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Challenge: To have the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system replace First Past The Post (FPTP) in the UK at national elections. POD: Anytime from 1945 onwards. More information: Most discussions of the possibility of changing the electoral system in the UK centre on the...

In the first half of the 20th century, it was widely viewed that by the early 21st century, the working-week would be significantly lower that it is currently (35-40 in most Western nations). Probably the most famous example of this was Keynes who in the essay Economic Possibilities for Our...

Despite British politics in the 1980's being quite a common setting for ATLs on here, one I've never seen (or at least I can't recall it) is a scenario where Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of the UK not long after becoming Leader of the Conservative Party (11 February 1975), perhaps in...

The recent thread I started 'WI No Move To State Colonialism In The Late 18th/19th Centuries?', got me thinking about one particular aspect of British colonialism. This is that unlike France, which has Algeria, the UK lacked a settler colony in the Middle East. In fact, it was one of the few...

One of the notable developments in the history of colonialism in the late 18th and particularly 19th centuries was the move towards what might be described as ‘state colonialism’, whereby nations in areas such as Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the South Pacific increasingly fell under the...

I'm not sure whether to put this in Chat or here in After 1900, but I'll put it here anyway. I was recently having a discussion with a friend about the military regime in Fiji (I am half-Fijian, so it's of particular interest to me). I made the comment that up until May 2009 when draconian...

WI the public pensions systems that were put in place in most Western nations since the end of WWII, were fully-funded? I am thinking here of income-related (contributory) schemes, not social assistance for lower-income older people, which is different. I admit to not knowing a great deal...

WI there was a written constitution in the United Kingdom? When would it most likely have been written and what would the plausible catalysts have been for this to occur? How would it have changed UK politics to this day?

I've just been reading quite a bit about the May 1968 student protests and general strike in France and found it interesting a point that was made about how in some nations, such as France and Italy, student movements and trade unions worked together in the late 1960 and early 1970's, whereas...

When is the earliest plausible time for there to be a female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Who would be the plausible candidates for this? There was a similar thread about American politics, so I thought I'd do one about the UK. It was also sort of inspired by a something Margaret...

WI the developed world turned left-wing instead of right-wing in the 1980's? What I am thinking of instead of the broadly bi-partisan shift in most nations over this time frame towards more right-wing policies, what if the shift was towards more left-wing policies? As I have heard it put...

There's a thread about the worst plausible US president, so thought I would do about British politics. Who would in you opinion be the worst PLAUSIBLE British Prime Minister. The stress here is on plausible, so the person must be someone who was considered to be a significant contender for the...

WI Don Dunstan, the ALP Premier of South Australia through some of the 1960's and most of the 1970's was instead the Prime Minister of Australia. Was inspired to do this ATL by the WI on Jim Cairns as PM. Dunstan strikes me as someone who had the personal unconventionality and idiosyncratic...

I put this in Before 1900 although it would have consequences After 1900 as well. What if the USA had no constitutionally-entreched Bill of Rights? There would still be a Bill of Rights but it would be statutory (created by Congress) and be able to be overridden by a complex process if the...

WI the 1960's/70s social movements' ie racial equality, women rights, environmentalism, were championed by right-wing parties in the West? In the early 1960's these socially progressive tendencies (well not really environmentalism, which didn't really exist at time in the way we think of it...

WI in 2007 Julia Gillard was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and subsequently became Prime Minister of Australia? The first point that will be made I am sure is that she is in the 'wrong' faction, the Left. However recent examples such as Anna Bligh and Nathan Rees shows that it is...

WI Trade Unions were organised more like Professional Associations? What I am essentially saying is what if in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rather than fighting for the right to represent workers on issues of wages and conditions, trade unions instead sought to shore up the position...

WI Wage-Earner Funds became commonplace? The basis idea of the proposal as put forward in Sweden in the 1970's, was for a surcharge (10% I believe) of corporation profits would be set aside by the employer and given to employees on condition of it being used to purchase shares in the...

WI in the early 20th centuries the US didn't move towards a system of holding primaries for presidential candidates and many other high offices? Perhaps instead they are chosen by the party elite, or members of the each parties Congressional Caucuses. Or perhaps rank-and-file party member can...

WI One-Nation 'wet' Tories still dominated the UK Conservative Party? I am thinking here of Conservatives with ideologies broadly similar to MacMillan and Heath (particularly the former) and nowadays associated with the Tory Reform Group. Views commonly associated with them include economic...