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sehidnamirin - What if Tony Benn invented the Internet (Part 1)?
What if Tony Benn invented the Internet (Part 1)?
1974: Conservative (Edward Heath) – 39.3% (-5.1%), 326 Seats (-4) [1]
Labour (Harold Wilson) – 36.7% (-6.7%), 276 Seats (-12), Liberal (Jeremy Thorpe) – 18.3% (10.8%), 11 Seats (+5)
1979: Labour (Tony Benn) – 40.6% (+3.9%), 342 Seats (+66) [2]
Conservative (Edward Heath) – 34.1% (-1.9%), 259 Seats (-67) Liberal (Steel) – 16.1% (-2.1%), 12 Seats (+1) Independent Conservative (Enoch Powell) – 3.1% (+3.1%) - 12 Seats (+12)
1983: Labour (Tony Benn) – 26.9% (-13.7%), 324 Seats (-18) [3]
Conservative (Jim Prior) – 21.2% (-12.8%), 157 Seats (-90) People’s (Enoch Powell) – 29.1% (+26.0%) 115 Seats (+103) Liberal (Steel) – 18.9% (+2.8%), 21 Seats (+9)
1987: Labour (Tony Benn) – 36.0% (+9.1%), 335 Seats (+11) [4]
Conservative-Liberal (Electoral Pact) – 31.2% (-8.9%), 143 Conservative, 34 Liberal Seats (-1) People’s (Enoch Powell) – 28.2% (-0.9%) 103 Seats (-12)
1992: Labour (John Prescott) – 39.1% (+3.1%), 319 Seats (-16) [5]
Conservative-Liberal (Electoral Pact) – 36.4% (+5.2%), 162 Conservative, 56 Liberal Seats (-1) People’s (John Biffen) – 19.9% (-8.3%) 78 Seats (-25)
[1] A speech in his support from dear old Enoch sees Heath drinking deep from a poisoned chalice.
[2] Fearmongering about ‘Bolshevist Benn’, and attempting to blame the strikes which had paralysed the country on Trade Union attempts to ‘bring down the country and invite in the Soviets’ failed in the face of deepening economic crisis, and Heath’s obstinate refusal to hold a referendum on membership of the EEC.
[3] Benn moved instantly to implement his economic agenda, recreating his former post of Minister of Technology that was abolished by Heath and appointing the newly honoured Lord Stafford Beer. He was tasked with recreating the Cybersyn system he had created for the Chilean Socialist Government, with the finest computer technology Britain had to offer. A System of Computers in State Owned enterprises and State Supported Cooperatives (Such as Triumph Motorcycles), supplied information to a central system which then shared this information back to the factories. This gave British Factories a cutting edge on the world market (As the information was only supplied to State Enterprises and State approved Cooperatives) and allowed for greater autonomy in operation for the workers. To save money this system would soon be integrated on a joint network with the NPL Network and thus ARPANET, and while the scientists and the workers had little to share with each other, it was the start of something…
Unfortunately for Benn while his system fascinated the proto-Nerds of the world, it was not a major issue in the 1983 General election, what would be was the 1982 EEC referendum.
While Benn was obviously against the Capitalist Conglomerate that the EEC was his anti-racist views were deeply unpopular, and he and Jim Prior would find themselves severely out maneuvered by Powell, who took centre stage. Especially after Britain voted to leave.
[4] Benn’s second administration was a deeply delicate and unstable thing. While holding a sliver of a majority he utterly lacked any democratic legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of the population. Any major decisions were made in collaboration with other Parliamentary groups; the decommissioning of Polaris with no replacement was a joint project between Powell and Benn. The 1985 Northern Ireland Crisis nearly brought early elections, but in the end the Liberals and Tories acceded to a watered down form of joint administration and a border poll in 2000. There was also some minor controversy about the handing over of some minor windswept islands in the South Atlantic to Argentina, but no one really cared outside of the hysteric right wing press.
Benn’s economic program was slowed down, and the focus moved from nationalisation to the less controversial business of transforming failing businesses into state backed cooperatives. The Informational Network became increasingly sophisticated, and in collaboration with the British Library the Encyclopædia Britannica and various other informational books were uploaded and made accessible in order to give creative workers in the factories a greater access to information. Britain’s economic success was the jealously of the world, and many attempts were made to copy the system, especially in Japan. But Britain had the advantage of time, and in 1986 after the delivery of a sufficient modern computers and the correct wiring, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would open a joint informational network with Britain called the Industrial Informational Network or INFORNET, greatly helping them with their economic crisis.
The 1987 election was a great success for Benn. The Liberal-Tory pact was an attempt to compound their numbers, but instead just saw people fail to see the difference between the two of them, and people were getting tired of Powell’s proclamations about the clearly non-existent rivers of blood that were just around the corner, especially after Britain’s negotiated exit from the EEC.
[5] ‘’The People of Poland did not rise up so that their water system could be privatised!’’ came the resounding cry from the Government benches in the face of the heckles Benn received in the face of his ‘friends’ in the Eastern bloc losing their grip on power. Britain would intervene energetically in the collapse of ‘Actually Existing Socialism’, forming alliances with reform inclined members of the ruling parties, who along with many young student radicals saw Cybersocialism as the way forward.
It wouldn’t work everywhere, but over the next decade the Polish People's Republic, the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic, the Hungarian People’s Republic and eventually the only partially dismembered Soviet Union would join INFORNET.
With the increase spread of Personal Computers there was an increasing demand for INFORNET access outside of the workplace, and a much reduced version, primarily filled with uploaded books that were in the public realm would be made available to the British Public in 1988.
But Benn would dig too deep into the crisis. His attempts to deploy British troops to Slovenia, (regardless of if they were nothing but ‘neutral peacekeepers’ or not) would see the party forcing him to resign in 1991, to be succeeded by the solidly working class Prescott.
1974: Conservative (Edward Heath) – 39.3% (-5.1%), 326 Seats (-4) [1]
Labour (Harold Wilson) – 36.7% (-6.7%), 276 Seats (-12), Liberal (Jeremy Thorpe) – 18.3% (10.8%), 11 Seats (+5)
1979: Labour (Tony Benn) – 40.6% (+3.9%), 342 Seats (+66) [2]
Conservative (Edward Heath) – 34.1% (-1.9%), 259 Seats (-67) Liberal (Steel) – 16.1% (-2.1%), 12 Seats (+1) Independent Conservative (Enoch Powell) – 3.1% (+3.1%) - 12 Seats (+12)
1983: Labour (Tony Benn) – 26.9% (-13.7%), 324 Seats (-18) [3]
Conservative (Jim Prior) – 21.2% (-12.8%), 157 Seats (-90) People’s (Enoch Powell) – 29.1% (+26.0%) 115 Seats (+103) Liberal (Steel) – 18.9% (+2.8%), 21 Seats (+9)
1987: Labour (Tony Benn) – 36.0% (+9.1%), 335 Seats (+11) [4]
Conservative-Liberal (Electoral Pact) – 31.2% (-8.9%), 143 Conservative, 34 Liberal Seats (-1) People’s (Enoch Powell) – 28.2% (-0.9%) 103 Seats (-12)
1992: Labour (John Prescott) – 39.1% (+3.1%), 319 Seats (-16) [5]
Conservative-Liberal (Electoral Pact) – 36.4% (+5.2%), 162 Conservative, 56 Liberal Seats (-1) People’s (John Biffen) – 19.9% (-8.3%) 78 Seats (-25)
[1] A speech in his support from dear old Enoch sees Heath drinking deep from a poisoned chalice.
[2] Fearmongering about ‘Bolshevist Benn’, and attempting to blame the strikes which had paralysed the country on Trade Union attempts to ‘bring down the country and invite in the Soviets’ failed in the face of deepening economic crisis, and Heath’s obstinate refusal to hold a referendum on membership of the EEC.
[3] Benn moved instantly to implement his economic agenda, recreating his former post of Minister of Technology that was abolished by Heath and appointing the newly honoured Lord Stafford Beer. He was tasked with recreating the Cybersyn system he had created for the Chilean Socialist Government, with the finest computer technology Britain had to offer. A System of Computers in State Owned enterprises and State Supported Cooperatives (Such as Triumph Motorcycles), supplied information to a central system which then shared this information back to the factories. This gave British Factories a cutting edge on the world market (As the information was only supplied to State Enterprises and State approved Cooperatives) and allowed for greater autonomy in operation for the workers. To save money this system would soon be integrated on a joint network with the NPL Network and thus ARPANET, and while the scientists and the workers had little to share with each other, it was the start of something…
Unfortunately for Benn while his system fascinated the proto-Nerds of the world, it was not a major issue in the 1983 General election, what would be was the 1982 EEC referendum.
While Benn was obviously against the Capitalist Conglomerate that the EEC was his anti-racist views were deeply unpopular, and he and Jim Prior would find themselves severely out maneuvered by Powell, who took centre stage. Especially after Britain voted to leave.
[4] Benn’s second administration was a deeply delicate and unstable thing. While holding a sliver of a majority he utterly lacked any democratic legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of the population. Any major decisions were made in collaboration with other Parliamentary groups; the decommissioning of Polaris with no replacement was a joint project between Powell and Benn. The 1985 Northern Ireland Crisis nearly brought early elections, but in the end the Liberals and Tories acceded to a watered down form of joint administration and a border poll in 2000. There was also some minor controversy about the handing over of some minor windswept islands in the South Atlantic to Argentina, but no one really cared outside of the hysteric right wing press.
Benn’s economic program was slowed down, and the focus moved from nationalisation to the less controversial business of transforming failing businesses into state backed cooperatives. The Informational Network became increasingly sophisticated, and in collaboration with the British Library the Encyclopædia Britannica and various other informational books were uploaded and made accessible in order to give creative workers in the factories a greater access to information. Britain’s economic success was the jealously of the world, and many attempts were made to copy the system, especially in Japan. But Britain had the advantage of time, and in 1986 after the delivery of a sufficient modern computers and the correct wiring, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would open a joint informational network with Britain called the Industrial Informational Network or INFORNET, greatly helping them with their economic crisis.
The 1987 election was a great success for Benn. The Liberal-Tory pact was an attempt to compound their numbers, but instead just saw people fail to see the difference between the two of them, and people were getting tired of Powell’s proclamations about the clearly non-existent rivers of blood that were just around the corner, especially after Britain’s negotiated exit from the EEC.
[5] ‘’The People of Poland did not rise up so that their water system could be privatised!’’ came the resounding cry from the Government benches in the face of the heckles Benn received in the face of his ‘friends’ in the Eastern bloc losing their grip on power. Britain would intervene energetically in the collapse of ‘Actually Existing Socialism’, forming alliances with reform inclined members of the ruling parties, who along with many young student radicals saw Cybersocialism as the way forward.
It wouldn’t work everywhere, but over the next decade the Polish People's Republic, the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic, the Hungarian People’s Republic and eventually the only partially dismembered Soviet Union would join INFORNET.
With the increase spread of Personal Computers there was an increasing demand for INFORNET access outside of the workplace, and a much reduced version, primarily filled with uploaded books that were in the public realm would be made available to the British Public in 1988.
But Benn would dig too deep into the crisis. His attempts to deploy British troops to Slovenia, (regardless of if they were nothing but ‘neutral peacekeepers’ or not) would see the party forcing him to resign in 1991, to be succeeded by the solidly working class Prescott.
- sehidnamirin
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