100 years of History. A 20th Century Timeline

[Andreeb]

NTV[1] will now be presenting the twentieth century, in color.[2) In collaboration with local libraries, the government, and the BBC. We have the honour to present this program.

(Broadcast Begins)
It has been 100 years since the fateful events of 1910. In the 100 years since then our wonderful country has gone through many ups and downs, two world wars(or three, depending on the person) a cold war, scandal, wars and many, many political crisis. Science has advanced rapidly thought the years, beyond anything our grandfathers knew. Now color televisions dot the land, and telegraphs provide rapid communication to anyplace in the world. Yet throughout the years we have endured, through it all. It all started in 1910, a hundred years ago, with the Great crisis of that year.[3] Three elections, two prime ministers and two kings. It was a interesting year.
---------------------------------------------------------
1. This refers to National Television, one of the butterflies of this timeline.

2. Color television isn't yet dominant in 2010.

3. The divergence point.

---------------------------------------------------------
Anyways this is my first(and likely only timeline) with the divergence point of a conservatives winning power in 1910 in the United Kingdom. All of the butterflies will be explained as the world changes due to just one election being different.

My goal is to tell a good story during this, I will try to stay as accurate and well reasonable as possible, however feedback is appreciated and welcome.

 

[Andreeb]

The January 1910 Election

The January 1910 election was triggered by the Lords Rejection of the Liberal Budget, the first time the Budget was rejected in 200 years by the Lords. The Budget was redistribute, and had a particularly unpopular tax[1] on Land. With the rejection of the Budget the Goverment triggered an election to force the Lords hand. The Conservatives ran on a campaign of Tariff reform[2] as well of rumors of Corruption by senior members of the Liberal Campaign. The Liberals ran against the Lords, in favor of social reform, and the Budget.

Henry Herbert Asquith. The Prime Minister and Liberal Party Leader.

Arthur Balfour. Former Prime Minister and Conservative party leader.

The Minor parties meanwhile were increasing in Power. Labor ran on a fairly Anti Liberal pact, which led to much strain on the Gladstone Macdonald Pact[3].

In Ireland there was a fight in the South between the All for Ireland league, a more moderate force, and the more traditional Irish Parliamentarian Party.[4] In the North the Unionists continued their traditional dominance.

As the elections started to come in through the days[5] it was clear the Liberals had lost much of their strength. A strong swing against them was recorded everywhere except Wales and Ireland[6] the results only got worse as time went on, with corruption allegations weighing heavily on them. However the Liberals did not entirely collapse. The Results looked like this.

Conservatives and Unionists[7] 305 Seats. 47.6%
Liberals. 249 Seats. 41%
Irish Parliamentrian Party. 70 Seats. 1.1%
Labour. 35 Seats. 7.2%
Others. 11 Seats. 3.1%

The Liberals could not claim a popular mandate with the Conservatives having such a large plurality, yet it was clear that the Tories would not be able to form a government, being anti Home Rule and a Tory-Labour government being simply impossible. Asquith would remain Prime Minister, leading a extremely shaky Liberal Minority Goverment. Its length, and its achievements, were yet unknown.
------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Land Tax was popular amongst the regular people, but not amongst those who were getting taxed, who happen to be mostly Lords.

2. Britian at the time was a Free Trade nation, yet the issue had been polarized by this point. The Conservatives wanted tarrifs, the Liberals wanted free Trade.

3. A Pact Between the Labour Party and Liberals which meant that the Liberals didn't contest some Labour seats or target seats. This of course died the moment Labour got the advantage.

4. This was over the issue of Home Rule, which was despised by Protestant Northerners.(home rule was equivalent to devolution) The All for Ireland league wanted to make concessions to get Ulster to join them. The Irish Parliamentarian Party just wanted to use force if needed.

5. At the time British elections were scattered across several weeks of polling.

6. The Liberal party by this Point was dead in Ireland.

7. The Permanent Coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists, who had broken off from the Liberals in the 1880s over the Homerule question, they by this point were all but one party and would merge two years latter.

 

[stodge]

Okay - the January 1910 election saw a big swing back to the Conservatives from the 1906 disaster in terms of seats.

There were 670 seats in the UK Parliament with 103 of those in Ireland. The Conservatives fought 594 seats, the Liberals 511 and Labour 78. I can't recall if there was a similar Pact between Liberals and Labour in 1910 as in 1906.

MY seat, which was then Romford, saw a 10.7% swing to the Conservatives in a straight fight with the Liberals but the Liberals held the seat. The swing to the Tories was strongest in rural England (St Ives in Cornwall saw just 2.8% to the Conservtives).

 

[Andreeb]

Okay - the January 1910 election saw a big swing back to the Conservatives from the 1906 disaster in terms of seats.

There were 670 seats in the UK Parliament with 103 of those in Ireland. The Conservatives fought 594 seats, the Liberals 511 and Labour 78. I can't recall if there was a similar Pact between Liberals and Labour in 1910 as in 1906.

MY seat, which was then Romford, saw a 10.7% swing to the Conservatives in a straight fight with the Liberals but the Liberals held the seat. The swing to the Tories was strongest in rural England (St Ives in Cornwall saw just 2.8% to the Conservtives).

Yeah. I've always had a fascination with this era and wrote my thesis on the 1910-1911 mess. In this timeline due to earlier(albeit still mild) corruption allegations and a better Tory campaign the tories do much better and have a hefty plurality. In this timeline I assume Romford(since it was acceptably close) would've stayed liberal by a razor thin margin.

 

[Andreeb]

The Second Asquith Government

The Second Asquith Government, one of the shortest in British History, was dominated by the discussion of the constutional asquith

After the elections Herbet Asquith, the incumbent prime minister as according to Parliamentarian Tradition, was invited to form the next government of Britain. The cabinet was as follows, with minimum changes from the previous government.

Prime Minister. Herbet Asquith
Lord Chancellor Lord Loreburn
Chancellor of the Exchequer. David Lyold George.
Home Secretary. Winston Churchill
Foreign Secretary. Edward Grey
Colonial Secretary. Herbet Gladstone
Secretary for War. Richard Haldane
Secretary for India. Viscount Blackburn
First Lord of the Admiralty. Reginald McKenna
President of the Board of Trade. Sydney Buxton

When the Parliament was opened the first business was that of the debate on the King's speech, with Arthur Balfour, Leader for the opposition proposing a motion that would bring down the government.

The motion of course failed. With the Irish Parliamentarian Party unwilling to vote in a anti home rule goverment, nor labor willing to vote in the tories, the Asquith Government had, with a decent majority, won its first confidence vote. It was not to last.

John Redmond giving a speech, his stubbornness would cause the downfall of the Liberal Government.

It was in early April when the Liberals resumed negotiations on the Budget. In a meeting with the Irish Nationalists, Asquith learned that they had upped the stakes significantly. They now wanted immediate action on home rule and removing the powers of the Lords. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he decided to go all in and endorse these Measures. In a speech in York, the Prime Minister declared his intention to force home rule through, and remove the power of the Lords for good measure.

Nearly 30 conferences between the Unionists(the conservatives and liberal unionists would merge in June) and the Liberals occured, all breaking down over the issue of Home rule. On the 15th of April the Parliament bill(that stripped power from the lords) was introduced, and the Home Rule Bill was introduced the next week. Unlike the Debate on the Adress, these debates were theatrical and hysterical, with the unionists and liberals throwing all of their oratorical power into these issues. The house in fact had to be suspended one night.

David Lyold George and Bonar Law, two of the most powerful orators on either side.

It wasn't until early May when all three Bill's were passed, by tight occasions and several liberal defections. Notably the Unionists had attempted to amend the home rule bill, actually succeeding in exempting a few northern counties on one occasion, until the exemption was overturned by a majority of two the next day. They were now to go to the Lords. They of course, all died there. By massive majorities as well, and so the constutional crisis continued to heat up.

The Lords Rejecting the Home Rule Bill, circa 1911.

With the Lords and Goverment now unable to reach any compromise, Asquith had only one remaining trick up his sleve, the royal prerogative. Asquith could, in theory, request the king to fill the Lords up with Liberals and pass all of the requested acts. This after all was how the Reform act of 1832 was passed.

However Asquith found, much to his displeasure that the ailing king was furiously against any attempt to stack the Lords, saying that the Liberals had no popular mandate to make him agree to what he called "the destruction of the English constitution" even when Asquith threatened esignation to get it through. When the King remained adamantly opposed, they followed through on the threat. The Liberal government resigned on the 15th of May, and Opposition Leader Balfour was invited to form the next goverment. It was the last political moment of the Monarchy.
------------------------------------------------------------
Well I'm quite busy but here's the next update. The difference ITTL from what actually happened was that the Conservatives did much better then what actually happened, making them more reliant on the Irish Nationlists and thus forced into making stupider choices(like proposing home rule and what wouldn't been the parliament act before the budget was even done) This, along with much less Seats and Edward VII being King, meant that their gamble fails spectacularly.