A Chartist Success

I'm redoing Chartism in history (well, re doing it for exam retakes), so I felt that this could be a good revision exercise if nothing else. After all, to alter the past requires a good knowledge of it.

So, here goes: how could the Chartists have possibly implemented their Six Points by 1850 (either by getting Parliament to agree, overthrowing the government, or some other means)? What would they have had to change (or what points of diversion are required, preferably after 1815)? Is it actually possible?

The Six Points of the Charter (to remind everyone):

1) Votes for men over 21.
2) A Secret Ballot.
3) No property qualification for MPs.
4) Paid MPs (so as working class MPs can have a source of income.)
5) Equal sized constituencies.
6) Annual elections for MPs.

I thought that I may as well get into this Alternate History business properly without a post relating to Operations Sea Lion or Barbarossa, or "What would happen if the Allies/USSR/Axis won battle X/built none of gun X." Mostly this is because I know little about World War 2; but also because so much else happened in history. World War 2 was the greatest single event, yes. But so many other ones preceded it.
 
Best bet is the Commonwealth. If it happens there, then the monarchy may never be restored, or we may see the 1701 Acts of Sucession and 1688 agreement with the return of Charles II
 
Is there any way that they could have done it without Oliver Cromwell and co creating a lasting society? I understand that the Commonwealth wasn't that democratic in the first place, in any case, being ruled by an unelected military dictator.
 
Is there any way that they could have done it without Oliver Cromwell and co creating a lasting society? I understand that the Commonwealth wasn't that democratic in the first place, in any case, being ruled by an unelected military dictator.

Not sure. Possibly during the Glorious Revolution, maybe in the 1832 scrapping of the Rotten Boroughs.

In the commonwealth, have Cromwell get killed in battle, and you'll probably find major reforms at some point soon
 
I generally meant changes that could have allowed the Chartists, as in the actual organisation, managing to get the Charter passed through parliament.

My thoughts:

-Keeping the Corn Laws, and not having Peel push through his social reforms (e.g. Mines Act, Factory Act) could have increased the neccessary "Knife and Fork Factor". This could have boosted membership. (As could a more severe recession.)

-Another one with Peel: no Metropolitan Police Force, which means no actual police-less brute force with which to crack down on the Chartists.

-Having a Moral Force leader rise to lead the Chartists (such as William Lovett) who can obtain enough support amongst the middle classes to get more funding, whilst simultaneously having a less violent movement. This, again, could have increased support for the Chartists; Parliament may not have seen them as a violent revolutionary movement, but as a vast working class movement which is merely acting against their vested interest.

-OR having a more effective Physical Force leader than Feargus O'Connor. i.e. not a possibly corrupt madman who faked signatures for his petitions.
 
Top