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Lilac - Made Glorious
A foreword - with great reluctance I've decided not to carry on my timeline Made Glorious - I don't think I'm well-versed enough in the policy to do justice to what a 2nd Home ministry (or a Jay ministry) would really look like - but readers do at least deserve a summary of the rough course of events I had planned out.
Made Glorious
1964-1965: Harold Wilson (Labour)[1]
1964: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1965-1967: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)[2]
1965: Harold Wilson (Labour), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1967-1967: Duncan Sandys (Conservative)[3]
1967-1967: Peter Thomas (Conservative)[4]
1967-1972: Douglas Jay (Labour)[5]
1967: Peter Thomas (Conservative), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)[6]
1971: Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal), Keith Joseph (Conservative)[7]
1972-1976: Niall MacDermot (Labour)
1976-1980: John Jackson Mackay (Liberal)[8]
1976: Niall MacDermot (Labour), William Whitelaw (Conservative)
1980-: John Smith (Labour)
1980: John Jackson Mackay (Liberal), Nicholas Scott (Conservative)
[1] Wilson's government only lasts for a few months - after losing by-elections in Leyton and Bosworth in quick succession (the latter to a surging Liberal Party) - Wilson's forced to go to the country and in an election upset, Douglas-Home (very narrowly) gets into office with a majority of 8. Wilson - only the third Labour Prime Minister ever, returns to opposition with a dispirited party. Jo Grimond's reaction is more mixed - the spike in the Liberal vote gave them 19 more seats - but lost them the balance of power.
[2] Alec Douglas-Home had never expected to return to 10 Downing Street - his leadership of the Conservative Party had pretty clearly been winding down before the unexpected election victory, and Maudling and Heath especially can barely restrain their impatience with the old man as he totters through negotiations with Rhodesia. Luckily for Home, the opposition is in no condition to fight back. The Liberals are going through a boisterous leadership contest to succeed Grimond - Jeremy Thorpe narrowly emerges over several disappointed tribunes of the right of the party - and Labour itself shockingly deposes Harold Wilson that autumn, spurred on by his disastrous time in government and a humiliating Liberal gain at Falmouth and Camborne just weeks before. Home's government drags on, on through assasinations, coups, economics ups and downs - and in a decade of widespread social change, the Unionist former fourteenth Earl finds himself little more than a relic. By 1967 Home's majority is nearly gone - and then so is he.
[3] Home's Foreign Secretary grabs the premiership in the Magic Circle's last hurrah - and barely lasts two months, undone by sex-scandal allegations, his own medieval ideas on Africa - and a dithering Ted Heath's ultimate decision to quit the Cabinet, followed by Macleod and Maudling. Sandys at least has the grace to know when to go.
[4] Peter Thomas was at least vaguely a compromise pick - one of the few modernizers to stay on in the chaotic Sandys' Cabinet, not associated with the erratic foreign policy - and Epworth was certainly a far cry from Eton. But the charming Welshman was at the top of a profoundly divided party, had risen too far too fast, and with the exception of the Wilson interlude, the Conservatives had been in power for 16 years. People were simply tired of them - and although Thomas tried to bluff it out to the end of the year on a majority of two - the resulting election was a bloodbath.
[5] The winner of course was Labour's thoroughly unexpected new leader - Douglas Jay. In 65 Callaghan had backed down at the last minute - unwilling to risk a challenge against Wilson. Gordon-Walker had been a contender, once, - but losing Smethwick and then Leyton had gone a long way in tarnishing his image. That left an unlikely challenger - the former President of the Board of Trade, a long-time Gaitskellite, and one of the few men who disliked Wilson enough to embark on a futile-looking mission. But then Falmouth and Camborne dropped the party's confidence in Wilson to a new low and brought back all those nasty old memories of Wilson's would-be negotiations with Mr. Grimond - and Jay scraped by with a hair.
And two years later, the clever, prickly man known for 'Whitehall knows best' - still won a majority of 211. Jay was moderate and effective - and the Conservatives were tired, behind the times, and jumping from Home to Sandys to Thomas, politically incoherent.
Finally Labour was not just in office but in power - Jay, MacDermot, and Jenkins reformed policy in almost every area - and aside from sticky relations with Europe and a neutral economy, Douglas Jay had a lot to be smug about - even more so when he won an almost as large majority in 1971. But a deteriorating marriage and pressure for a younger leader led him to step down the next year, in favor of his wickedly smart Chancellor.
[6] Jeremy Thorpe positioned himself as the 'true center' and cut a better figure than bureaucratic Jay or unsteady Thomas - and it paid off in the voting booth when little over a quarter of the electorate voted Liberal - putting the party second in overall votes for the first time since 1910. Filtered through FPTP that was still a solid 51 seats - many of them cored out of Conservative heartland.
[7] Peter Thomas lost his own seat of Conwy by a large margin in 1967, Heath was wiped out as well - and a reluctant Reggie Maudling took the reins of the Conservative Party, and almost immediately did the necessary thing - instituted a democratic process to select the leader. The days of Macmillan, Home, and Sandys were over, from now on the membership would choose - and they turned around and chose Iain Macleod for leader, by a wide margin. Keith Joseph himself handily won the newly created position of deputy leader. Macleod championed the party at every turn - generally got the better of the government - and worked himself too hard. He passed away unexpectedly in 1970 - and Joseph failed miserably to fill his shoes in the half a year he had. Come 1971, and the Conservatives sank and the Liberals gained, again - and this time the seats fell in swathes. A gleeful Thorpe was the Official Opposition - and 41 Conservatives were left.
[8] What's left to relate? Thorpe had defeated the Conservatives in their old strongholds, butted heads against Labour - and now had a parliamentary party and Shadow Cabinet considerably to the right of him - Shadow Foreign Secretary Noel Kemp wielded the knife - and John MacKay inherited the throne. And as MacDermot presided over union troubles and a less than booming economy - the wildly popular MP from Argyll savaged the government and suggested that, just maybe - economic liberalism was the alternative. Soft Conservative support flocked to the man who looked like he could finally beat Labour and MacKay did - all of it. Well - some of it. But the Liberals were going to stick around.
Made Glorious
1964-1965: Harold Wilson (Labour)[1]
1964: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1965-1967: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)[2]
1965: Harold Wilson (Labour), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1967-1967: Duncan Sandys (Conservative)[3]
1967-1967: Peter Thomas (Conservative)[4]
1967-1972: Douglas Jay (Labour)[5]
1967: Peter Thomas (Conservative), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)[6]
1971: Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal), Keith Joseph (Conservative)[7]
1972-1976: Niall MacDermot (Labour)
1976-1980: John Jackson Mackay (Liberal)[8]
1976: Niall MacDermot (Labour), William Whitelaw (Conservative)
1980-: John Smith (Labour)
1980: John Jackson Mackay (Liberal), Nicholas Scott (Conservative)
[1] Wilson's government only lasts for a few months - after losing by-elections in Leyton and Bosworth in quick succession (the latter to a surging Liberal Party) - Wilson's forced to go to the country and in an election upset, Douglas-Home (very narrowly) gets into office with a majority of 8. Wilson - only the third Labour Prime Minister ever, returns to opposition with a dispirited party. Jo Grimond's reaction is more mixed - the spike in the Liberal vote gave them 19 more seats - but lost them the balance of power.
[2] Alec Douglas-Home had never expected to return to 10 Downing Street - his leadership of the Conservative Party had pretty clearly been winding down before the unexpected election victory, and Maudling and Heath especially can barely restrain their impatience with the old man as he totters through negotiations with Rhodesia. Luckily for Home, the opposition is in no condition to fight back. The Liberals are going through a boisterous leadership contest to succeed Grimond - Jeremy Thorpe narrowly emerges over several disappointed tribunes of the right of the party - and Labour itself shockingly deposes Harold Wilson that autumn, spurred on by his disastrous time in government and a humiliating Liberal gain at Falmouth and Camborne just weeks before. Home's government drags on, on through assasinations, coups, economics ups and downs - and in a decade of widespread social change, the Unionist former fourteenth Earl finds himself little more than a relic. By 1967 Home's majority is nearly gone - and then so is he.
[3] Home's Foreign Secretary grabs the premiership in the Magic Circle's last hurrah - and barely lasts two months, undone by sex-scandal allegations, his own medieval ideas on Africa - and a dithering Ted Heath's ultimate decision to quit the Cabinet, followed by Macleod and Maudling. Sandys at least has the grace to know when to go.
[4] Peter Thomas was at least vaguely a compromise pick - one of the few modernizers to stay on in the chaotic Sandys' Cabinet, not associated with the erratic foreign policy - and Epworth was certainly a far cry from Eton. But the charming Welshman was at the top of a profoundly divided party, had risen too far too fast, and with the exception of the Wilson interlude, the Conservatives had been in power for 16 years. People were simply tired of them - and although Thomas tried to bluff it out to the end of the year on a majority of two - the resulting election was a bloodbath.
[5] The winner of course was Labour's thoroughly unexpected new leader - Douglas Jay. In 65 Callaghan had backed down at the last minute - unwilling to risk a challenge against Wilson. Gordon-Walker had been a contender, once, - but losing Smethwick and then Leyton had gone a long way in tarnishing his image. That left an unlikely challenger - the former President of the Board of Trade, a long-time Gaitskellite, and one of the few men who disliked Wilson enough to embark on a futile-looking mission. But then Falmouth and Camborne dropped the party's confidence in Wilson to a new low and brought back all those nasty old memories of Wilson's would-be negotiations with Mr. Grimond - and Jay scraped by with a hair.
And two years later, the clever, prickly man known for 'Whitehall knows best' - still won a majority of 211. Jay was moderate and effective - and the Conservatives were tired, behind the times, and jumping from Home to Sandys to Thomas, politically incoherent.
Finally Labour was not just in office but in power - Jay, MacDermot, and Jenkins reformed policy in almost every area - and aside from sticky relations with Europe and a neutral economy, Douglas Jay had a lot to be smug about - even more so when he won an almost as large majority in 1971. But a deteriorating marriage and pressure for a younger leader led him to step down the next year, in favor of his wickedly smart Chancellor.
[6] Jeremy Thorpe positioned himself as the 'true center' and cut a better figure than bureaucratic Jay or unsteady Thomas - and it paid off in the voting booth when little over a quarter of the electorate voted Liberal - putting the party second in overall votes for the first time since 1910. Filtered through FPTP that was still a solid 51 seats - many of them cored out of Conservative heartland.
[7] Peter Thomas lost his own seat of Conwy by a large margin in 1967, Heath was wiped out as well - and a reluctant Reggie Maudling took the reins of the Conservative Party, and almost immediately did the necessary thing - instituted a democratic process to select the leader. The days of Macmillan, Home, and Sandys were over, from now on the membership would choose - and they turned around and chose Iain Macleod for leader, by a wide margin. Keith Joseph himself handily won the newly created position of deputy leader. Macleod championed the party at every turn - generally got the better of the government - and worked himself too hard. He passed away unexpectedly in 1970 - and Joseph failed miserably to fill his shoes in the half a year he had. Come 1971, and the Conservatives sank and the Liberals gained, again - and this time the seats fell in swathes. A gleeful Thorpe was the Official Opposition - and 41 Conservatives were left.
[8] What's left to relate? Thorpe had defeated the Conservatives in their old strongholds, butted heads against Labour - and now had a parliamentary party and Shadow Cabinet considerably to the right of him - Shadow Foreign Secretary Noel Kemp wielded the knife - and John MacKay inherited the throne. And as MacDermot presided over union troubles and a less than booming economy - the wildly popular MP from Argyll savaged the government and suggested that, just maybe - economic liberalism was the alternative. Soft Conservative support flocked to the man who looked like he could finally beat Labour and MacKay did - all of it. Well - some of it. But the Liberals were going to stick around.
- Zaffre
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