Recent content by Will Ritson

The introduction of professionalism has nothing to do with the formation of the NFL, and everything to do with whether players received payments or not, which was already commonplace for two decades prior. The outlawing of the sport was the point of the original posting.

Not a great lot. Probably gives rugby league a greater foothold in north Manchester and Salford, but given the endemic parochialism of rugby league administrators, it won't prevent Manchester becoming a predominantly soccer city by 1920 and I'd imagine a different Mancunian club would fill the void.

Having US involvement from the 1900s would certainly strengthen the international side of rugby league. However, butterflies ignored, I don't think they'd hold much sway over preventing the Vichy regime from banning rugby league and redistributing its assets.

American football was already professional at this time. If rugby as a sport was to thrive, it would be the League code due to the strict amateurism of the RFU, essentially the governing body of the Union code at the time. Under no circumstances would they tolerate the paying of players...

At a guess, Tory minority administration with UU/DUP support, followed by an autumn General Election where the Alliance return to their constituencies and prepare for government.

Apologies for the lack of recent updates on this tale. The next one will be coming soon, but I've reached the point during Election '15 where I need to start doing some serious number crunching for Cumbria's results...

It's the Cumberland flag, which in recent years (certainly not as early as 2001 though) has fallen into common usage as a Cumbria flag, particularly in Westmorland, but also to a lesser extent in North Lonsdale.

Labour are getting punished, but the drops aren't that much bigger than OTL, and these certainly don't represent any national trend. The picture is a little more complex. The Cumbria Party is picking up votes from a small number of Labour, a small number of Tories and a number of voters who...

D'ye ken John Peel? IV :: Yan, Taen, Tedderte, Medderte... ----- United Kingdom General Election Thursday, 21st June, 2001 Barrow and Furness LAB John Hutton 19,964 (50.2%) (-7.1) CON James Airey 11,642 (29.3%) (+2.1) LDEM Barry Rabone 5,243 (13.2%) (+4.3 ) CUMB Michael Swarbrick 2,379 (6.0%)...

D'ye ken John Peel? III :: An we follot John Peel beath oft an' far / Ower rasper fence and yett an' bar / Frea low Dentonholm up to Scratchmere Scaur / When we vied for the brush in the mwornin ----- Friday 8th May 2015 :: BBC Election '15 Just before 2.15am Andrew Neil: I'm joined here on...

Thanks, appreciate that! It's not so much Cumbric, which was the Celtic language spoken in parts of Cumbria until as late as perhaps 1200, but more Cumbrian dialect which is English with a plentiful selection of Old Norse derivatives. In a lot of ways it's comparable to Scots, so if there are...

Thank you, and correct, the cycle is slightly different. The PoD is the fuel protests of autumn 2000. We've still got a UK General Election in 2001 though, and that'll be coming in in update #4. Scottish, Welsh and NI elections wouldn't clash with a UK election, hence why the dates are slightly...

Thanks for the feedback. I've wanted to do this TL for quite a long time. It'll only be about 5 or 6 updates in total, so hopefully have it finished in a couple of weeks.

D'ye ken John Peel? II :: Yes I kenn'd them aw an' morny things mair / An' could tell sec teayles as to meayke yen stare / How we ran down foxes and of'ns hare / Erte the hoar left the hills in a mwornin ----- Friday 8th May 2015 :: BBC Election '15 Shortly after 12.30am David Dimbleby: And...

D'ye ken John Peel? I :: D'ye ken John Peel wid his cwote sae grey? / D'ye ken John Peel at the breck o' day? / D'ye ken John Peel gayin' far, far away / Wi his hoons and his horn in a mwornin? ----- Thursday 7th May 2015 :: BBC Election '15 David Dimbleby: Welcome to the BBC's election...