A few good Christians - The History of the Christian Democrats of Britain

Well if we have Christian Democrats then I suppose we are going with more "European" naming. The Radicals in France were originally Liberals (classical variety) and split into the Socialist aligned Movement Radical Gauche and the main faction that became centre right, (not counting all the other little groupings). Bits of the Radical party eventually ended up in the UDF to support Giscard (thus moving to the centre again), others ended up going Gaullist (on the right) As for the SNP they are centre left now OTL, but have not always been and used to be the alternate Tartan Tories.
I can see Thatcher, or least Thatcherites using the term Radical, rather suits Keith Joseph for example. Conservatives have used all sorts of names in local elections so its not that big a stretch to expand the concept.
As for no significant Catholic population and not being able to win seats.. well the Irish National Party won Liverpool Exchange OTL, not off of Church of England communicants one suspects. There were and are significant areas of Britain with Catholic populations, including Liverpool, Glasgow and Birmingham. Not enough to win 100 seats, but you are assuming that the CDs don't get evangelical protestant support. Its a question of whether they can bridge the faith divide. If they can then there are significant areas where there are religious voters. This could somewhat damage the Liberals in their nonconformist Welsh and Cornish heartlands and cost the SNP the Western Isles for example. Both Dutch and German Christian Democrats have appealed (eventually) across the religious divide. Then there is the potential appeal of welfarist policies to the working class

Spoilers! :D

Seriously though yes this is basically the background.
 
PS I'm slightly busy with the election and then I'm off to the Cook Islands for a week so there may not be any replies or updates for a week or so, please do keep this on your watchlist though as it will be updated after that.
 

Sideways

Donor
PS I'm slightly busy with the election and then I'm off to the Cook Islands for a week so there may not be any replies or updates for a week or so, please do keep this on your watchlist though as it will be updated after that.

Awesome, have a nice time.

I just caught up. The logos are looking really good and I love these short, snappy updates. It's a fun TL
 
Ephemera Christian Democrats logo from the Nineties
christian democrats logo.png
 
Part 7
Jax frowned to herself.

“What do you think?” She said.

“I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the oilman, but he is popular, and pretty charismatic. He must be a potential future chancellor, if not party leader, if Stella and Owen fuck it up.” Kevin said.

“Well, he’s still a CD, it’s not as if he’s the enemy. And he did vote to protect funding for family planning.”

“Exactly. He’s a symbol of the progress that wing have made over the last few years.”

“Hmmm. There’s the Brompton connection as well though.” Jax was skimming through Encarta.pedia on her Amstrad tablet.

“Yeah, but is that even a real thing any more?”

“Well, I suppose the whole point of working on this with him to push the London Credit Union plan. That’s hardly an oil industry or bankers plot.”

“Look, just go for it, it’s temporary anyway.” Kevin stood and went over to Jax, resting a hand lightly on her shoulder.

“I sense a calling.” Jax said with a smile.
 
Jax frowned to herself.

“What do you think?” She said.

“I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the oilman, but he is popular, and pretty charismatic. He must be a potential future chancellor, if not party leader, if Stella and Owen fuck it up.” Kevin said.

“Well, he’s still a CD, it’s not as if he’s the enemy. And he did vote to protect funding for family planning.”

“Exactly. He’s a symbol of the progress that wing have made over the last few years.”

“Hmmm. There’s the Brompton connection as well though.” Jax was skimming through Encarta.pedia on her Amstrad tablet.

“Yeah, but is that even a real thing any more?”

“Well, I suppose the whole point of working on this with him to push the London Credit Union plan. That’s hardly an oil industry or bankers plot.”

“Look, just go for it, it’s temporary anyway.” Kevin stood and went over to Jax, resting a hand lightly on her shoulder.

“I sense a calling.” Jax said with a smile.
Oilman?

Brompton?

Is this one Justin Portal Welby about whom they are talking?
 
The 2015 General Synod Election Fragment One
Susie turns to the camera.

“Guyon is reporting from the UK again, where the starting gun has been fired on the other general election.”

“Thanks Susie.” Guyon is squinting from a rainy windswept grassy space within a historic building somewhere.

“Less than forty percent of the adult population are registered for this election, and last time only ten percent of the population voted. However that doesn’t stop enthusiastic teams of canvassers thronging the streets in some areas, while dozens of Online Journals debate various aspects of Church governance, legal changes, and argue about which party you should vote for and why.”

Guyon ducks from a particularly strong and wet gust, while a couple of vicars scurry past behind him.

“Yes it’s time for the 2015 General Synod elections for the CoE, and unlike our own Anglicans, this is a national body with significant power and influence in wider society. The historic settlement of 1965, which abolished the old Church Assembly, created a real legislature to oversee the now taxpayer funded Church of England. Yet despite that, many British citizens barely register its existence.”

There is a cut back to the studio.

“So Guyon,” Susie said. “Is this like a normal election? Do the same parties stand?”

“Well, they use the same messy electoral system as the House of Commons for the House of Laity, and the House of Clergy, that is Single Transferable Vote, but while there are political parties to some extent, they’re different to the ones that contest other elections. However sometimes they are seen as proxies for the other parties.”

Cut back to Susie.

“Thanks Guyon. We’ll be back to Guyon, after these words from our sponsors.”
 

Sideways

Donor
A woman playing ignorant on TV so a male expert can explain things to the audience? Surely not.

Synod general elections are my jam, though it seems odd considering the POD. But I am looking forward to how it goes.

Presumably it's Anglicans only. I know I would vote if entitled to, but for the life of me I can't imagine how. It's there a protest option?
 
A woman playing ignorant on TV so a male expert can explain things to the audience? Surely not.

Synod general elections are my jam, though it seems odd considering the POD. But I am looking forward to how it goes.

Presumably it's Anglicans only. I know I would vote if entitled to, but for the life of me I can't imagine how. It's there a protest option?

So far we haven’t gone as far back as the POD but this should all come together.

Any taxpayer who doesn’t opt out of the Church Maintenance Tax (CMT) can vote in the election if they sign a positive declaration asserting their adherence to the CoE when they go to cast their vote.
 
Christian Futures
Oh just working on a GLA update when I realised there's still quite a few sections on Googledocs I haven't used yet...


The Christian Futures office is a grubby shopfront on Mare Street in Hackney, and it was there sitting across a cheap scratched old desk from

a grumpy middle aged West Indian woman with a pencil chewing habit I waited for the reverend George Hargreaves. He was nearly an hour late.

We sat under a garish poster displaying an aborted fetus in all its gory glory. I declined the offer of a cup of tea and a biscuit.

“No, I don't regret anything” Hargreaves says with a pursed lip grin that doesn't reach the eyes.

He grabs a cheap bible from the coffee table “This is the only manifesto I need,” he says waving it vigorously.

“Hang on, where does it say about not joining the Euro?”

He laughs, genuinely.

“I'm joking with you of course, but the fact is a party which claims to be Christian, cannot go around supporting same sex marriage.”

I change tack and ask him if he misses his four years as mayor of London.

“Of course I do, the changes we made in housing and transport changed the lives of thousands. Of course I'd love to be able to do that still. This Liberal woman,” he can't bring himself to say Susan Kramer’s name; “she is ruining London, all for Chinese gold. There is no principal there, and I heard the Seedies were going to support her re election in the second round.”

I hadn't heard that actually, my friend in Justin Welby’s office told me they were going to give their second preferences to Zayda Hussein the Radical candidate. Which is entirely in keeping with Welby’s place on the right of the CDs. But I didn't correct George.

I asked the reverend how he felt about Christian Futures being down to seven councillors, three in Hackney, and four in Newham.

“David, haven't I been clear with people all along?” He glanced up at the bloody poster. “It's principles not power that really matters, how could I call myself a Christian if I sacrificed my faith for a few elected offices?”



A few days later I asked Dawkins if it was true he was going to seek the Liberal nomination for mayor.

He wrote back to me five minutes later.


"No way, Susan Kramer is running again, there's no way they will have an open primary with her ratings so high.

As an independent though? I'm still talking to people about that."
 
Really interesting so far. Bit intrigued with the Scottish situation. Has the Kirk managed to soften it's decline or has its two wings split completely? And I take it some areas such as Dundee would be Christian Democrat strongholds if religious affiliations stayed stronger than OTL?
 
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