That Wacky Redhead
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Appendix B, Part IV: The Lion, the Beaver, and the Eagle
Appendix B, Part IV: The Lion, the Beaver, and the Eagle
In 1966, England won the World Cup, and the incumbent British Government (recently returned, with a massive majority) saw that it was good.
In 1970, England was poised to defend their title, but the competition was fierce. Though they had defeated all of their opponents (save for the nigh-invulnerable Brazil) in the qualifying rounds, it was a tough road ahead to the championship. They only narrowly defeated West Germany – whom they had defeated last time in the finals – with a score of 4 to 3, with extra time added; but it was all for naught, as an equally narrow loss, to Italy, followed in the semifinals. In the meantime, the Soviet Union had defeated Uruguay, only to lose to Brazil; this meant that they would be the ones facing England to determine who would come in third overall. And on May 20, 1970, England defeated the Soviet Union for third-place, with Brazil winning the cup against Italy the following day. [1] England scored ten goals overall: Martin Peters led the pack with four, tying him for third overall with Brazilian superstar Pélé; Allan Clarke followed with three, and Geoff Hurst with two. (Another Brazilian player, Jairzinho, led overall with seven goals).
The incumbent Labour government was returned in the election held less than one month later, though with a greatly reduced majority from 1966, underperforming most polls. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Harold Wilson became the first to lead his party to three successive election victories since Lord Liverpool in 1820. Labour lost 35 seats, with their party reduced to 329 MPs; the Conservatives, led for the second time by Edward Heath, gained 38 (at the expense of the Liberals along with Labour), bringing their tally to 291. The Liberal Party, once one of the two dominant parties in British politics along with the Conservatives (as remained the case in Canada), continued their marginal existence; losing votes, and half their seats, under new leader Jeremy Thorpe. Only 6 Liberal MPs would sit in the 45th Parliament. They were joined by one MP, Donald Stewart, of the Scottish Nationalist Party, who advocated independence for Scotland. It was an unexpected victory for a fringe and radical party, albeit one that would be greatly bolstered in the years ahead. In addition, three MPs, all from Northern Ireland, were also returned. [2] In terms of votes, Labour finished narrowly ahead of the Conservatives, at 45.6% to 44.2%. The Liberals received only 7.2% of the vote, with the SNP just barely managing more than 1%.
One frequently conjectured possibility regarding the underwhelming victory margin for Labour was the effectiveness of the famous “Rivers of Blood” speech by Conservative MP Enoch Powell, which was believed to have resonated with working-class voters (who would ordinarily be inclined to back Labour). Powell, eager to translate his popularity with a large segment of the British electorate into increased status within his party, was inspired to demand that Edward Heath – who had twice failed to bring the Tories to power – put the prospect of his continued leadership to a vote. He was not the only one, as monetarist Keith Joseph quickly echoed these calls, as did numerous backbenchers and the party faithful. Heath resisted, but eventually yielded to recommendations that he submit his leadership to party review. In the ensuing round of ballots, Heath finished behind Powell, though neither was anywhere near a majority due to the presence of Joseph in the race. Heath accepted the will of his party and withdrew from the race, and therefore his position as leader – making him the first Conservative leader never to become Prime Minister. But the Conservative Party lived up to their name when they eschewed the opportunity to move in a radical new direction under either Powell or Joseph; William Whitelaw, an obvious Heath proxy, entered the race in the second round and, coming up the middle between them, emerged victorious, becoming the new Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. [3] Joseph was eventually appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Powell, who represented Northern Ireland under the Ulster Unionist banner, was made Shadow Secretary for that constituent country. Prime Minister Wilson had appointed Roy Mason in the Cabinet Shuffle that had followed the 1970 election, and it was deemed necessary that a strong Conservative voice be heard on the matter.
One of the primary problems facing Parliament in the early 1970s was the European Question, which bitterly divided the Labour Party. Many on the party’s left-wing, including a large proportion of newly elected MPs, opposed European integration, represented by the United Kingdom joining the European Economic Community; negotiations were underway in order to do so, the block placed by former French President De Gaulle having been lifted by his successor, Georges Pompidou. The right-wing, on the other hand, along with many of the opposition Conservatives, supported joining. Negotiations crawled to a standstill, however, as many sticking points eventually proved insurmountable. Members of the EEC, annoyed at the stalled negotiations, admitted Denmark alone in 1973. [4] Though the Republic of Ireland was planning to enter the EEC as well, it would not be feasible without the United Kingdom doing so alongside them, due to the vital trade and migration links between the two states. Naturally, many Irish were deeply resentful of their continuing reliance on Perfidious Albion, despite their hard-fought independence, won half a century earlier. They also sympathized very deeply with their nationalist brethren, who longed to create a United Ireland. As a result, the early 1970s marked the high point of Anglo-Irish tensions in the post-war era.
With the EEC negotiations crumbling, Britain sought to strengthen her existing ties to the Commonwealth realms, and found themselves facing a very attractive potential partner: the Dominion of Canada, the eighth-largest economy in the world, and the second-largest in the Commonwealth, behind only the United Kingdom itself. Under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada had moved away from the Western Allies in general and the Commonwealth in particular; but new Prime Minister Robert Stanfield was eager to bridge the rifts that had formed between them, and solidify relations with Britain (“once you were our mother nation”, as he would explain to Harold Wilson in an early 1973 meeting, “and now we are the dearest sister nations, but what matters is that we’re still immediate family”). After the Oil Crisis hit, and as it rapidly became clear that the EEC had no further room for expansion, Britain and Canada began to approach stronger trade ties. The same courtesy was extended to the Republic of Ireland, partly to retain their tacit co-operation with regards to the North, and partly as a conciliatory gesture with regards to EEC admission. The recession hit Eire particularly hard, and pragmatism eventually won out over pride. That said, their hand was certainly forced by the new leadership elected throughout Europe, led by French President Francois Mitterand, having shifted their focus to strengthening economic and political ties between existing EEC members, rather than seeking new ones. [5] The British Isles were firmly on the outside, looking in.
But the governing Labour Party was beset by divisions: on their economic direction, ranging from the social-democratic post-war consensus to outright Marxism; on Northern Ireland, though sectarian violence had been minimized under the watchful eye of Roy Mason, and the overwhelming majority of nationalists favoured a peaceful solution and saw Britain as a relatively neutral arbiter, the search for enduring peace, order, and good government continued [6]; on trade relations, from closer relations with the Commonwealth to formal integration with the Inner Six (now seven, after Denmark had joined) of the continent vs. independent self-reliance, or none-of-the-above; many of the newer, younger MPs were firmly anti-Europe leftists, whereas the older, more established MPs (including Mason, one of few unambiguously successful ministers in the Wilson government) were more moderate in their outlook, and favoured integration with the continent. These constant disputes, along with frequent by-elections, gradually whittled the supposedly comfortable Labour majority into a very tenuous hold on Parliament, even before the Oil Crisis, which then proved enough to force an election in early 1974.
The economic downturn, coupled with voter fatigue at Labour having governed for a decade – their longest-ever tenure – was naturally enough to see the Tories swept in on a landslide in the general election, held in February, 1974. Nonetheless, the sheer magnitude of the Conservative victory was impressive. Their vote share had climbed to over 47%, their best showing since 1959 (though Labour had done better in 1966); the Labour vote collapsed to below 36%, their worst showing since the Great Depression. Many right-leaning Labour voters who had abandoned the party voted for the Liberals, whose own voter core had solidified, with little crossover to the Tories: the party nearly doubled their vote share (to over 13%, their best showing since the Depression) and their seat count. Though in terms of relative growth, the SNP took the prize: they doubled their vote share and quadrupled their seat count, from one to four. All three of their gains had been at the expense of the Labour Party; unsurprisingly, the rise of the SNP was precipitated by the discovery of none other than oil in the North Sea, in notionally Scottish waters (hence their slogan: “It’s Scotland’s oil”). A similar nationalist party, this one in Wales, called Plaid Cymru (Welsh for The Party of Wales, as the Welsh language was far more prominently spoken in Wales than either Lowland Scots or Scottish Gaelic were in Scotland), also won two seats, again at Labour expense. Northern Irish parties won four seats, with the Ulster Unionists winning all remaining seats there for the Conservatives. The Tories gained nearly 100 seats in the election, finishing with 389 MPs. Labour lost over 100, dropping to 224; the Liberals finished with 12 seats.
The results in the United Kingdom General Election, 1970 are: 329 seats and 45.59% of the vote for Labour; 291 seats and 44.16% of the vote for the Conservatives; 6 seats and 7.24% of the vote for the Liberals; 1 seat and 1.01% of the vote for the SNP; and 3 seats for all other parties, for a government majority of 28.
The results in the United Kingdom General Election, 1974 are: 389 seats and 47.17% of the vote for the Conservatives; 224 seats and 35.64% of the vote for Labour; 12 seats and 13.36% of the vote for the Liberals; 4 seats and 2.04% of the vote for the SNP; 2 seats for Plaid Cymru; and 4 seats for all other parties, for a government majority of 143. The Tories receive nearly 15 million votes, the largest number of popular votes for any party in British electoral history.
As the Canadian electorate had returned a minority government in the election of 1972, the new Prime Minister, Robert Stanfield, had to proceed carefully in working to implement much of his campaign platform. Fortunately for them, there were three other parties in Parliament, two of which were willing to negotiate terms with them in regards to many of the key issues of the day (only the Opposition Liberals, who had been unseated in the election, consistently voted against government bills). The New Democratic Party, who were democratic socialists in the European vein (their previous incarnation, a typical North American rural populist party, had merged with the organized labour machine in 1962), found a surprisingly rich vein of common ground with the governing Progressive Conservatives, as did the Quebec-dominated Social Credit Party.
The Canadian Forces had been amalgamated into a unitary, cohesive organizational structure by Trudeau, and although Stanfield could not fully reverse this change (partly because he did admire its efficiency along with the camaraderie that it promoted, across the services), he did re-establish the prior ranks, uniforms, and branch names in use prior to 1968. Her Majesty’s Canadian Armed Forces, as they were formally known (and as the government consistently referred to them), once again consisted of the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, all of which had served the Dominion with valour and distinction in both World Wars (excluding the First, in the case of the RCAF), and in Korea. This was met with the enthusiastic support of the Canadian populace, which included hundreds of thousands of surviving front-line veterans. [7] Another change concerned the resources available to the military: by the end of World War II, Canada had possessed the third-largest navy in the world; since 1970, the Royal Canadian Navy had no active carriers in service (HMCS Bonaventure had been decommissioned that year). But in 1973, the Canadian government negotiated the acquisition of the HMS Eagle, a decommissioned British carrier that was due for scrap and salvage, at a very reasonable price. [8] She arrived in Halifax amid much fanfare; she was then taken to Saint John, New Brunswick for refit, and was planned to be ready in time for the 1976 Olympics, to be held in Montreal, and attended by the Queen.
Language was another hotly-debated issue. English Canadians overwhelmingly opposed Official Bilingualism – which reckoned English and French, the two most widely-spoken languages in Canada, at equal levels of importance – though they did vaguely support the notion of Francophones being provided services by the federal government in the French language. The majority of the PC caucus also opposed bilingualism, though Prime Minister Stanfield broadly supported it. Even if he hadn’t, he knew that negotiations would be forced on the issue, largely because the Socreds insisted on Official Bilingualism as a condition of their support (as did Tory-turned-Independent MP, Roch LaSalle). The provincial government in largely Francophone Quebec, led by Premier Robert Bourassa, also demanded bilingual services; though they themselves were unwilling to provide English-language services to their Anglophone minority, and even planned to restrict the use of English in the province. With that in mind, Stanfield was able to apply some leverage, and a compromise gradually emerged: French-language services would be provided by the federal government to regions where French was spoken in sufficiently large numbers (above the national average was chosen as the working threshold). Individual government employees, however, would not be required to be bilingual unless they worked in bilingual regions, and even then, they would be allowed to continue employment with a “working knowledge” of the French language. [9] At the same time, Stanfield gave his proposal some teeth by insisting to Bourassa that the extra funding so generously being provided for the upcoming Olympic games – including on the elaborate transportation network that was being developed to connect the facilities in Montreal to the new, oversized airport being built in the boonies – was conditional on his agreement to provide the English-speaking minority of Quebec the same services offered by the federal government to the French-speaking minority of Canada.
Canada sought closer relations with the United States and with the United Kingdom, which was a marked contrast to Trudeau’s policies. Trade relations with the United Kingdom (and, by extension, Australia and New Zealand) were a key topic of discussion. Attempting trade reciprocity with the United States was rejected out of hand, for fear that American interests would overwhelm the Canadian economy; but Britain was deemed sufficiently distant that such things would not prove too threatening, especially with the proper safeguards. [10] On the other hand, it was no surprise that relations with Red China – rather cordial under Trudeau – rapidly deteriorated. Although it would not be feasible to reverse the recognition previously extended by the Canadian government, as the writing was already on the wall, Stanfield made clear that the Canadian government was no friend of Red China, and his government would continue to accept political refugees and those seeking asylum from their tyrannical regime. After the Oil Crisis, Stanfield immediately set to work implementing wage and price controls, and working to attract foreign investment. The oil deposits in Alberta proved an interesting bargaining chip; Stanfield expressed an interest in co-operating with the Alberta government to invest in oil extraction in such a way as to benefit all Canadians. Albertans weren’t thrilled about that kind of talk, and neither was Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, but then Trudeau made his proposal, suggesting a coordinated, national program to extract the oil and make it affordable and available for all Canadians (particularly Central Canadians – in Ontario and Quebec – was the unspoken implication). [11] This was in flagrant violation of Canadian custom, which enshrined natural resources as a provincial, not federal, jurisdiction. Trudeau was attacked from both sides (the NDP sensed an opening for their party in the West), but stubbornly refused to back down from the idea, knowing that it was a vote-getter in Quebec (and possibly Ontario), where he needed to do well.
Trudeau was successfully painted by Stanfield on one side, and by NDP leader David Lewis on the other, as a blatant sympathizer to Communist ideals, particularly those of Red China – which had essentially replaced Soviet Russia as the boogeyman. And it could not be denied – Trudeau had recognized the People’s Republic of China almost immediately upon taking office, and had cultivated a personal friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He had surprisingly chilly relations with both Humphrey and Wilson (both of whom were left-leaning, to boot!), in contrast to the much warmer relations cultivated by Stanfield. Trudeau attempted – in vain – to attack Stanfield as reactionary and his views as intolerant, but this went nowhere, as Stanfield was seen as open-minded, principled, and willing to compromise, not to mention that his policies were widely supported by the Canadian populace. Also, his name-calling lowered the level of political discourse, preventing him from one potential advantage of having run a clean, higher-ground campaign. In the resultant elections, in which over ten million ballots were cast for the very first time, the Tories won 142 seats, nine more than the 133 needed for a majority. They won the most seats in every province except for the Liberal stronghold of Quebec, sweeping Alberta and Stanfield’s native Nova Scotia, and utterly dominating Ontario, the most populous province, where they won more than two-thirds of the seats there on nearly half the vote. Outside of Quebec, the Liberals performed well in mostly Francophone areas (Acadia in New Brunswick, Northern and Eastern Ontario, and St. Boniface in Manitoba, their only seat west of Ontario), but nowhere else. “We have been reduced from the first choice of all Canadians, to the choice of only those who think like Mr. Trudeau,” a Liberal strategist wryly remarked [12]; it was only their relative strength in the East (and Quebec in particular) that allowed them to cling to their status as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. The Tories, on the other hand, won their first majority government since 1958.
The results in the Canadian Federal Election, 1974 are: 142 seats and 42.18% of the vote for the Progressive Conservatives; 64 seats and 29.11% of the vote for the Liberals; 31 seats and 17.59% of the vote for the New Democrats; and 27 seats and 10.61% of the vote for Social Credit, for a government majority of 20.
The Yom Kippur War, and the ensuing Oil Crisis, was one of the defining symbols of the weakness of the Humphrey administration in the foreign policy arena.
Humphrey knew that he about a year to work with his (barely) Democratic Congress before the now-certain midterm Republican landslide that would render him a lame-duck President. His most dramatic action was the decision to remove the United States from the Gold Standard in 1974, marking the effective end of the Breton Woods system in use at the time. [13] Though this measure was widely supported by Keynesian economists as a means of getting out of recession through increasing the potential for economic growth and government spending, it was met with fierce opposition from certain quarters. The “Great Society” and the post-war consensus of tax-and-spend now had to shoulder the biggest recession since the Great Depression, which happened entirely despite their preventative policies. There was a growing call for more radical solutions…
The infamous Cyprus Incident of July, 1974, was perhaps the most notorious foreign adventure taking place during Humphrey’s second term. Attempts had been made by pro-Enosis (union with Greece) forces to stage a coup d’état on the island, in response to a second successive coup in Greece itself (following a previous coup in 1967). This was thwarted with American and British assistance (though British involvement was limited, and primarily consultative, in order to bring the United Kingdom back into the good books of the European powers, who were largely united against the present Greek regime), as it was decided that such a coup would be interpreted by Turkey, an important and valuable NATO ally, as provocative; at worst, it could result in a major conflict in the Eastern Med for the second year in a row. [14] However, word quickly spread to Greece, already a pariah state in Europe, who promptly withdrew from the NATO organizational structure, as France had done some years before (for entirely different reasons). It was a thoroughly mixed bag for the United States; it was an actively interventionist activity which did much to combat their recent reputation for passivity; but it also had been poorly received in many quarters, particularly among the Greek diaspora. Meanwhile, anti-communist activities conducted by the CIA worked to subvert a military coup in Ethiopia, which had planned to depose the Emperor, Haile Selassie, whose popularity had been severely shaken, given famines (common to the Horn of Africa) and the Oil Crisis. His only surviving son, and Heir Apparent, had died of a severe stroke in 1973 [15]; his grandson, Zera Yacob, a student at Oxford University, became the new Heir Apparent and Crown Prince of Ethiopia. It was widely believed by CIA agents that recent attempts to depose the Emperor were backed by the Soviets, who were working to extend their influence in Africa; the neighbouring country of Somalia had allied itself with the Communist bloc in 1969. Africa had become an ideological battleground.
There were a great many reasons why there were such seismic shifts in the midterm elections of 1974. In addition to the Oil Crisis and the ensuing recession, as well as the growing sense of an administration adrift on foreign policy matters, there was a complacency on the part of incumbents, and a certain invigoration on the part of the challengers. As in the United Kingdom, voter fatigue had played a part – the Democrats had controlled the Presidency since 1961, and both Houses of Congress since 1955. The Republicans had been shut out of Congress for 20 years, longer, in fact, than the fourteen years (1933-47) they had been shut out as a result of the Great Depression.
The Democrats lost 56 seats in the House of Representatives, their biggest decline since 1920, leaving them with only 164 seats in the lower chamber, their smallest caucus since before the Great Depression. The Republicans gained 49 of those 56, their best showing since 1946, bringing them to a majority for the first time in two decades, with 253 seats total; their largest caucus, also since before the Great Depression. The American Party picked up seven seats, including in North Carolina and Texas, for a total of 18 – the largest third-party caucus in the House of Representatives since 1896 (when the Populists won 22 seats). This reorientation of seats allowed the incumbent Minority Leader, Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, to fulfill his lifelong political ambition of becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives. Other House Republican leadership included the new Majority Leader, Donald Rumsfeld of Illinois; George Bush of Texas; and John Anderson, also of Illinois. [16] The Republicans won House seats virtually everywhere – in some cases, picking up seats in areas they had failed to carry since the 1920s. One of their more surprising victories was in California’s 5th Congressional district, comprising Marin County and parts of ultra-liberal San Francisco, in which Japanese-Canadian-American academic S.I. Hayakawa emerged victorious. [17] Complementing their victory there, they also gained seats in much of New York City, including parts of Queens (the 6th, which also included parts of Nassau County), Brooklyn (the 15th), and even Downtown Manhattan (the 17th, which to be fair was largely based in Staten Island). They even made inroads into Southern states, even though every one of the 18 seats won by the American Party was in the South, which limited their growth potential (much as they limited American Party potential everywhere outside of the South).
The Democrats also lost nine seats in the Senate, dropping from 48 to 39, and failed to make a single gain at the expense of the Republicans, who won seven seats from them, for a total of 55. The American Party tripled the size of their Senate caucus when National Democrat Sen. James Allen of Alabama, a close friend and confidant of Gov. George Wallace, officially switched allegiance to the American Democrats; Jesse Helms of North Carolina was also successful in his second run. Both joined Sen. Lester Maddox of Georgia in the AIP caucus. Hugh Scott and Mike Mansfield, who had been the Minority and Majority Leaders, respectively, switched places in the new Senate. Scott, like Ford in the lower house, was a moderate; he found himself facing increasing divisions within the ranks between his fellow moderates and conservatives. The new President pro tempore was the Senate’s senior Republican, Milton Young of North Dakota. He replaced Democrat James Eastland, who had been relatively inactive in the position due to the precarious partisan balance; this required the actual President of the Senate, Edmund Muskie, to remain on hand and break ties. George Aiken, a Republican from Vermont, and the senior-most Senator, retired at the end of the previous Congress, but was graciously permitted to serve as President Pro Tem for a single day by the lame-duck Senate. [18]
A few prominent races in the Senate included the nomination challenge in New York, in which liberal Jacob Javits was defeated by Rep. Jack Kemp, who went on to win the election (with Javits splitting the left-wing vote by running on the Liberal Party ticket), and the victory of Gov. Dale Bumpers in Arkansas, the only freshman Democrat elected to the Upper House. With regards to gubernatorial races: In New York, longtime Rockefeller running-mate Malcolm Wilson finally became Governor in his own right after his boss’s retirement; California Treasurer Houston I. Flournoy narrowly defeated conservative Lt. Gov. Ed Reinecke for the Republican nomination for Governor (vacated by Gov. Ronald Reagan as he prepared to run for President in 1976), and he then won the general election against Jerry Brown, son of former Governor Pat Brown; Rep. John Ashbrook defeated former Gov. James Rhodes for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio, subsequently defeating incumbent Gov. John J. Gilligan; former Madison Mayor William Dyke defeated incumbent Gov. Patrick Lucey of Wisconsin; Republican Gen. William Westmoreland won the election in South Carolina, the term-limited Gov. Albert Watson trying his luck for Senate against Sen. Fritz Hollings (and losing); Arlen Specter won in Pennsylvania; and, of course, George Wallace solidified his hold on Alabama (with the American Democrats winning both houses of the state legislature, giving him complete control), with the AIP also winning the vacant gubernatorial race in Georgia.
The results in the United States House of Representatives Elections, 1974 are: 253 seats for the Republicans; 164 seats for the Democrats (also known as the DFL, DNL, and NDP in various states); and 18 seats for the American Party (known as the American Democratic Party in Alabama), for a Republican majority of 71.
The results in the United States Senate Elections, 1974 are: 55 seats for the Republicans; 39 seats for the Democrats (also known as the DFL and DNL in various states); 3 seats for the American Party (known as the American Democratic Party in Alabama); 1 seat for the Conservative Party (who identifies and caucuses with the Republicans); and 2 seats for Independents (both of whom identify and caucus with the Democrats), for a Republican majority of 12.
[1] IOTL, England lost to West Germany, who then lost to Italy and defeated Uruguay to come in third. It was a massive disappointment for the defending champions; whereas, in many ways, their third-place finish here would be better for morale than their making the championship, only to lose to Brazil (and they would lose to Brazil), because Second Place Is For Losers. (It also helps that defeating the superpower Soviet Union, as opposed to little Uruguay, would also do wonders for English morale). England scored only four goals overall IOTL; their loss in the quarterfinals is considered a key reason for the surprise Labour defeat in the subsequent general election.
[2] The historical results in the United Kingdom General Election, 1970 were: 330 seats and 46.44% of the vote for the Conservatives; 288 seats and 43.13% of the vote for Labour; 6 seats and 7.48% of the vote for the Liberals; 1 seat and 1.08% of the vote for the SNP; and 5 seats for all other parties.
[3] Heath, having been elected Prime Minister in 1970 IOTL, naturally survived his entire term, and ran for re-election in February 1974; as Labour were held to a minority, he was able to force another election for that October. Labour won that rematch with a razor-thin majority; Heath had every intention of continuing as leader until he was forced out in early 1975, much the same fashion as ITTL. By this point, Powell (along with the other Ulster Unionists) had deserted the Conservative Party, and Joseph had been discredited by a speech made in 1974, allowing a protégée of his, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, who had served in the Heath Cabinet, to run on behalf of the monetarist faction of the party. Whitelaw attempted his proxy run in the second round IOTL as well, but Mrs Thatcher proved victorious, winning the leadership and the subsequent general election.
[4] Of the three states to join the EEC in 1973 IOTL, only Denmark submitted the proposal to a popular referendum, which passed, with 63.3% in favour to 37.7% against. ITTL, though that margin is narrower, a solid majority still supports joining the EEC. In Britain ITTL, many of the points of contention that gave the Heath Tories pause IOTL are enough to stop negotiations dead among the far more divided Labour parliamentary party.
[5] Pompidou dies more-or-less on schedule, with the stronger shock from the Oil Crisis and ensuing recession hitting Europe (because Britain and Ireland are not part of the EEC), coupled with a more amicable détente with the Soviet Union, allowing socialism to prove more palatable to the French electorate; therefore, it is Mitterand who narrowly emerges victorious, rather than d’Estaing doing so as IOTL. Most European leaders see this recession as a test of the EEC, and want to work to keep it functioning.
[6] Bloody Sunday – along with various precursor events – has been butterflied away ITTL. This results in the vast majority of nationalists continuing to view the British Government and Army as generally (though certainly not flawlessly) neutral, judicious arbiters. The ongoing activities of paramilitary groups on both sides are widely decried by authorities, along with moderates and (naturally) non-sectarians. Direct rule has been imposed, and negotiations are ongoing in order to create a devolved legislature.
[7] Many of these restorations have been gradually implemented in the more than four decades since 1968 IOTL, culminating in the return to the WWII-era branch names in 2011, a decision that was far more controversial given the lack of connection many Canadians have with their history, and the diminishing proportion of the electorate represented by veterans of the aforementioned conflicts (worth noting is that more Canadian soldiers, per capita, fought in World War II than any other Allied power).
[8] HMS Eagle was decommissioned in 1972, but remained in reserve until 1976 and was generally considered operable until 1974, at which point she was stripped of parts for her sister ship, HMS Ark Royal. During the trade talks between Stanfield and Wilson in early 1973 ITTL, Stanfield brings up Eagle and offers to take her off the hands of the United Kingdom (many within the Royal Navy considered her eminently seaworthy and lamented her decommission). Wilson agrees to make the sale as a good faith gesture.
[9] Official Bilingualism had been government policy since the Official Languages Act of 1969, though it was implemented gradually, and served as a major issue in the campaigns of both 1972 and 1974 IOTL. Though Stanfield does support bilingualism, he is more mindful of the non-Francophone population (not to mention the civil service) and works to fashion a reasonable compromise. At about this time IOTL, Quebec implemented a language law (Bill 22) making French the sole official language of the province, severely restricting the use of English, in direct violation of previously established federal and constitutional law, though no action was taken by the federal government. This would not happen ITTL, as it is known that any such law would instead be vigorously fought, and this fact (in addition to the Olympic funding blackmail) has prevented its passage.
[10] IOTL, the 1911 federal election was fought primarily on the issue of “trade reciprocity” – essentially, mutually reduced tariffs on certain goods – with the United States; the 1988 election was fought primarily on the Free Trade Agreement (the precursor to NAFTA) with the United States. Intriguingly, the Tories and the Liberals fought those two elections on different sides of the issue (the Tories won, on both occasions). ITTL, neither Stanfield nor Trudeau would support reciprocity with the United States.
[11] Trudeau would pass legislation enacting this policy – which became known as the National Energy Program – in 1980 IOTL. It was so incredibly unpopular with Western (particularly Albertan) voters that it fueled the rise of a separatist movement (the Western Canada Concept) which actually returned a member to the Alberta legislature in 1982, the one and only time that a separatist legislator has been elected outside of Quebec since the Anti-Confederates of the 1870s.
[12] Why does Trudeau do so poorly ITTL? One of the reasons is that he has never had to go on the offensive against anyone except for Joe Clark – perhaps the most awkward, ineffectual politician in Canadian history – in 1980. Stanfield, though he is earnest and uncharismatic, is also far more competent and likeable than Clark, and is able to deflect Trudeau’s attacks very effectively (with some able assistance from Lewis and Caouette). Trudeau also runs against Stanfield’s most popular policies (restoring the facade of the old armed forces, purchasing the aircraft carrier, forging closer relations with the Western Allies, turning the cold shoulder to China) and duly suffers the consequences.
[13] IOTL, the United States was removed from the Gold Standard in 1971, spurring what became known as the “Nixon Shock”. This was done largely as a compensatory move due to the mounting expenses relating the overseas quagmire (and related adventures), and was obviously unnecessary at that point ITTL.
[14] The coup was successful IOTL and the pro-Enosis government was installed, resulting in a retaliatory invasion by Turkey, dividing the island into Greek and Turkish zones (separated by the United Nations) to this day. The coup also resulted in the collapse of the Greek junta, which therefore survives ITTL (though it remains a pariah state).
[15] Amha Selassie, the only son of Haile Selassie to outlive his father, survived this massive stroke IOTL, recuperating in Switzerland and refusing to accept the crown offered to him once his father had been deposed. His son, Zera Yacob, finished his education at Oxford and became pretender to the throne upon the death of his father in 1997.
[16] Rumsfeld has represented the 12th Congressional District (the 13th District prior to 1973) of Illinois since 1963. He was recruited by Richard Nixon to the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969 IOTL, marking the beginning of a long career in the executive branch of government. Bush has represented the 7th District of Texas since 1967; he was recruited (again by Nixon) to run against Sen. Ralph Yarborough in 1970 IOTL; Yarborough was defeated for renomination by Lloyd Bentsen, who then defeated Bush.
[17] Hayakawa, an academic, ran for the Senate against Sen. John V. Tunney in 1976, and won the seat. He instead runs for the House in the district containing his home of Mill Valley, having been defeated for the chance to run for the Senate seat against Sen. Alan Cranston by the OTL candidate, H.L. Richardson, who then wins the seat.
[18] The exact same thing happened to Milton Young at the end of the 96th Congress IOTL, as he chose to retire instead of running again in 1980. Young was only the second-most senior Senator overall, however, because one Democrat (Warren G. Magnuson, who also retired in 1980) had served for longer than he.
Welcome back to Appendix B! This update will be written primarily as a standard update, with all footnotes to come at the end of the three parts, which each comprise a political update about a different power. Some supplementary information, however, will be provided in the familiar red text. Be warned that this post is far more politically-charged than most others have been in the past, even by the standards of previous political posts, and discusses ideologies and movements that may be sensitive and controversial, especially since they will fall within the living memory of many of my readers. For those of you who dislike the standard War-and-Politics material, this update is not necessary to enjoy the rest of the timeline; it simply exists as background material to enrich and provide context for the popular culture updates that form the bulk of the thread.
The Lion: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Arms of Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom.
In 1966, England won the World Cup, and the incumbent British Government (recently returned, with a massive majority) saw that it was good.
In 1970, England was poised to defend their title, but the competition was fierce. Though they had defeated all of their opponents (save for the nigh-invulnerable Brazil) in the qualifying rounds, it was a tough road ahead to the championship. They only narrowly defeated West Germany – whom they had defeated last time in the finals – with a score of 4 to 3, with extra time added; but it was all for naught, as an equally narrow loss, to Italy, followed in the semifinals. In the meantime, the Soviet Union had defeated Uruguay, only to lose to Brazil; this meant that they would be the ones facing England to determine who would come in third overall. And on May 20, 1970, England defeated the Soviet Union for third-place, with Brazil winning the cup against Italy the following day. [1] England scored ten goals overall: Martin Peters led the pack with four, tying him for third overall with Brazilian superstar Pélé; Allan Clarke followed with three, and Geoff Hurst with two. (Another Brazilian player, Jairzinho, led overall with seven goals).
The incumbent Labour government was returned in the election held less than one month later, though with a greatly reduced majority from 1966, underperforming most polls. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Harold Wilson became the first to lead his party to three successive election victories since Lord Liverpool in 1820. Labour lost 35 seats, with their party reduced to 329 MPs; the Conservatives, led for the second time by Edward Heath, gained 38 (at the expense of the Liberals along with Labour), bringing their tally to 291. The Liberal Party, once one of the two dominant parties in British politics along with the Conservatives (as remained the case in Canada), continued their marginal existence; losing votes, and half their seats, under new leader Jeremy Thorpe. Only 6 Liberal MPs would sit in the 45th Parliament. They were joined by one MP, Donald Stewart, of the Scottish Nationalist Party, who advocated independence for Scotland. It was an unexpected victory for a fringe and radical party, albeit one that would be greatly bolstered in the years ahead. In addition, three MPs, all from Northern Ireland, were also returned. [2] In terms of votes, Labour finished narrowly ahead of the Conservatives, at 45.6% to 44.2%. The Liberals received only 7.2% of the vote, with the SNP just barely managing more than 1%.
One frequently conjectured possibility regarding the underwhelming victory margin for Labour was the effectiveness of the famous “Rivers of Blood” speech by Conservative MP Enoch Powell, which was believed to have resonated with working-class voters (who would ordinarily be inclined to back Labour). Powell, eager to translate his popularity with a large segment of the British electorate into increased status within his party, was inspired to demand that Edward Heath – who had twice failed to bring the Tories to power – put the prospect of his continued leadership to a vote. He was not the only one, as monetarist Keith Joseph quickly echoed these calls, as did numerous backbenchers and the party faithful. Heath resisted, but eventually yielded to recommendations that he submit his leadership to party review. In the ensuing round of ballots, Heath finished behind Powell, though neither was anywhere near a majority due to the presence of Joseph in the race. Heath accepted the will of his party and withdrew from the race, and therefore his position as leader – making him the first Conservative leader never to become Prime Minister. But the Conservative Party lived up to their name when they eschewed the opportunity to move in a radical new direction under either Powell or Joseph; William Whitelaw, an obvious Heath proxy, entered the race in the second round and, coming up the middle between them, emerged victorious, becoming the new Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. [3] Joseph was eventually appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Powell, who represented Northern Ireland under the Ulster Unionist banner, was made Shadow Secretary for that constituent country. Prime Minister Wilson had appointed Roy Mason in the Cabinet Shuffle that had followed the 1970 election, and it was deemed necessary that a strong Conservative voice be heard on the matter.
One of the primary problems facing Parliament in the early 1970s was the European Question, which bitterly divided the Labour Party. Many on the party’s left-wing, including a large proportion of newly elected MPs, opposed European integration, represented by the United Kingdom joining the European Economic Community; negotiations were underway in order to do so, the block placed by former French President De Gaulle having been lifted by his successor, Georges Pompidou. The right-wing, on the other hand, along with many of the opposition Conservatives, supported joining. Negotiations crawled to a standstill, however, as many sticking points eventually proved insurmountable. Members of the EEC, annoyed at the stalled negotiations, admitted Denmark alone in 1973. [4] Though the Republic of Ireland was planning to enter the EEC as well, it would not be feasible without the United Kingdom doing so alongside them, due to the vital trade and migration links between the two states. Naturally, many Irish were deeply resentful of their continuing reliance on Perfidious Albion, despite their hard-fought independence, won half a century earlier. They also sympathized very deeply with their nationalist brethren, who longed to create a United Ireland. As a result, the early 1970s marked the high point of Anglo-Irish tensions in the post-war era.
With the EEC negotiations crumbling, Britain sought to strengthen her existing ties to the Commonwealth realms, and found themselves facing a very attractive potential partner: the Dominion of Canada, the eighth-largest economy in the world, and the second-largest in the Commonwealth, behind only the United Kingdom itself. Under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada had moved away from the Western Allies in general and the Commonwealth in particular; but new Prime Minister Robert Stanfield was eager to bridge the rifts that had formed between them, and solidify relations with Britain (“once you were our mother nation”, as he would explain to Harold Wilson in an early 1973 meeting, “and now we are the dearest sister nations, but what matters is that we’re still immediate family”). After the Oil Crisis hit, and as it rapidly became clear that the EEC had no further room for expansion, Britain and Canada began to approach stronger trade ties. The same courtesy was extended to the Republic of Ireland, partly to retain their tacit co-operation with regards to the North, and partly as a conciliatory gesture with regards to EEC admission. The recession hit Eire particularly hard, and pragmatism eventually won out over pride. That said, their hand was certainly forced by the new leadership elected throughout Europe, led by French President Francois Mitterand, having shifted their focus to strengthening economic and political ties between existing EEC members, rather than seeking new ones. [5] The British Isles were firmly on the outside, looking in.
But the governing Labour Party was beset by divisions: on their economic direction, ranging from the social-democratic post-war consensus to outright Marxism; on Northern Ireland, though sectarian violence had been minimized under the watchful eye of Roy Mason, and the overwhelming majority of nationalists favoured a peaceful solution and saw Britain as a relatively neutral arbiter, the search for enduring peace, order, and good government continued [6]; on trade relations, from closer relations with the Commonwealth to formal integration with the Inner Six (now seven, after Denmark had joined) of the continent vs. independent self-reliance, or none-of-the-above; many of the newer, younger MPs were firmly anti-Europe leftists, whereas the older, more established MPs (including Mason, one of few unambiguously successful ministers in the Wilson government) were more moderate in their outlook, and favoured integration with the continent. These constant disputes, along with frequent by-elections, gradually whittled the supposedly comfortable Labour majority into a very tenuous hold on Parliament, even before the Oil Crisis, which then proved enough to force an election in early 1974.
The economic downturn, coupled with voter fatigue at Labour having governed for a decade – their longest-ever tenure – was naturally enough to see the Tories swept in on a landslide in the general election, held in February, 1974. Nonetheless, the sheer magnitude of the Conservative victory was impressive. Their vote share had climbed to over 47%, their best showing since 1959 (though Labour had done better in 1966); the Labour vote collapsed to below 36%, their worst showing since the Great Depression. Many right-leaning Labour voters who had abandoned the party voted for the Liberals, whose own voter core had solidified, with little crossover to the Tories: the party nearly doubled their vote share (to over 13%, their best showing since the Depression) and their seat count. Though in terms of relative growth, the SNP took the prize: they doubled their vote share and quadrupled their seat count, from one to four. All three of their gains had been at the expense of the Labour Party; unsurprisingly, the rise of the SNP was precipitated by the discovery of none other than oil in the North Sea, in notionally Scottish waters (hence their slogan: “It’s Scotland’s oil”). A similar nationalist party, this one in Wales, called Plaid Cymru (Welsh for The Party of Wales, as the Welsh language was far more prominently spoken in Wales than either Lowland Scots or Scottish Gaelic were in Scotland), also won two seats, again at Labour expense. Northern Irish parties won four seats, with the Ulster Unionists winning all remaining seats there for the Conservatives. The Tories gained nearly 100 seats in the election, finishing with 389 MPs. Labour lost over 100, dropping to 224; the Liberals finished with 12 seats.
The results in the United Kingdom General Election, 1970 are: 329 seats and 45.59% of the vote for Labour; 291 seats and 44.16% of the vote for the Conservatives; 6 seats and 7.24% of the vote for the Liberals; 1 seat and 1.01% of the vote for the SNP; and 3 seats for all other parties, for a government majority of 28.
The results in the United Kingdom General Election, 1974 are: 389 seats and 47.17% of the vote for the Conservatives; 224 seats and 35.64% of the vote for Labour; 12 seats and 13.36% of the vote for the Liberals; 4 seats and 2.04% of the vote for the SNP; 2 seats for Plaid Cymru; and 4 seats for all other parties, for a government majority of 143. The Tories receive nearly 15 million votes, the largest number of popular votes for any party in British electoral history.
The Beaver: The Dominion of Canada
Arms of the Parliament of Canada, legislative branch of Her Majesty’s Government in Canada.
Arms of the Parliament of Canada, legislative branch of Her Majesty’s Government in Canada.
As the Canadian electorate had returned a minority government in the election of 1972, the new Prime Minister, Robert Stanfield, had to proceed carefully in working to implement much of his campaign platform. Fortunately for them, there were three other parties in Parliament, two of which were willing to negotiate terms with them in regards to many of the key issues of the day (only the Opposition Liberals, who had been unseated in the election, consistently voted against government bills). The New Democratic Party, who were democratic socialists in the European vein (their previous incarnation, a typical North American rural populist party, had merged with the organized labour machine in 1962), found a surprisingly rich vein of common ground with the governing Progressive Conservatives, as did the Quebec-dominated Social Credit Party.
The Canadian Forces had been amalgamated into a unitary, cohesive organizational structure by Trudeau, and although Stanfield could not fully reverse this change (partly because he did admire its efficiency along with the camaraderie that it promoted, across the services), he did re-establish the prior ranks, uniforms, and branch names in use prior to 1968. Her Majesty’s Canadian Armed Forces, as they were formally known (and as the government consistently referred to them), once again consisted of the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, all of which had served the Dominion with valour and distinction in both World Wars (excluding the First, in the case of the RCAF), and in Korea. This was met with the enthusiastic support of the Canadian populace, which included hundreds of thousands of surviving front-line veterans. [7] Another change concerned the resources available to the military: by the end of World War II, Canada had possessed the third-largest navy in the world; since 1970, the Royal Canadian Navy had no active carriers in service (HMCS Bonaventure had been decommissioned that year). But in 1973, the Canadian government negotiated the acquisition of the HMS Eagle, a decommissioned British carrier that was due for scrap and salvage, at a very reasonable price. [8] She arrived in Halifax amid much fanfare; she was then taken to Saint John, New Brunswick for refit, and was planned to be ready in time for the 1976 Olympics, to be held in Montreal, and attended by the Queen.
Language was another hotly-debated issue. English Canadians overwhelmingly opposed Official Bilingualism – which reckoned English and French, the two most widely-spoken languages in Canada, at equal levels of importance – though they did vaguely support the notion of Francophones being provided services by the federal government in the French language. The majority of the PC caucus also opposed bilingualism, though Prime Minister Stanfield broadly supported it. Even if he hadn’t, he knew that negotiations would be forced on the issue, largely because the Socreds insisted on Official Bilingualism as a condition of their support (as did Tory-turned-Independent MP, Roch LaSalle). The provincial government in largely Francophone Quebec, led by Premier Robert Bourassa, also demanded bilingual services; though they themselves were unwilling to provide English-language services to their Anglophone minority, and even planned to restrict the use of English in the province. With that in mind, Stanfield was able to apply some leverage, and a compromise gradually emerged: French-language services would be provided by the federal government to regions where French was spoken in sufficiently large numbers (above the national average was chosen as the working threshold). Individual government employees, however, would not be required to be bilingual unless they worked in bilingual regions, and even then, they would be allowed to continue employment with a “working knowledge” of the French language. [9] At the same time, Stanfield gave his proposal some teeth by insisting to Bourassa that the extra funding so generously being provided for the upcoming Olympic games – including on the elaborate transportation network that was being developed to connect the facilities in Montreal to the new, oversized airport being built in the boonies – was conditional on his agreement to provide the English-speaking minority of Quebec the same services offered by the federal government to the French-speaking minority of Canada.
Canada sought closer relations with the United States and with the United Kingdom, which was a marked contrast to Trudeau’s policies. Trade relations with the United Kingdom (and, by extension, Australia and New Zealand) were a key topic of discussion. Attempting trade reciprocity with the United States was rejected out of hand, for fear that American interests would overwhelm the Canadian economy; but Britain was deemed sufficiently distant that such things would not prove too threatening, especially with the proper safeguards. [10] On the other hand, it was no surprise that relations with Red China – rather cordial under Trudeau – rapidly deteriorated. Although it would not be feasible to reverse the recognition previously extended by the Canadian government, as the writing was already on the wall, Stanfield made clear that the Canadian government was no friend of Red China, and his government would continue to accept political refugees and those seeking asylum from their tyrannical regime. After the Oil Crisis, Stanfield immediately set to work implementing wage and price controls, and working to attract foreign investment. The oil deposits in Alberta proved an interesting bargaining chip; Stanfield expressed an interest in co-operating with the Alberta government to invest in oil extraction in such a way as to benefit all Canadians. Albertans weren’t thrilled about that kind of talk, and neither was Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, but then Trudeau made his proposal, suggesting a coordinated, national program to extract the oil and make it affordable and available for all Canadians (particularly Central Canadians – in Ontario and Quebec – was the unspoken implication). [11] This was in flagrant violation of Canadian custom, which enshrined natural resources as a provincial, not federal, jurisdiction. Trudeau was attacked from both sides (the NDP sensed an opening for their party in the West), but stubbornly refused to back down from the idea, knowing that it was a vote-getter in Quebec (and possibly Ontario), where he needed to do well.
Trudeau was successfully painted by Stanfield on one side, and by NDP leader David Lewis on the other, as a blatant sympathizer to Communist ideals, particularly those of Red China – which had essentially replaced Soviet Russia as the boogeyman. And it could not be denied – Trudeau had recognized the People’s Republic of China almost immediately upon taking office, and had cultivated a personal friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He had surprisingly chilly relations with both Humphrey and Wilson (both of whom were left-leaning, to boot!), in contrast to the much warmer relations cultivated by Stanfield. Trudeau attempted – in vain – to attack Stanfield as reactionary and his views as intolerant, but this went nowhere, as Stanfield was seen as open-minded, principled, and willing to compromise, not to mention that his policies were widely supported by the Canadian populace. Also, his name-calling lowered the level of political discourse, preventing him from one potential advantage of having run a clean, higher-ground campaign. In the resultant elections, in which over ten million ballots were cast for the very first time, the Tories won 142 seats, nine more than the 133 needed for a majority. They won the most seats in every province except for the Liberal stronghold of Quebec, sweeping Alberta and Stanfield’s native Nova Scotia, and utterly dominating Ontario, the most populous province, where they won more than two-thirds of the seats there on nearly half the vote. Outside of Quebec, the Liberals performed well in mostly Francophone areas (Acadia in New Brunswick, Northern and Eastern Ontario, and St. Boniface in Manitoba, their only seat west of Ontario), but nowhere else. “We have been reduced from the first choice of all Canadians, to the choice of only those who think like Mr. Trudeau,” a Liberal strategist wryly remarked [12]; it was only their relative strength in the East (and Quebec in particular) that allowed them to cling to their status as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. The Tories, on the other hand, won their first majority government since 1958.
The results in the Canadian Federal Election, 1974 are: 142 seats and 42.18% of the vote for the Progressive Conservatives; 64 seats and 29.11% of the vote for the Liberals; 31 seats and 17.59% of the vote for the New Democrats; and 27 seats and 10.61% of the vote for Social Credit, for a government majority of 20.
The Eagle: The United States of America
Seal of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the United States Government (used unofficially; each House has its own distinct seal).
Seal of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the United States Government (used unofficially; each House has its own distinct seal).
The Yom Kippur War, and the ensuing Oil Crisis, was one of the defining symbols of the weakness of the Humphrey administration in the foreign policy arena.
Humphrey knew that he about a year to work with his (barely) Democratic Congress before the now-certain midterm Republican landslide that would render him a lame-duck President. His most dramatic action was the decision to remove the United States from the Gold Standard in 1974, marking the effective end of the Breton Woods system in use at the time. [13] Though this measure was widely supported by Keynesian economists as a means of getting out of recession through increasing the potential for economic growth and government spending, it was met with fierce opposition from certain quarters. The “Great Society” and the post-war consensus of tax-and-spend now had to shoulder the biggest recession since the Great Depression, which happened entirely despite their preventative policies. There was a growing call for more radical solutions…
The infamous Cyprus Incident of July, 1974, was perhaps the most notorious foreign adventure taking place during Humphrey’s second term. Attempts had been made by pro-Enosis (union with Greece) forces to stage a coup d’état on the island, in response to a second successive coup in Greece itself (following a previous coup in 1967). This was thwarted with American and British assistance (though British involvement was limited, and primarily consultative, in order to bring the United Kingdom back into the good books of the European powers, who were largely united against the present Greek regime), as it was decided that such a coup would be interpreted by Turkey, an important and valuable NATO ally, as provocative; at worst, it could result in a major conflict in the Eastern Med for the second year in a row. [14] However, word quickly spread to Greece, already a pariah state in Europe, who promptly withdrew from the NATO organizational structure, as France had done some years before (for entirely different reasons). It was a thoroughly mixed bag for the United States; it was an actively interventionist activity which did much to combat their recent reputation for passivity; but it also had been poorly received in many quarters, particularly among the Greek diaspora. Meanwhile, anti-communist activities conducted by the CIA worked to subvert a military coup in Ethiopia, which had planned to depose the Emperor, Haile Selassie, whose popularity had been severely shaken, given famines (common to the Horn of Africa) and the Oil Crisis. His only surviving son, and Heir Apparent, had died of a severe stroke in 1973 [15]; his grandson, Zera Yacob, a student at Oxford University, became the new Heir Apparent and Crown Prince of Ethiopia. It was widely believed by CIA agents that recent attempts to depose the Emperor were backed by the Soviets, who were working to extend their influence in Africa; the neighbouring country of Somalia had allied itself with the Communist bloc in 1969. Africa had become an ideological battleground.
There were a great many reasons why there were such seismic shifts in the midterm elections of 1974. In addition to the Oil Crisis and the ensuing recession, as well as the growing sense of an administration adrift on foreign policy matters, there was a complacency on the part of incumbents, and a certain invigoration on the part of the challengers. As in the United Kingdom, voter fatigue had played a part – the Democrats had controlled the Presidency since 1961, and both Houses of Congress since 1955. The Republicans had been shut out of Congress for 20 years, longer, in fact, than the fourteen years (1933-47) they had been shut out as a result of the Great Depression.
The Democrats lost 56 seats in the House of Representatives, their biggest decline since 1920, leaving them with only 164 seats in the lower chamber, their smallest caucus since before the Great Depression. The Republicans gained 49 of those 56, their best showing since 1946, bringing them to a majority for the first time in two decades, with 253 seats total; their largest caucus, also since before the Great Depression. The American Party picked up seven seats, including in North Carolina and Texas, for a total of 18 – the largest third-party caucus in the House of Representatives since 1896 (when the Populists won 22 seats). This reorientation of seats allowed the incumbent Minority Leader, Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, to fulfill his lifelong political ambition of becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives. Other House Republican leadership included the new Majority Leader, Donald Rumsfeld of Illinois; George Bush of Texas; and John Anderson, also of Illinois. [16] The Republicans won House seats virtually everywhere – in some cases, picking up seats in areas they had failed to carry since the 1920s. One of their more surprising victories was in California’s 5th Congressional district, comprising Marin County and parts of ultra-liberal San Francisco, in which Japanese-Canadian-American academic S.I. Hayakawa emerged victorious. [17] Complementing their victory there, they also gained seats in much of New York City, including parts of Queens (the 6th, which also included parts of Nassau County), Brooklyn (the 15th), and even Downtown Manhattan (the 17th, which to be fair was largely based in Staten Island). They even made inroads into Southern states, even though every one of the 18 seats won by the American Party was in the South, which limited their growth potential (much as they limited American Party potential everywhere outside of the South).
The Democrats also lost nine seats in the Senate, dropping from 48 to 39, and failed to make a single gain at the expense of the Republicans, who won seven seats from them, for a total of 55. The American Party tripled the size of their Senate caucus when National Democrat Sen. James Allen of Alabama, a close friend and confidant of Gov. George Wallace, officially switched allegiance to the American Democrats; Jesse Helms of North Carolina was also successful in his second run. Both joined Sen. Lester Maddox of Georgia in the AIP caucus. Hugh Scott and Mike Mansfield, who had been the Minority and Majority Leaders, respectively, switched places in the new Senate. Scott, like Ford in the lower house, was a moderate; he found himself facing increasing divisions within the ranks between his fellow moderates and conservatives. The new President pro tempore was the Senate’s senior Republican, Milton Young of North Dakota. He replaced Democrat James Eastland, who had been relatively inactive in the position due to the precarious partisan balance; this required the actual President of the Senate, Edmund Muskie, to remain on hand and break ties. George Aiken, a Republican from Vermont, and the senior-most Senator, retired at the end of the previous Congress, but was graciously permitted to serve as President Pro Tem for a single day by the lame-duck Senate. [18]
A few prominent races in the Senate included the nomination challenge in New York, in which liberal Jacob Javits was defeated by Rep. Jack Kemp, who went on to win the election (with Javits splitting the left-wing vote by running on the Liberal Party ticket), and the victory of Gov. Dale Bumpers in Arkansas, the only freshman Democrat elected to the Upper House. With regards to gubernatorial races: In New York, longtime Rockefeller running-mate Malcolm Wilson finally became Governor in his own right after his boss’s retirement; California Treasurer Houston I. Flournoy narrowly defeated conservative Lt. Gov. Ed Reinecke for the Republican nomination for Governor (vacated by Gov. Ronald Reagan as he prepared to run for President in 1976), and he then won the general election against Jerry Brown, son of former Governor Pat Brown; Rep. John Ashbrook defeated former Gov. James Rhodes for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio, subsequently defeating incumbent Gov. John J. Gilligan; former Madison Mayor William Dyke defeated incumbent Gov. Patrick Lucey of Wisconsin; Republican Gen. William Westmoreland won the election in South Carolina, the term-limited Gov. Albert Watson trying his luck for Senate against Sen. Fritz Hollings (and losing); Arlen Specter won in Pennsylvania; and, of course, George Wallace solidified his hold on Alabama (with the American Democrats winning both houses of the state legislature, giving him complete control), with the AIP also winning the vacant gubernatorial race in Georgia.
The results in the United States House of Representatives Elections, 1974 are: 253 seats for the Republicans; 164 seats for the Democrats (also known as the DFL, DNL, and NDP in various states); and 18 seats for the American Party (known as the American Democratic Party in Alabama), for a Republican majority of 71.
The results in the United States Senate Elections, 1974 are: 55 seats for the Republicans; 39 seats for the Democrats (also known as the DFL and DNL in various states); 3 seats for the American Party (known as the American Democratic Party in Alabama); 1 seat for the Conservative Party (who identifies and caucuses with the Republicans); and 2 seats for Independents (both of whom identify and caucus with the Democrats), for a Republican majority of 12.
Addenda
[1] IOTL, England lost to West Germany, who then lost to Italy and defeated Uruguay to come in third. It was a massive disappointment for the defending champions; whereas, in many ways, their third-place finish here would be better for morale than their making the championship, only to lose to Brazil (and they would lose to Brazil), because Second Place Is For Losers. (It also helps that defeating the superpower Soviet Union, as opposed to little Uruguay, would also do wonders for English morale). England scored only four goals overall IOTL; their loss in the quarterfinals is considered a key reason for the surprise Labour defeat in the subsequent general election.
[2] The historical results in the United Kingdom General Election, 1970 were: 330 seats and 46.44% of the vote for the Conservatives; 288 seats and 43.13% of the vote for Labour; 6 seats and 7.48% of the vote for the Liberals; 1 seat and 1.08% of the vote for the SNP; and 5 seats for all other parties.
[3] Heath, having been elected Prime Minister in 1970 IOTL, naturally survived his entire term, and ran for re-election in February 1974; as Labour were held to a minority, he was able to force another election for that October. Labour won that rematch with a razor-thin majority; Heath had every intention of continuing as leader until he was forced out in early 1975, much the same fashion as ITTL. By this point, Powell (along with the other Ulster Unionists) had deserted the Conservative Party, and Joseph had been discredited by a speech made in 1974, allowing a protégée of his, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, who had served in the Heath Cabinet, to run on behalf of the monetarist faction of the party. Whitelaw attempted his proxy run in the second round IOTL as well, but Mrs Thatcher proved victorious, winning the leadership and the subsequent general election.
[4] Of the three states to join the EEC in 1973 IOTL, only Denmark submitted the proposal to a popular referendum, which passed, with 63.3% in favour to 37.7% against. ITTL, though that margin is narrower, a solid majority still supports joining the EEC. In Britain ITTL, many of the points of contention that gave the Heath Tories pause IOTL are enough to stop negotiations dead among the far more divided Labour parliamentary party.
[5] Pompidou dies more-or-less on schedule, with the stronger shock from the Oil Crisis and ensuing recession hitting Europe (because Britain and Ireland are not part of the EEC), coupled with a more amicable détente with the Soviet Union, allowing socialism to prove more palatable to the French electorate; therefore, it is Mitterand who narrowly emerges victorious, rather than d’Estaing doing so as IOTL. Most European leaders see this recession as a test of the EEC, and want to work to keep it functioning.
[6] Bloody Sunday – along with various precursor events – has been butterflied away ITTL. This results in the vast majority of nationalists continuing to view the British Government and Army as generally (though certainly not flawlessly) neutral, judicious arbiters. The ongoing activities of paramilitary groups on both sides are widely decried by authorities, along with moderates and (naturally) non-sectarians. Direct rule has been imposed, and negotiations are ongoing in order to create a devolved legislature.
[7] Many of these restorations have been gradually implemented in the more than four decades since 1968 IOTL, culminating in the return to the WWII-era branch names in 2011, a decision that was far more controversial given the lack of connection many Canadians have with their history, and the diminishing proportion of the electorate represented by veterans of the aforementioned conflicts (worth noting is that more Canadian soldiers, per capita, fought in World War II than any other Allied power).
[8] HMS Eagle was decommissioned in 1972, but remained in reserve until 1976 and was generally considered operable until 1974, at which point she was stripped of parts for her sister ship, HMS Ark Royal. During the trade talks between Stanfield and Wilson in early 1973 ITTL, Stanfield brings up Eagle and offers to take her off the hands of the United Kingdom (many within the Royal Navy considered her eminently seaworthy and lamented her decommission). Wilson agrees to make the sale as a good faith gesture.
[9] Official Bilingualism had been government policy since the Official Languages Act of 1969, though it was implemented gradually, and served as a major issue in the campaigns of both 1972 and 1974 IOTL. Though Stanfield does support bilingualism, he is more mindful of the non-Francophone population (not to mention the civil service) and works to fashion a reasonable compromise. At about this time IOTL, Quebec implemented a language law (Bill 22) making French the sole official language of the province, severely restricting the use of English, in direct violation of previously established federal and constitutional law, though no action was taken by the federal government. This would not happen ITTL, as it is known that any such law would instead be vigorously fought, and this fact (in addition to the Olympic funding blackmail) has prevented its passage.
[10] IOTL, the 1911 federal election was fought primarily on the issue of “trade reciprocity” – essentially, mutually reduced tariffs on certain goods – with the United States; the 1988 election was fought primarily on the Free Trade Agreement (the precursor to NAFTA) with the United States. Intriguingly, the Tories and the Liberals fought those two elections on different sides of the issue (the Tories won, on both occasions). ITTL, neither Stanfield nor Trudeau would support reciprocity with the United States.
[11] Trudeau would pass legislation enacting this policy – which became known as the National Energy Program – in 1980 IOTL. It was so incredibly unpopular with Western (particularly Albertan) voters that it fueled the rise of a separatist movement (the Western Canada Concept) which actually returned a member to the Alberta legislature in 1982, the one and only time that a separatist legislator has been elected outside of Quebec since the Anti-Confederates of the 1870s.
[12] Why does Trudeau do so poorly ITTL? One of the reasons is that he has never had to go on the offensive against anyone except for Joe Clark – perhaps the most awkward, ineffectual politician in Canadian history – in 1980. Stanfield, though he is earnest and uncharismatic, is also far more competent and likeable than Clark, and is able to deflect Trudeau’s attacks very effectively (with some able assistance from Lewis and Caouette). Trudeau also runs against Stanfield’s most popular policies (restoring the facade of the old armed forces, purchasing the aircraft carrier, forging closer relations with the Western Allies, turning the cold shoulder to China) and duly suffers the consequences.
[13] IOTL, the United States was removed from the Gold Standard in 1971, spurring what became known as the “Nixon Shock”. This was done largely as a compensatory move due to the mounting expenses relating the overseas quagmire (and related adventures), and was obviously unnecessary at that point ITTL.
[14] The coup was successful IOTL and the pro-Enosis government was installed, resulting in a retaliatory invasion by Turkey, dividing the island into Greek and Turkish zones (separated by the United Nations) to this day. The coup also resulted in the collapse of the Greek junta, which therefore survives ITTL (though it remains a pariah state).
[15] Amha Selassie, the only son of Haile Selassie to outlive his father, survived this massive stroke IOTL, recuperating in Switzerland and refusing to accept the crown offered to him once his father had been deposed. His son, Zera Yacob, finished his education at Oxford and became pretender to the throne upon the death of his father in 1997.
[16] Rumsfeld has represented the 12th Congressional District (the 13th District prior to 1973) of Illinois since 1963. He was recruited by Richard Nixon to the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1969 IOTL, marking the beginning of a long career in the executive branch of government. Bush has represented the 7th District of Texas since 1967; he was recruited (again by Nixon) to run against Sen. Ralph Yarborough in 1970 IOTL; Yarborough was defeated for renomination by Lloyd Bentsen, who then defeated Bush.
[17] Hayakawa, an academic, ran for the Senate against Sen. John V. Tunney in 1976, and won the seat. He instead runs for the House in the district containing his home of Mill Valley, having been defeated for the chance to run for the Senate seat against Sen. Alan Cranston by the OTL candidate, H.L. Richardson, who then wins the seat.
[18] The exact same thing happened to Milton Young at the end of the 96th Congress IOTL, as he chose to retire instead of running again in 1980. Young was only the second-most senior Senator overall, however, because one Democrat (Warren G. Magnuson, who also retired in 1980) had served for longer than he.
Postscript
I hope you enjoyed this look into the wider world of That Wacky Redhead! Special thanks must go to Thande, Electric Monk, and vultan, who served as my consultants for the British, Canadian, and American sections of this update, respectively. Thanks also to MaskedPickle for his advice with regards to the situation in France. Also, shout-out to TheMann, with whom I never interacted in any way, shape, or form, for his idea of the HMS Eagle being sold to the sadly carrier-free Canadian Forces instead of being stripped for parts and sold for scrap as IOTL. As in his excellent timeline Canadian Power, the newly-rechristened HMCS Eagle will serve a long and illustrious career as the flagship of the Royal Canadian Navy, though I will certainly not mention her technical specs, nor her exploits, in deference to him (because he does it so much better than I ever could).
Among my creations in the making of this update is a list of U.S. Senators, ranked by seniority, ITTL, as of the beginning of the 94th Congress. And I must say, this whole exercise has given me an appreciation of the breadth of 1970s politics, which are so incredibly dense that it’s so easy to see why they preoccupy the interests of so many members of this forum. But as previously mentioned, these current events will serve primarily as background to the popular culture that dominates this timeline; in other words, this kind of post is the exception, not the rule. Thank you all very much for your continued understanding on this matter.
And with that, we have reached the end of the 1973-74 cycle!
Among my creations in the making of this update is a list of U.S. Senators, ranked by seniority, ITTL, as of the beginning of the 94th Congress. And I must say, this whole exercise has given me an appreciation of the breadth of 1970s politics, which are so incredibly dense that it’s so easy to see why they preoccupy the interests of so many members of this forum. But as previously mentioned, these current events will serve primarily as background to the popular culture that dominates this timeline; in other words, this kind of post is the exception, not the rule. Thank you all very much for your continued understanding on this matter.
And with that, we have reached the end of the 1973-74 cycle!
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Nice update, Brainbin! Great to get an international perspective.
Though the Republicans may gain a lot in the short term here, the success of the American Party may hobble the GOP in the long run. Nixon did a lot to bring conservative Southern Democrats into the Republican fold, from John Connally to Jesse Helms. While a lot of Southerners may dislike Humphrey, more of them vote for the AIP candidate. In the long term, after the AIP fades into irrelevance, this may create a lot of Southern states similar to West Virginia- voting Republican at the national level, but dominated by conservative Democrats on the state level. Republicans will still have room to make gains- Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida will have a strong and growing Republican presence- but the lack of Nixon and his 1972 landslide would limit room for GOP gains in the Deep South.
Also, I'd kind of like to see how Southeast Asia, and Asia as a whole, turns out with the butterflies of a shorter Vietnam War and (I assume) a weaker call by the US for detente (no Secretary of State Kissinger).
Interesting developments- all on account of one Wacky Redhead!
Though the Republicans may gain a lot in the short term here, the success of the American Party may hobble the GOP in the long run. Nixon did a lot to bring conservative Southern Democrats into the Republican fold, from John Connally to Jesse Helms. While a lot of Southerners may dislike Humphrey, more of them vote for the AIP candidate. In the long term, after the AIP fades into irrelevance, this may create a lot of Southern states similar to West Virginia- voting Republican at the national level, but dominated by conservative Democrats on the state level. Republicans will still have room to make gains- Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida will have a strong and growing Republican presence- but the lack of Nixon and his 1972 landslide would limit room for GOP gains in the Deep South.
Also, I'd kind of like to see how Southeast Asia, and Asia as a whole, turns out with the butterflies of a shorter Vietnam War and (I assume) a weaker call by the US for detente (no Secretary of State Kissinger).
Interesting developments- all on account of one Wacky Redhead!
Also, these political developments make me wonder how one of the greatest songs of the 1970's may turn out differently. I'm talking, of course, about Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama". Neil Young would still probably make songs in this atmosphere that they would find derogatory toward the South, so they'd still have an impetus to write something in response.
The specific lines referring to George Wallace and the Watergate scandal. Obviously, since Watergate isn't happening in this world, the reference would have to be different there.
The specific lines referring to George Wallace and the Watergate scandal. Obviously, since Watergate isn't happening in this world, the reference would have to be different there.
This has implications for the Star Trek Dr Who Crossover. Since it was made partially in the UK with members of Equity then the Equity rules probably apply, which means that (unlike the rest of the Star Trek episodes) it couldn't be rebroadcast multiple times in the UK.
Did you see that coming ?
Very plausible electoral results, with just one quibble:
I'd have thought that it would be right-wing Labour voters who would turn to the Liberals.
Did the UK remain in EFTA ?
Turning back to popular culture, with a Conservative Government in place in 1977 instead of Labour, I wonder if Citizen Smith (which made fun out of far-left politics) still gets picked up as a TV series. If it doesn't then the writer, John Sullivan, may not go on to create Only Fools and Horses.
Cheers,
Nigel.
Falkenburg
Monthly Donor
It is perhaps natural that the singlemost striking feature of the last Update, to me, was the Butterflying of Bloody Sunday.
However that was achieved the impact is singularly profound. Both for Northern Ireland and for the wider UK.
Whatever one thinks of the events themselves (and they remain painfully divisive) they directly led to a visceral escalation of the conflict.
No Bloody Sunday means no concommitant influx of recruits to the Provisionals.
Thus no internal pressure for reprisals, no upsurge of paramilitary prisoners.
No politicisation of those prisoners, no Blanket Protests, no Hunger Strikes.
No iconic martyrs for 'The Cause' and thus no danger of a political settlement being seen as an unconscionable betrayal of those ten men.
The absence of this aching wound, that was allowed to fester for so long, completely alters the political landscape of Northern Ireland.
Sorry to go on about it.
As someone whose earliest memories are indelibly marked by black flags, riots, roadblocks, rumour and the fear and anger arising from such events, I can only applaud a TL that offers an alternative path to that my homeland trod.
The potential loss of the cultural products of the Troubles are a small price to pay.
Hope the Stiff Little Fingers still form in this Alternative Ulster, though.
The cultural effects in the wider UK are almost as far-reaching.
It may be considered hyperbole to say that Northern Ireland was Britain's <Verbotten> but I feel it has some truth.
At least in so far as the effects it had on the cultural psyche of the UK goes.
Thank you, Brainbin.
Falkenburg
However that was achieved the impact is singularly profound. Both for Northern Ireland and for the wider UK.
Whatever one thinks of the events themselves (and they remain painfully divisive) they directly led to a visceral escalation of the conflict.
No Bloody Sunday means no concommitant influx of recruits to the Provisionals.
Thus no internal pressure for reprisals, no upsurge of paramilitary prisoners.
No politicisation of those prisoners, no Blanket Protests, no Hunger Strikes.
No iconic martyrs for 'The Cause' and thus no danger of a political settlement being seen as an unconscionable betrayal of those ten men.
The absence of this aching wound, that was allowed to fester for so long, completely alters the political landscape of Northern Ireland.
Sorry to go on about it.
As someone whose earliest memories are indelibly marked by black flags, riots, roadblocks, rumour and the fear and anger arising from such events, I can only applaud a TL that offers an alternative path to that my homeland trod.
The potential loss of the cultural products of the Troubles are a small price to pay.
Hope the Stiff Little Fingers still form in this Alternative Ulster, though.
The cultural effects in the wider UK are almost as far-reaching.
It may be considered hyperbole to say that Northern Ireland was Britain's <Verbotten> but I feel it has some truth.
At least in so far as the effects it had on the cultural psyche of the UK goes.
Thank you, Brainbin.
Falkenburg
A most interesting update BB
Some intriguing butterflies from this if we decide being outside what is starting to look like the USE.
Could we actually see the Euro coming into effect sooner in parallel or shortly after this possible USE.
That said OFAH was in part a reaction to Thatcherism and the Greed Is Good mentality. So what could we get instead?
Massive effects from this - a large amount of UK policing policy was in reaction to the NI escalation.
I cant' see any reason why we wouldn't and indeed not being in the EEC might necessitate remaining in EFTA.
Some intriguing butterflies from this if we decide being outside what is starting to look like the USE.
Could we actually see the Euro coming into effect sooner in parallel or shortly after this possible USE.
Oh my good!
That said OFAH was in part a reaction to Thatcherism and the Greed Is Good mentality. So what could we get instead?
It is perhaps natural that the singlemost striking feature of the last Update, to me, was the Butterflying of Bloody Sunday.
However that was achieved the impact is singularly profound. Both for Northern Ireland and for the wider UK.
Whatever one thinks of the events themselves (and they remain painfully divisive) they directly led to a visceral escalation of the conflict.
No Bloody Sunday means no concommitant influx of recruits to the Provisionals.
Thus no internal pressure for reprisals, no upsurge of paramilitary prisoners.
No politicisation of those prisoners, no Blanket Protests, no Hunger Strikes.
No iconic martyrs for 'The Cause' and thus no danger of a political settlement being seen as an unconscionable betrayal of those ten men.
The absence of this aching wound, that was allowed to fester for so long, completely alters the political landscape of Northern Ireland.
Sorry to go on about it.
As someone whose earliest memories are indelibly marked by black flags, riots, roadblocks, rumour and the fear and anger arising from such events, I can only applaud a TL that offers an alternative path to that my homeland trod.
The potential loss of the cultural products of the Troubles are a small price to pay.
Hope the Stiff Little Fingers still form in this Alternative Ulster, though.
The cultural effects in the wider UK are almost as far-reaching.
It may be considered hyperbole to say that Northern Ireland was Britain's <Verbotten> but I feel it has some truth.
At least in so far as the effects it had on the cultural psyche of the UK goes.
Thank you, Brainbin.
Falkenburg
Massive effects from this - a large amount of UK policing policy was in reaction to the NI escalation.
Thande
Donor
An excellent, thorough and plausible appendix, Brainbin.
I just have a couple of minor corrections:
Firstly, the word "caucus" is not used in British politics; we rarely talk about the concept at all, but when we do, we say "parliamentary party". I have had to talk to Drew of "Fear, Loathing and Gumbo" about this one as well: the reason I mention it is it just looks so alien to British eyes to see the word used in connexion with British politics because it is thought of as being so emblematic of American politics to us.
Secondly, when you talk about Plaid Cymru: "Scots" is just the word used for the English dialect spoken in Scotland (which some Scots claim as a separate Germanic language, but even if one agrees with them it's certainly very close to English--but that's not the point) and should not be confused with "Scots Gaelic" which is the Scottish variety of the Celtic Gaelic language which is only spoken by a small minority.
Other than those points, excellent work!
I just have a couple of minor corrections:
Firstly, the word "caucus" is not used in British politics; we rarely talk about the concept at all, but when we do, we say "parliamentary party". I have had to talk to Drew of "Fear, Loathing and Gumbo" about this one as well: the reason I mention it is it just looks so alien to British eyes to see the word used in connexion with British politics because it is thought of as being so emblematic of American politics to us.
Secondly, when you talk about Plaid Cymru: "Scots" is just the word used for the English dialect spoken in Scotland (which some Scots claim as a separate Germanic language, but even if one agrees with them it's certainly very close to English--but that's not the point) and should not be confused with "Scots Gaelic" which is the Scottish variety of the Celtic Gaelic language which is only spoken by a small minority.
Other than those points, excellent work!
Thande
Donor
You're probably right although it depends on the specific issue that causes the voters to switch their allegiance. The Labour Right tended to be closer to the Liberals on things like Europe and economics (hence the SDP-Liberal Alliance in OTL) but since Jo Grimond led them, the Liberals had been strongly pro-nuclear disarmament, and I could see some Labour lefties being discontented with how Labour had been in power for a decade yet Wilson had continued the Tories' defence policies.
Thank you, everyone, for your responses to this latest update! It was something different for me, and I'm glad that it went over so well. And who knows? It might have been good practice for whatever I plan on writing once I'm finished with That Wacky Redhead! (At my present rate, that will be about a year from now). But I'm getting way ahead of myself there. Thanks so much for 85,000 views, and without further delay, my responses to your thoughtful comments!
The next "update" will be our customary look at More To Come... so until then!
That's actually a very insightful question. As anyone who has been around a smoker knows, it's much easier to dissuade people from starting than it is to convince people to quit. So, what influences do young people have in the early 1970s ITTL? Astronauts immediately come to mind, and they need to be in peak physical condition in order to do their jobs (in other words, there are very few smokers among their ranks). With that in mind, I'm willing to predict that smoking should be somewhat less popular ITTL (though recessionary times and retro nostalgia might bump it back up again in the mid-1970s). Drinking and driving, I imagine, would be about par (also remember that, at the time, it was explicitly drunk driving that was discouraged - merely imbibing enough to get a buzz was generally considered acceptable).
Agreed. Saving Holly and Valens is ridiculously easy, as long as the POD is set early enough (as in Monday, February 2, 1959, the day before the crash).phx1138 said:IDK. If it's credible... A different career path that keeps a performer from being at a particular place & time, where he died OTL, can easily mean he lives ATL. Even as small a thing as a different tour promoter can save lives: had the promoter been different, Buddy Holly & Ritchie Valens would never have been aboard that B.18. (Or, at least, I think it was a B.18.
Funny you should say that - a good deal of the songs on the Seeking Major Tom album that were performed "ironically" by Shatner IOTL would very likely be among those performed "straight" on his albums ITTL, and some forty years earlier, to boot. Don't forget that this little gem is the Official Theme Song of That Wacky Redhead
That's an interesting line of thinking, though you may want to bear in mind that the film was released in 1979 IOTL, and may not come into existence ITTL. Whether Lemmon or Fonda would be cast is another question entirely, because casting is one of the last major decisions of pre-production, unless it's explicitly a star vehicle.
They will, though it will probably be up there with "Star Wars" IOTL for ridiculous but theoretically feasible (once technology catches up with theory) ideas.Richter10 said:Fair enough. If people just consider it seriously it will be enough
I'll be honest - saving Doctor Who was enough of a challenge. The other old programs would be too much of a reach, I'm afraid.
I find it hard to believe that anything (except for aging, of course, which finally did the trick IOTL) could kill her career, considering what she came back from IOTL.
Production executives are notoriously short-sighted. This is how Desilu emerged as a major player in the 1950s, off the back of I Love Lucy reruns; and how, in the 1970s IOTL, a maverick filmmaker was able to create one of the greatest multimedia empires ever seen off the back of merchandising revenues from some little kiddie sci-fi movie.
What I personally find more prescient is his fear of all the "hideous and bad music" that may be "put on record for ever". If only he knew how right he was...
Thank you, vultan! It was a challenging - but fun - exercise, looking at the same era from three different viewpoints.
On the other hand, due to their greatly diminished focus on the South, the Republicans will find themselves working much harder to shore up their vote in more traditional regions: New England, the West, and the Mid-Atlantic states especially. And those Southern states you mention do represent areas of potential growth.vultan said:
For obvious reasons, I have reservations about revisiting Southeast Asia, but I think that the late 1970s are going to be lots of fun on the foreign policy frontvultan said:
I always love it when people quote my slogans back at me, so thank you for thatvultan said:Interesting developments- all on account of one Wacky Redhead!
Alabama! The hotbed of the American Party. If any state desperately needs rehabilitation in the public eye ITTL, that would be the one. Neil Young would still write "Alabama" and "Southern Man", no question about it; and, therefore, Lynyrd Skynyrd (who, going back to our earlier discussion about lifespan butterflies, will obviously not see its membership decimated in a plane crash ITTL) would write "Sweet Home Alabama" in response.
Having read the verse in particular, I'm willing to declare that it would be reworked to emphasize that they do not support Wallace's segregationist views; their ambiguity on the subject within the OTL lyric was the cause of some controversy. Perhaps a reference to federal troops forcing desegregation?vultan said:
Welcome aboard, Fardell! Although I did have information on Australia (the fourth-largest economy in the Anglosphere, after all) in my draft notes, they were lost as the update took shape. Worth noting: as the federal election of 1972 was largely fought on the issue of the... cross-archipelago quagmire IOTL, and since its premature resolution ITTL ended the drain on manpower and materiel, thus bolstering the Australian economy in the early 1970s (making it stronger, in relative terms, than any other country in the First World except for the USA); the incumbent Coalition government was thus re-elected ITTL (which bolstered Commonwealth trade talks with Wilson and Stanfield in 1973), only to suffer a major defeat in the subsequent general election, held after the Oil Crisis. I'm not sure whether Whitlam would remain Labor leader ITTL, after his second defeat in 1972, so I won't say who is PM. As for New Zealand? Holyoake retires in 1972 but the Nationals are not successful in retaining power, so Norman Kirk and Labour replace them, only for Kirk to die on schedule in 1974, with Labour turfed out of office in the 1975 election. Bear in mind that these are based on my notes and are not as thoroughly researched as for the other countries, so please feel free to challenge anything if you find it implausible.
Thank you, and yes, that was an unfortunate typo which has now been corrected
Absolutely. In fact, they are working to admit Ireland to the organization as well, as a compensatory gesture for essentially sabotaging their attempt to join the EEC (and with Denmark gone, they carry more weight within the organization - though they were already the big fish anyway). Worth noting, of course, is that joining the EEC would irreparably damage trade relations with the Commonwealth (as it did IOTL), whereas the EFTA allows its members to have complete control over external trade relations.NCW8 said:
That's definitely something to bear in mind when we revisit British television later in the decade.NCW8 said:
You're welcome, Falkenburg. And thank you, because your reaction was naturally one of the most pivotal in response to this latest update. I wanted to get rid of Bloody Sunday for all of the obvious reasons, and Roy Mason was suggested to me as the primary agent responsible for those butterflies. One cabinet shuffle later, there we have it! We're also treated to the delicious irony of nationalists within Northern Ireland generally being happier with the British government than citizens of the actual Republic, which pleases my literary instincts. And, of course, violence will be decried by both sides, with direct rule seen as an undesirable - but necessary, tolerable, and temporary - compromise. As with the overseas quagmire and Watergate, we do lose all of the art produced in response, including - should four certain Irish kids ever decide to form a band, which they may or may not ITTL - one particular song, written in protest of sectarian violence; the most defiant performance of which can be found here.The cultural effects in the wider UK are almost as far-reaching.
It may be considered hyperbole to say that Northern Ireland was Britain's <Verbotten> but I feel it has some truth.
At least in so far as the effects it had on the cultural psyche of the UK goes.
Thank you, Brainbin.
Thank you, Professor
These are all very plausible scenarios, and their likelihood will become more clear as we move ahead.The Professor said:
Something that bears further investigation, so thank you for that reminder.The Professor said:
Thank you, Thande
Always the problem with Canadian politics; most of our terminology is British, but every now and again, an American word sneaks its way in there (we also use "Dean" instead of "Father" of the House, for example, and we're likelier to say "districts" instead of "constituencies" - when we don't say "ridings"). I've removed the term from the British section of the update. I don't even care for it, myself; it's just a very handy term to differentiate between a party in general and its legislative representation, specifically.Thande said:
I was intending to refer to both the Germanic tongue and the Celtic language, so I've clarified that point; which is that a Standard Scottish English name is used, instead of a Scots one or a Gaelic one (in contrast to the Welsh nationalists, and even the Cornish regionalists, despite the fact that they're using a dead language).Thande said:
Well, thank you again for your help!Thande said:
The next "update" will be our customary look at More To Come... so until then!
Excellent work, as usual. (Does hearing that get old?)
)
(I demand a retcon.)
I don't suppose they'd reuse Warrior? (Too militant for Canada in peacetime?)
Seriously?
A peaceful Ulster? Who'd have thought? I like this one.
(And more than half the convoys were escorted by RCN.)
I'm liking this TL more & more.
(for which he earned a Nobel Peace Prize), Canadian peacekeepers remain there today, too. (Tho, for them, much less. ()
Thanks to both of you.
So, both one of my favorite songs ("Sweet Home Alabama") & a great band are preserved. Thanx.
Rockefeller has me thinking: what happens with Spiro Agnew & the IRS? (Or was it still IRB, then?)
As an aside, do you have an opinion on using "black" even if the period term would have been "Negro"? Does anyone?
(Does hearing that get old?)Can I take as given the World Cup Rally still happens? (If not, you've butterflied a really good Ken Vose murder mystery involving it...Brainbin said:
)For those of us not fans of soccer, can you explain how they won TTL? Simply more scoring (as mentioned)?Brainbin said:
Please, please: she.Brainbin said:
(I demand a retcon.)I find myself not believing that.Brainbin said:
I don't suppose they'd reuse Warrior? (Too militant for Canada in peacetime?)Brainbin said:
Seriously?Brainbin said:
A peaceful Ulster? Who'd have thought? I like this one.Brainbin said:
(And more than half the convoys were escorted by RCN.)Brainbin said:
I'm liking this TL more & more.Am I reading you right thinking this is the Foreign Investment Review Agency, or something like it? (Am I also right GATT isn't affected, as pre-POD?)Brainbin said:
And, following a model proposed by Borden in '56 after SuezBrainbin said:
(for which he earned a Nobel Peace Prize), Canadian peacekeepers remain there today, too. (Tho, for them, much less. ()I like this one, too.Brainbin said:
Thanks to both of you.I was thinking of the movies, actually. Apparently, a change in the number of smokers in them changes the number of kids who start. And it's really the coolness plus peer pressure that causes kids to start. (Both my parents smoked...)Brainbin said:
Brainbin said:
So, both one of my favorite songs ("Sweet Home Alabama") & a great band are preserved. Thanx.Rockefeller has me thinking: what happens with Spiro Agnew & the IRS? (Or was it still IRB, then?
)As an aside, do you have an opinion on using "black" even if the period term would have been "Negro"? Does anyone?
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Equity was trying to act in the interest of all of its members, not just those who happened to star in popular shows. To put it simply, if the BBC were allowed to keep on repeating Hartnell's Dr Who episodes, there would be less work for Troughten, Pertwee etc
More seriously, as Brainbin says, tv is a zero sum game. If there are more reruns then fewer original programmes are made. This is the upside of the Equity restrictions - they forced the BBC and ITV to make new programmes rather than rely on repeats.Cheers,
Nigel.
Glen
Moderator
Equity was trying to act in the interest of all of its members, not just those who happened to star in popular shows. To put it simply, if the BBC were allowed to keep on repeating Hartnell's Dr Who episodes, there would be less work for Troughten, Pertwee etc
Cheers,
Nigel.
That was probably their thought, but like so many things that were well-intentioned, the actual unintended consequences were less than optimal.
I am personally most interested in the US developments. I am happy to see a Republican Party that had not made the Faustian bargain of the Southern strategy, winning an election at the cost of their soul. OTL, they thought they could take over the South, and discovered that the South had taken over them.
The purge of older show from the BBC archieve did not start till 1973. Since Doctor is airing current episode on US Television, it not unlikley that the eairiler season would be synicated to US networks. I suspect that since Science fiction is more popular in this Timeline that some of the other British Scifi show that were trashed in OTL would also be synicated and there fore save. The two that are most likley are Doomwatch and Out of the Unknown.
If the BBC see that they can still make money off of their older shows, it likley that the purge would be lessen or even stop before it happen.