deputy leadership of the party became vacant upon George Brown’s resignation on the 30th May 1972. Citing his age and his “unsettled state of health”, Brown stepped down for somebody younger to take the role of Deputy Leader and steer the party towards a clear victory in ’73. The two main candidates for the positions were two men in total opposition to each other: John Silkin and Roy Jenkins.

Silkin was the leadership’s favourite. An anti-EEC left-winger with a history of roles as Deputy Chief Whip under Ted Short and Bob Mellish, Minister of Public Buildings and Works, and a brief stint as Minister of Regional Planning under Eric Heffer at the DEA, John Silkin was the odds-on favourite of most members to win the Deputy Leadership. Jenkins, on the other hand, was a man of the pro-EEC, social democratic right wing of the Labour Party. His politics were outside of the mainstream, though he had allies in the form of the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary. The vote was simple to count, given the stark choice in ideology between the two candidates. Three quarters of MPs voted for Silkin, thus making him the first left-wing Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since Aneurin Bevan died in 1960.

Many speculated that Silkin had his eyes on the crown of leadership, though Silkin publically denied that the deputy leadership was anything more than a chance to “bring the party together behind the Prime Minister”. Jenkins was left understandably disheartened by his loss. It signalled to the country that the Labour Party had been set on its radical course since 1963 and had no intention of changing, which many right-wingers in the party believed would be Labour’s downfall at the next election. This analysis, however, is still in dispute.

The winter of 1972 saw the last of all Castle’s pre-election reshuffles in a bid to revitalise the cabinet. Tony Crosland was dropped from the Home Office and replaced by Merlyn Rees, a liberal Welshman and Minister of State for the Home Department since 1968; Richard Crossman was retired from the positions of Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House Commons, leading to his replacement by Fred Peart; the Department of Education and Science received a new minister in the form of Shirley Williams; and Stanley Orme became Health Secretary.

Tensions within cabinet over the faltering economic situation and the slow pace of change within British industry, despite the tax incentives offered to private firms who secured trade deals with countries such as India, Egypt and Brazil, were beginning to show after the deputy leadership contest in the summer. To revitalise the cabinet and bring in some younger blood (Shirley Williams was just 42 years old at the time of appointment) was Castle’s plan to bring the party into line before she faced an expectedly unpleasant battle with the unions over the economy.

Businesses were beginning to go bust in every industry from automobiles to home appliances, leading the right-leaning press to place the blame on the unions. Whilst it was true that groups of militants had agitated against the changes in work practices that their employers asked for to meet their new export demands, it was also true that many businesses were dragging their feet on purpose. They though that they could squeeze wages further whilst increasing hours on a “temporary basis” to try and meet the government’s new directives. However, this simply antagonised union members and undermined tripartite agreements between business, government and the trade unions. Strikes began to erupt once more in February 1973, just three months before the next general election was expected.

Surprisingly, the National Union of Mineworkers was absent from the uproar over pay reductions. The new Vice President of the NUM, Dennis Skinner, had secured the promises of the Chancellor and the Employment Secretary that miners’ pay claims would be met and their 2.5% fall behind average factory workers’ pay would be rectified. The government couldn’t afford an energy crisis alongside the bout of strike action that was creeping across the country.

Britain wasn’t at the brink just yet, but it was certainly headed that way without swift action. From the Right, the arguments of “teaching the unions a lesson” and “locking up the communists” flooded the national discourse on how to resolve the crisis. But, from the Left, calls for a meeting with the Trades Union Congress and a new deal were heard and the government responded positively to holding a meeting on the 17th March 1973 to try and hammer out an agreement to save Britain before it was too late.

In the end, however, it would be too late to save the Labour Party.​
 
Well, the socialist paradise was great while it lasted.

Excellent so far; I really like the left-field choice for Tory leader (the son of the last leader to win an election!) and the wider butterflies overseas. And the title graphic. So seventies it hurts.
 
Well, the socialist paradise was great while it lasted.

You may well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment.

Excellent so far; I really like the left-field choice for Tory leader (the son of the last leader to win an election!) and the wider butterflies overseas. And the title graphic. So seventies it hurts.

Good to hear it!

It'd be all a bit boring if it was Macleod or Heath, eh? Much better to get someone who was briefly Employment Secretary and then Paymaster General for a bit under OTL Heath to take the reins of power in the Conservative Party, I think. His family lineage is just the cherry on the cake.

It used to look like awful Seventies wallpaper in the first place, so I toned it down. There's only so much you can do with Seventies-inspired design.

Dennis Skinner as vice president of the NUM?

Very nice. What stopped him being elected to parliament?

The combination of a left-wing, pro-union Labour Party in power, uncertain times for NUM members, and a general feeling that Parliament is already chock-a-block with radicals. Skinner wants to get the best deal for his fellow miners, not play tiddlywinks in the corridors of power.
 
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