1955: Attlee's comeback?

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
He'd of stepped aside not to soon after in favour of young blood (much of his motivation for hanging on for so long to block Herbert Morrison), and given how he had split with Bevan, Gaitskell would have been his likely successor.
 
We'd have seen no Suez debacle, Attlee was a far better foreign policy/intelligence using PM than Eden so would've managed the situation much better, seen the value of not deceiving/going against the Americans.
 
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shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
So if Gaitskell is Prime Minister by the second half of 1956, how does he handle the Suez crisis?
Possible immediate military action, but only with American support. Later action would be taken through the UN, be it militarily or diplomatically. Won't do what Eden did with the Anglo-French-Israeli cluster and cutting Civil Servants in the Foreign Office out the loop.
 
The preceding events couldn't really have changed, so everything preceding the nationalisation would tick along as per OTL. Once we reach Nasser's action, however, we'll see a far more muted response from Gaitskell (in spite of his fears of Nasser being a second Mussolini, much like Eden did) and no rush to military intervention. The Americans still wouldn't be likely to throw their lot in with Britain and France, so there'd be a huge blow to British prestige in the region from the off.
 
The preceding events couldn't really have changed, so everything preceding the nationalisation would tick along as per OTL. Once we reach Nasser's action, however, we'll see a far more muted response from Gaitskell (in spite of his fears of Nasser being a second Mussolini, much like Eden did) and no rush to military intervention. The Americans still wouldn't be likely to throw their lot in with Britain and France, so there'd be a huge blow to British prestige in the region from the off.

This scenario, presumably, antagonises both the Labour left and the Conservative Party. Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, Richard Crossman, Anthony Greenwood, Ian Mikardo, etc. were all proud supporters of Israel and considered themselves Zionists, leading to an even wider chasm developing between them and Gaitskell ITTL. The Conservative Party, on the other hand, will see itself more united than ever (with only minor dissent with the likes of Edward Heath, who tried to be pragmatic when it came to the Middle East) over Labour's "mismanagement" of imperial policy.

It's a good stick to beat Labour with so long as Gaitskell stays in power and can't shake the lingering disappointment of this alt-Suez, leading one to conclude that the Conservatives have a fair chance of beating Labour at the next election. Then again, the economy will likely be in even better shape come 1959/1960 with no run on the pound.
 
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