Recent content by Comisario

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery Liberal 1898-1910 When Lord Rosebery passed on the 21st May 1929, it was his long-time protégé and friend, Winston Churchill, who gave him his most famous epitaph and etched into history the most lasting summary of his political career: “He did not...

Arthur Balfour Conservative 1895-1898 Balfour’s ascension to the premiership was a foregone conclusion by 1891. It was only a matter of time (excluding the possible intervention of an erratic and excitable Chamberlain) before he would take his uncle’s place at 10 Downing Street and follow in...

I think that approach would have stayed the same, personally. Never been too keen on Robert Taylor’s interpretation - I think Salisbury was a good diplomat but was also, as anyone, prone to biases, personal faults, and well-established working practices (i.e. temperamental sluggishness). There...

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury Conservative 1886-1895 From 1886 to 1895, it would have been perfectly reasonable to call Lord Salisbury the most powerful man in the world. He was chief minister of the largest empire on Earth, the patriarch of its greatest political party...

The 1892 general election is not a famous election. It is not 1945 or 1979 or 1997. It broke no moulds, launched few careers, and merely followed the pattern of Liberal-Conservative alternation that had gone on for years. The Victorian duopoly continued, unchecked and unabated by the rise and...

Hello! Life got ahead of me in the weeks and months after I said I would revive it, so I was never able to do so. Given the free time so much of us have right now, I could potentially bring it back. I have another Italian alternate history project in the works too, so I could end up posting...

Gaitskell wasn't really much of a Eurosceptic and much of the scholarship on the issue has overplayed the extent to which he was anti-EEC. In reality, he was far more worried about the issue of Europe as a factional, internal difficulty that had to be overcome. Because he couldn't force the...

Churchill Retires in 1950 What if Winston Churchill retired after the 1945 Conservative defeat? 1945: Clement Attlee (Labour) [1] 1950: Anthony Eden (Conservative) [2] 1957: Harold Macmillan (Conservative) [3] 1960: Nye Bevan (Labour) [4] 1961: Richard Crossman (Labour) [5] 1964: Richard...

It’s your post, after all, and both of them could have been in that position.

I don’t mean to police anyone’s fun, but I like my list games to include details as to how the new PMs come about when there are major constitutional issues (such as the fact that peerages could not be disclaimed until 1963).

He couldn’t, though. He inherited his peerage.

‘Property-owning’, not ‘land-owning’, just FYI. Also, you’d need to explain how a member of the Lords would be allowed to be PM at this point (as Alec was only considered in the aftermath of the Peerages Act 1963 IOTL).

Churchill Retires in 1950 What if Winston Churchill retired after the 1945 Conservative defeat? 1945: Clement Attlee (Labour) [1] 1950: Anthony Eden (Conservative) [2] [1] The surprising victory of the Labour Party in the 1950 election would lead to the creation of the welfare state and the...

Very long hiatus due to university and work, but likely to be revived in the next month or so.