"The Commonwealth of Britain" - Republican UK Wikibox TL
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APNI have shifted the balance though
Well OTl Naomi Long did Pip them for the European seat. Here it looks like they have taken a bigger bite out of the UUP and SDLP and SF has lost a few conservative Nationalists..
The Alliance have surged in this timeline, narrowly winning the Premiership in 2019, Sinn Fein has been held back by voter fatigue after ten years holding the Premiership, and they saw their Conservative wing spilt away to form Aontu
These comments are fair but coalitions are a lot more "the norm" then OTL due to Commonwealth politics more pluralistic, considering the last three years in Scotland have been chaos after the 2017 election, many in the SNP are happy just to have a stable nationalist majority, even if they do have to give up the Environment Department.
As for Wales, there are several smaller anti-devolution parties around England (the most notable being the English Democrats and UKIP), Abolish was founded in 2015 by UKIP defectors after UKIP's central London office imposed Neil Hamilton at the top of their electoral list, ignoring the vote of the membership. It's essentially a Monarchist diet UKIP option for those who are anti-Farage
Epilogue Articles: The Commonwealth of Nations
The Other Commonwealth
By Jeremy Cliffe
The Commonwealth of Nations has seen quite an upheaval in 20 years, it's main figurehead and much of its global brand and identity has greatly diminished, now the organisation needs to find a new role.
Despite a rocky start, British relations with the Commonwealth of Nations remain good. The Monarchy remains a nuisance in the Canada/Britain relation but little else, Australia followed Britain into the realm of republicanism, and despite Windsor's exile the bonds between Commonwealth nations remain strong.
The Commonwealth is full of strange nooks and corners. The Commonwealth Development Corporation funds commercial investments, (some investments have been criticised by organisations like War on Want for being too commercial), but for cash-strapped businesses in Africa and South, Asia CDC can be a lifeline, committing $2bn of direct funding. Its investments support businesses with over half a million employees.
The Commonwealth is now moving forward into a new modern era, earlier this year Former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, was elected as Elizabeth’s successor as Head of the Commonwealth, defeating challenges from various other global politicians, including former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, former Australian President Robert Hill and former Prime Minister of Barbados Billie Miller.
Known as the “Gandhi of the pacific”, Tong is famed for his global advocacy on climate change. He will become the first non-royal and first BME Head of the Commonwealth, serving for a ten-year term after Elizabeth Windsor’s death. Tong’s election will be seen as proof of the growing power of the global south in the Commonwealth.
Tong has said his priority will be climate change, his home nation of Kiribati has been particularly threatened by rising sea levels and other island nations like Nauru, Tuvalu and Saint Kitts have also been banging the climate drum. Many environmental activists hope Tong’s presidency will mark a turning point.
The Commonwealth is entering uncharted territory when the Queen departs Tong will likely take the organisation in a more interventionist political direction, whilst this might improve the organisation's global standing it could also lead to splits in the organisation, large fossil fuel contributors like Canada and Australia particularly objected to Tong’s election and any centralisation of Commonwealth policy.
Without the strong hand of the Windsors, it is difficult to see how this increasingly different coalition of countries will hold together, internal cracks are already beginning to show. The biggest challenge is expected to come in the initial handover after Elizabeth’s death: “either the Commonwealth’s leadership will pass frictionlessly to Tong, or the whole project will fall apart” said one insider.
- New Statesman, 2020
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Would love to see what The Crown looks like ITTL. Is there the same reaction to it like OTL where it's like a soap opera starring the royal family and people love the glitz and glamour?
The Crown is still on Netflix but its a fair bit more insidious and critical of the Royal Family. However thus far its fairly similar to the OTL Crown in terms of content Season 4 will be the first season to feature Diana and it is set for release at the end of 2020, so the divergence will begin then.
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Yes Netflix sorry, my brain went for a wander and I though the Crown was a BBC show!
Can we get more in depth info on Canada and Australia btw? Just wondering how they're both doing as Republicans, who their leaders are and how they're countries are going
I'm afraid I don't know enough about either country's politics to write a full article on, but I can give you a quick summary.
Canada's still has the Monarchy, with the Queen based in Rideau Hall, it's current Prime Minister is Conservative Peter MacKay, the Leader of the Opposition is the NDP's Charlie Angus (the Liberals never recovered from 2011 and remain the third party).
As for Australia, Former Foreign Secretary Robert Hill was elected President in 2017 by both Houses of Parliament. Anthony Albanese currently serves as Prime Minister.
Both countries are doing fairly similarly to OTL, Canada was more affected by the Prince Andrew scandal, and Peter MacKay was heavily damaged by refusing to extradite Prince Andrew to the US, before u-turning under internal and international pressure.
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Epilogue Articles: The Commonwealth and the EU
What’s the Future of Britain and Europe?
By Jeremy Cliffe
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised an EU referendum as soon as the pandemic is behind us, despite the Liberal Democrats voting against, a referendum bill is likely to pass Parliament thanks to the votes of Green, Brexit Alliance and a large rebellious chunk of Labour MPs. This referendum will represent the Commonwealth’s first major constitutional test since its founding.
Whilst President Miliband doesn’t have the power to veto the bill outright, he can stall, sending it back for an extra reading and proposing amendments, there are ongoing debates within Buckingham on how much time and political capital the President should spend trying to frustrate the push for a referendum. Over 70 Labour MPs have come out either in favour of a referendum, or intending to abstain, if Miliband gets in the way, he could risk splitting his party.
The Commonwealth’s history with Europe has been a sordid one, Tony finally acquired his Presidential crown in 1999, putting him on par with Jacques Chirac and Romano Prodi. Blair’s europhillia was so well known, there were rumours he would make a bid for Commission President. This never materialised, instead he used his Presidential pulpit to push for further integration with Europe, culminating in a referendum on the Euro which ultimately sank his Presidency and led to Michael Howard claiming Buckingham.
Howard promptly pulled the handbrake on European integration and sped into reverse, causing no end of headaches for Brussels. None of his three Prime Ministers, (Gordon Brown, George Osborne and Ed Balls), were enthused enough about Europe to spend political capital fighting him, nor did Howard have the mandate to affect major change, this led to Britain becoming an annoyance in Brussels and little else.
This would bubble to the surface when in 2012, President Howard vetoed the EU’s Fiscal Compact, throwing Britain and the EU into crisis. The veto divided both parties and almost led to the collapse of Balls’ traffic light coalition, eventually, Balls allowed a free vote on overriding Howard’s veto, with Labour and the Lib Dems voting in favour of an override and the Greens against, with the help of Europhile Tory rebels Howard’s veto was narrowly stopped and the EU was saved.
With Ed Miliband's ascension into Buckingham, Britain cautious return to integration and engaging constructively with the EU, Miliband has certainly flexed his muscles in Brussels and EU President and fellow climate wonk Frans Timmermans owes his job at least partly to Miliband’s influence and his caucus of Labour MEPs.
Timmermans isn’t the only friend Miliband has made on the EU stage, he is particularly close with German Chancellor Martin Schulz, who also shares a passion for Green politics, however, it’s not all smooth sailing as he has clashed with populist leaders in Eastern Europe such as Poland’s Andrzej Duda and Hungary’s Viktor Orban, as the EU’s dividing lines increasingly come between liberals and populists, Miliband has been one of the leading voices of liberal Europe. With the rise of Rishi Sunak could see Britain quickly change sides or withdraw from the battle altogether.
- New Statesman, 2020
Yes the Conservatives had seen a collapse in the polls in late 2019/early 2020 due to the Prince Andrew affair (some polls even showed them coming third behind the Liberals) however the pandemic has created a rally round the flag effect which has allowed the Conservatives to pick back up, they're still likely to lose to the NDP, but they are now in with a chance and they're no longer in danger of extinction.
Yeah, I’m sorry, I read “leader of Liberals” instead “leader of NDP”, my mistake.
Alan Juppe, first elected in 2012, was re-elected in 2017 defeating Le Pen, Macron remains a little-known municipal legislator in Amiens.
If so, Socialists could stay as the major progressive party or be replaced by the Greens (maybe inspired by greater success of the British Greens). In both cases Anne Hidalgo (if elected Paris’ Mayor as IOTL) or Yannick Jadot could be the frontrunner for 2022 election. IOTL it was offered to Macron a high position in Fillon’s staff, he could end making career among Republicans instead Socialists. If not, Michel Barnier (maybe replacing Fillon as Prime Minister after his scandals came out?), Rachid Dati and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet can be the center-right candidate. With Mélenchon and LePen running as well, it could an interesting election.