alternatehistory.com
Afterwords
This timeline was something of a passion project for me, and was something I had been wanting to do for a fairly long time. There were a variety of reasons I put off doing it until the end of the year; I wanted to do other things first, things that have mostly regrettably fizzled out (such as The Universal Prime Minister), however the initial idea stayed with me for a long time, though a blistering summer and into a rather bitter winter. There have been delays in beginning this, mainly stemming from reasons pertaining to my University courses and more personal matters, however with two weeks I felt I could get this done. Again, it took a few days over two weeks, but hey ho.
If you'll allow me to indulge for a moment, I'll share the metamorphose of the TL and certain things that were cut. This will probably be a bit rambley and unfocused, but I thought it might be interesting. The timeline first emerged around May of last year, shortly before I left University for the holidays. It was, in its initial form, 'what if Menzies got his seat early and ran in '88?', though by June or July had evolved into 'what if Ashdown had been killed'. In August, I would post a What If on the topic that got... some less than satisfactory replies. I did however make a list on the topic that got some encouraging responses, and leads us straight to the TL you've just read following four months of gestation and research.
Fundamentally it is a TL that is saving Menzies Campbell from the scrappy heap; a fairly underused figure, I felt that there should be at least one story on this site where he did well. Everything else after is the aftershocks of this- a later Kennedy, the right of the party having a different champion, that sort of stuff. I did plan on the TL going a certain way, and had my skills been up to scratch on the day I made his portrait, Alan Beith would have been an entry. Campbell himself was meant to go on until 2006- it was only after learning about his 2002 cancer diagnosis I decided to end him on a 'happy' juncture. Kennedy perhaps had the most changes from the initial plan, which prominently called on him to be sober and more religious (traces of this can still be found, of course). It was unrealistic, given the mans actual personality and problems, hence the more mixed figure we see here. A major change in the second half of Kennedy's part was the Great Recession. In a version of this where I wasn't anxious about time restraint, the Great Recession would have spiralled out of control with McCain denying a stimulus package, leading to unimaginable economic strife on levels greater than that of the Great Depression in 2011. I decided to cut this, as it was taking to long to explain and ultimately I felt it was gratuitous. The 2011 elections and 'last rights of New Labour' were lifted directly from a Wikibox based on that original list.
Beyond that, Laws and Featherstone were pretty much how they were planned. I have issues with Laws' update, as I feel there's a fair bit of 'in spite of a nail' regarding the scandals, and maybe killing Huhne was a bit too much. As noted in that list, Brake was meant to take Moore and Lamb's place, but when actually doing the final prep work, I decided to change it for reasons that I recall justifying to myself as 'yeah but they're more interesting'. The decision to end on Scotland leaving the Union was decided on a whim, admittedly, and inspired by the proverb 'For Want of a Nail' (and maybe a recent political thing you may have seen on the news).
So yes, Beneath an Amber Moon. I may come back to it, maybe play on 'full economic collapse' when I have the time, but for now I'm going to rest and look onwards to the next annual TLIA* and get around to updating my regular TL. An Israel in Scotland, PM Airey Neave, Fascist Supermac, perhaps even dip my toe into other countries politics and do something about Putin. Whatever comes next, I'm happy to have been able to do this, and happy that it's finished.
And most of all, I hope you enjoyed it.
-shiftygiant
Afterwords
So, Beneath an Amber Moon. Regrettably, it took a over a fortnight, but we got there in the end. Certinaly one of the more enjoyable projects I've worked on, and one I am happy to have finished. To answer a pressing question first, the gimmick of the TL is simply the premise- that this is a TLAI* where the focus is on the Leader of a third Party. That is underwhelming, I'll admit, but I felt adding something else to it- like a deck shuffling- would have been a bit needless.This timeline was something of a passion project for me, and was something I had been wanting to do for a fairly long time. There were a variety of reasons I put off doing it until the end of the year; I wanted to do other things first, things that have mostly regrettably fizzled out (such as The Universal Prime Minister), however the initial idea stayed with me for a long time, though a blistering summer and into a rather bitter winter. There have been delays in beginning this, mainly stemming from reasons pertaining to my University courses and more personal matters, however with two weeks I felt I could get this done. Again, it took a few days over two weeks, but hey ho.
If you'll allow me to indulge for a moment, I'll share the metamorphose of the TL and certain things that were cut. This will probably be a bit rambley and unfocused, but I thought it might be interesting. The timeline first emerged around May of last year, shortly before I left University for the holidays. It was, in its initial form, 'what if Menzies got his seat early and ran in '88?', though by June or July had evolved into 'what if Ashdown had been killed'. In August, I would post a What If on the topic that got... some less than satisfactory replies. I did however make a list on the topic that got some encouraging responses, and leads us straight to the TL you've just read following four months of gestation and research.
Fundamentally it is a TL that is saving Menzies Campbell from the scrappy heap; a fairly underused figure, I felt that there should be at least one story on this site where he did well. Everything else after is the aftershocks of this- a later Kennedy, the right of the party having a different champion, that sort of stuff. I did plan on the TL going a certain way, and had my skills been up to scratch on the day I made his portrait, Alan Beith would have been an entry. Campbell himself was meant to go on until 2006- it was only after learning about his 2002 cancer diagnosis I decided to end him on a 'happy' juncture. Kennedy perhaps had the most changes from the initial plan, which prominently called on him to be sober and more religious (traces of this can still be found, of course). It was unrealistic, given the mans actual personality and problems, hence the more mixed figure we see here. A major change in the second half of Kennedy's part was the Great Recession. In a version of this where I wasn't anxious about time restraint, the Great Recession would have spiralled out of control with McCain denying a stimulus package, leading to unimaginable economic strife on levels greater than that of the Great Depression in 2011. I decided to cut this, as it was taking to long to explain and ultimately I felt it was gratuitous. The 2011 elections and 'last rights of New Labour' were lifted directly from a Wikibox based on that original list.
Beyond that, Laws and Featherstone were pretty much how they were planned. I have issues with Laws' update, as I feel there's a fair bit of 'in spite of a nail' regarding the scandals, and maybe killing Huhne was a bit too much. As noted in that list, Brake was meant to take Moore and Lamb's place, but when actually doing the final prep work, I decided to change it for reasons that I recall justifying to myself as 'yeah but they're more interesting'. The decision to end on Scotland leaving the Union was decided on a whim, admittedly, and inspired by the proverb 'For Want of a Nail' (and maybe a recent political thing you may have seen on the news).
So yes, Beneath an Amber Moon. I may come back to it, maybe play on 'full economic collapse' when I have the time, but for now I'm going to rest and look onwards to the next annual TLIA* and get around to updating my regular TL. An Israel in Scotland, PM Airey Neave, Fascist Supermac, perhaps even dip my toe into other countries politics and do something about Putin. Whatever comes next, I'm happy to have been able to do this, and happy that it's finished.
And most of all, I hope you enjoyed it.
-shiftygiant
=+=
- shiftygiant
- Word Count: 840