"A Great Third Party" - A Minor British TL

Before I can go on I need a little bit of help. As a spoiler I'd like you to know that the next leader of the Conservatives will be James Gascoyne-Cecil, the OTL leader of the House of Lords. But who will now fill the roles of Secretary for Scotland, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker?
 
Part 4: End of a Revolution and the Emergency Election

Excerpt from “The British Revolution of ’26” by Thomas P. Linehan (Manchester University Press:2007)

…After the horrific events at Westminster the support for the strike dropped significantly, suddenly men who supported it before were now either hounded or forced to renounce their support. The Communist MPs were hounded by their constituents and were forced to lie low in an unknown location even to this day…

…Another major shock for this was that although MacDonald kicked out the MPs who’d supported the rioters from Scotland, this was not enough to quell the general populations soured feeling towards the party, leading to a sizeable loss of support for the party, this would impact on the General Election held just a month after the assassinations…

…There were minor other uprisings mainly throughout Scotland and Wales, though these were put down by the auxiliary forces who were made up mainly of fascists at this point. They used harsh methods and in one case even allowed to use machine guns as long as they were supervised and didn’t excessively use the guns…

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21 May, 1926

The new Conservative leader Lord James Gascoyne-Cecil who had previously been the Leader of the Lords picked up his newspaper, happy after the previous days victory. Within the paper he read about how the Conservatives won a “most stunning victory” by winning 388 seats in Parliament. He read on to read about the drop in votes for the Labour Party that left the party with just 107 seats, the lowest amount since the 1918 election. Though the Viscount knew he should be happy about this large victory, he couldn’t help but feel remorse, knowing the sacrifice that had to occur in order for Labour support to drop. He flitted through the rest of the parties, noting both the Liberals and British Nationals successes in the election; with the Liberals gaining some of the previous Labour seats and having an overall seat count of 50. While the British National League succeeded in gathering 62 seats, an amazing achievement for a party that was just 3 years old. He also noticed that only one Independent Labour MP made it into Parliament, a man by the name of Oswald Mosley, a previous MP for the Conservatives. He [Lord James] knew it was going to be a tough time ahead of him, and he picked up his newspaper and strolled out of his office.
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1926: After the general election of 1926 the riots around the nation petered out, and the overall death count by July had reached 509. The last ‘uprising’ as the Communists called it was centred in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. This riot became so fierce, with both Scottish and Welsh revolutionaries that after 46 military men and 32 auxiliary forces were killed the new PM, Lord James allowed for the deployment of machine guns and the Saturday that the ‘final revolt’ occurred on became known as ‘Black Saturday’, due to the overall deaths of around 100 Communists, Anarchists, Auxiliary forces and military men. Though after ‘Black Saturday’ there were no other rebellions to the state, and the United Kingdom was “free from the threat of Bolsheviks” as one writer [H.G. Wells] wrote at the time.
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Excerpt from “The Rise of the British Far-Right” by Richard C. Thurlow (I B Tauris & Co Ltd:1998)

The ‘Revolution of 1926’ in Britain greatly helped the British mid-far right, especially the British National League (BNL) and the British Fascisti (BF). After what was perceived as the “Bolshevik Revolution” that Rotha Lintorn-Orman had occurred in 1926 the party received greater funding and thus grew in prominence, though they didn’t stand in the general election and weren’t that popular with the general population still due to its lack of any real policies…

…While the BNL managed to gain from this revolution, as it gained some previously Labour seats. This would have lasting affects when it came to the Great Depression in 1929, when the protectionist policies of the BNL would come to the foreground, and the BNL would have to prove itself in the National Government called a year after the Great Depression began, along with another general election…

…It was also around this time that William Joyce would leave a BF splinter group (the National Fascisti) and join the BNL, a party which he believed would suit his needs (little did he know he would be thrown out in disgrace just 5 years later, along with Neil Hawkins)…[1]

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[1] – These two men don't go onto join the British Union of Fascists, this is due to Oswald Mosley never creating the BUF (more on this in later updates.)
 
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Originally posted by TheNordicBrit
But who will now fill the roles of Secretary of Scotland, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker.

Secretary of Scotland: Walter Elliot. He was the Under-Secretary for Scotland. A bold choice would be the Duchess of Atholl (a member of the House of Commons). She was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education.

Foreign Secretary: Leopold Amery, or Lord Robert Cecil to attract support from liberal internationalist opinion. Amery was Colonial and Dominions Secretary, and Cecil was a member of the cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Chancellor of the Exchequer: Neville Chamberlain. But I have read that when Baldwin formed his government at the beginning of 1924 Chamberlain refused the Exchequer and asked to be appointed Minister of Health. Other feasible choices are Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, the President of the Trade, or Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, the Minister of Labour.

Speaker of the House of Commons: James Hope was Conservative MP for Sheffield, Central and Chairman of Ways and Means, in effect Deputy Speaker.

Labour winning 107 seats in the May 1926 general election is more than twice the number they won in OTL October 1931 when they won 52. Glad to see the Liberal numbers holding up.
 
An update is coming soon, and thanks to the contributers.

While I'm just finishing of this update could someone just whip up a quick list of protectionist Conservative MPs that weren't in very high positions in the party (or in no real position at all) for me please.

Thanks to anyone who can :)
 
This post itself may seem a little ASB. If you have any problems with it please do tell me and I will tweak it where necessary. Or if I can explain a certain matter then I will try my best, still I hope this is okay and I will wait and see as to what comments you may have about it.
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Part 5: The Merging, the Depression and the 30’s Election

Excerpt from “The Rise of the British Far-Right” by Richard C. Thurlow (I B Tauris & Co Ltd:1998)

In the month following the 1926 General Election the BNL brought on some new policies, for example one new policy was for complete free trade within the Empire and also to introduce the use of tariffs to slow down ‘outside’ trade from other countries (especially the USA.) In fact, they believed so much in the use of taxation and protectionism they were names the ‘Pro-Joe’ party, after the late Joseph Chamberlain who was a strong advocate of protectionism…

…It was also around this time when the British loyalists (a splinter group from the BF) and a large chunk of the BF membership left the party and joined the BNL – The members that left were generally more ultra-patriots than fascists and some didn’t even understand fascism. This had an overall positive affect on the BNL, while for the BF it severely weakened the party…

…There would be further repercussions for the BF when the Imperial Fascist League is created, further weakening the party to the end that it collapsed…

…Also rather strangely another of the possible policies that became slightly popular in some sections of the BNL was ‘Social Credit’. While another new policy was for farmers, and the BNL began to work slightly with the National Farmer’s Union, and the policy was rather vague though it did say that a reform should take place so as to help the rural workers, following on from one of their famous stances “if you wish for a patriotic race, you must aim at a contented people… with full scope for advancement”…

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12 January, 1927

MacDonald looked out over his home, it had been bombed for the fifth time in a month, he felt weary and only now regretted having allowed those foolish MPs to encourage the Communists. He was a rather hated man in Britain, the revolutions fresh in the British minds. He knew his party wouldn’t win an election for a while now, and he didn’t want to be the man to rebuild the Labour Party if it would take so long. He wanted peace now, and wanted to be left alone. The next day he would put in his formal resignation as the Leader of the Labour Party, he would hand over leadership of the party to George Lansbury due to his strange popularity that even he had after the Revolution.

1927: Ramsay MacDonald relinquishes leadership of the Labour Party, allowing George Lansbury to take over the party. While this is happening the left over remnants of the BF begins to canvass for the BNL, thus increasing the bonds between the two parties. Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman also begins discussions with Lord Ampthill about the future of the two parties, and Lord Ampthill sets down a strict set of demands that the BF must meet for the possibility of the BF to be merged with the BNL, one such demand was that the BF must relinquish its hold on fascism, which seemed more appealing in recent years to Lintorn-Orman. While this happened Lord Londonderry expressed some mild interest in working closely with the BNL.
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1929: This was the beginning year of the Great Depression when in October the stock markets plummeted. It was also in this year that the beginning of revolutionary Communism was being seen as a viable option to many workers again, though it also saw the rise of the BNL that ‘spoke louder’. The results of this ‘loudness’ would be seen in the 1930 general election.
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1930: In the 1930 general election the mid-right party the ‘BNL’ managed to pick up a large amount of seats the Conservatives had lost from the Great Depression, they gathered 107 seats, which stunned most people. Also the Liberal Party gathered a stunning 99 seats, 49 more than in the previous election. The Labour party lost 10 seats to the Liberal Party and so had an overall seat count of 97 seats. This continued loss of Labour seats was due to the new Labour leader failing to set down properly what his parties policies were, and also due to some more stirrings of revolution being put down by MI5 and the police where necessary. This all led to the BNL being the second largest party in the UK and thus creating a shadow government. Though soon after in 1931 a coalition government was set up with both the Conservatives and the BNL, this would have a major impact on the future of the United Kingdom with the second most powerful and vehemently protectionist party being in control of certain aspects of the government.
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Official British National League Shadow Cabinet [Unfinished]

Murray Sueter – Leader of the BNL and Leader if HM Most Loyal Opposition
Oliver Russell - Shadow Lord President of the Council
Harry Brittain – Shadow Foreign Secretary
– Shadow Home Secretary
Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart – War Office
Sir Barry Domvile – Admiralty
Harold Harmsworth – Shadow President of the Board of Trade
Vere Ponsonby – Shadow Secretary for the Colonies
 
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In OTL up to the leadership election of 1980 the leader of the Labour Party was elected by Labour MPs, so unless things have changed in this TL Ramsay MacDonald would not have handed over leadership of the party to George Lansbury or anyone else. Was Lansbury elected leader by Labour MPs? What is Arthur Henderson doing in this TL? I think he would be more likely to be elected Labour leader than Lansbury.

In the 1930 general election did the Liberal Party campaign on a policy of 'We Can Conquer Unemployment' as they did in the 1929 general election in OTL? Is Lloyd George leader of the Liberal Party?

In the 1930 general election with BNL (107 seats) plus Liberals (99 seats) and Labour (97 seats), making a total 303 seats, the maximum number of seats the Conservatives could win would be 615 less 303 = 312 seats. That is assuming no members of other parties or independents were elected.

Walter Elliot was a liberal and progressive Tory so most likely he would not be in a BNL Shadow Cabinet. Who was Oliver Russell? I have not found any relevant person with that name on Google. Vere Ponsonby was the 9th Earl of Bessborough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vere_Ponsonby,_9th_Earl_of_Bessborough . Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart was the 7th Marquis of Londonderry.

What is the policy of the BNL regarding the League of Nations and recognition of the Soviet Union?

I would imagine that there is considerable sympathy on the right-wing of the Conservative Party towards the BNL. In the 1930 general election were there any pacts whereby in certain constituencies each party agreed to give the other a free run against Labour and/or the Liberals?
 
In OTL up to the leadership election of 1980 the leader of the Labour Party was elected by Labour MPs, so unless things have changed in this TL Ramsay MacDonald would not have handed over leadership of the party to George Lansbury or anyone else. Was Lansbury elected leader by Labour MPs? What is Arthur Henderson doing in this TL? I think he would be more likely to be elected Labour leader than Lansbury.

In the 1930 general election did the Liberal Party campaign on a policy of 'We Can Conquer Unemployment' as they did in the 1929 general election in OTL? Is Lloyd George leader of the Liberal Party?

In the 1930 general election with BNL (107 seats) plus Liberals (99 seats) and Labour (97 seats), making a total 303 seats, the maximum number of seats the Conservatives could win would be 615 less 303 = 312 seats. That is assuming no members of other parties or independents were elected.

Walter Elliot was a liberal and progressive Tory so most likely he would not be in a BNL Shadow Cabinet. Who was Oliver Russell? I have not found any relevant person with that name on Google. Vere Ponsonby was the 9th Earl of Bessborough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vere_Ponsonby,_9th_Earl_of_Bessborough . Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart was the 7th Marquis of Londonderry.

What is the policy of the BNL regarding the League of Nations and recognition of the Soviet Union?

I would imagine that there is considerable sympathy on the right-wing of the Conservative Party towards the BNL. In the 1930 general election were there any pacts whereby in certain constituencies each party agreed to give the other a free run against Labour and/or the Liberals?
There was a leadership election after MacDonald left, and he supported Lansbury over Henderson, as Lansbury was relatively popular with the public (as he was IOTL.) Though he wasn’t a good leader of Labour IOTL and that’s why the Labour party suffered in the 1930 election.

Lloyd George is the leader of the Liberals as he was in 1929, and the campaign is still the same as it was in 1929 IOTL.

In the 1930 General Election there were also 3 independents, 3 ILP candidates and 3 Irish Nationalists elected into Parliament. This leaves no overall majority, and thus why there is a coalition set up in 1931 that I will talk about more in my next update.

I don’t know much on Elliot’s views other than that he was a Protectionist and favoured Imperial Preference – If you could give me any more information on his views then I’d greatly appreciate it. Also Oliver Russell is simply Lord Ampthill, who I spoke about earlier in an update.

The BNL’s position on the League of Nations is a relatively negative one. This is mainly due to the Imperial preference, tariff and Protectionist policies of the BNL. Also the BNL is slightly xenophobic, adding to the dislike of the LoN.

The BNL had recognized the Soviet Union, though stated that they view them as an enemy due to the ‘Bolsheviks that have infested Russia’.

Yes, that policy with each other allowed for both parties to not go against each other in any constituencies unless if it were just each other. This allowed for many Liberals and Labour candidates to miss out on what had previously allowed them to gain a seat - The splitting of the votes.
 
Update is coming soon people, also I've revised a couple of my past posts to not include the BUF, you'll see why slightly in the next update (a more peaceful Mosley is one reason.)
 
Originally posted by TheNordicBrit

I don't know much on Elliot's views other than he was a Protectionist and favoured Imperial Preference

From this article - http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/ww1-biography/?id=492 :
Walter Elliot Elliot was a successful progressive Conservative politician

[....]

Walter Elliot was a centrist who acquired a reputation for progressive politics.

Lord Ampthill (Oliver Russell), who was a member of the House of Lords, would never be appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer because the House of Lords had no power over financial legislation since the Parliament Act 1911.

Lord Rothermere (Harold Harmsworth) would never have been appointed Shadow Lord Chancellor because he was not a lawyer. The Lord Chancellor was the head of the judiciary and in the 19th and 20th centuries was always a lawyer.
 
From this article - http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/ww1-biography/?id=492 :

Lord Ampthill (Oliver Russell), who was a member of the House of Lords, would never be appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer because the House of Lords had no power over financial legislation since the Parliament Act 1911.

Lord Rothermere (Harold Harmsworth) would never have been appointed Shadow Lord Chancellor because he was not a lawyer. The Lord Chancellor was the head of the judiciary and in the 19th and 20th centuries was always a lawyer.
Thanks for the information on Elliot, I shall take his name of and put someone else up.

And also thanks for the comments about both Ampthill and Rothermere, I've changed the post accordingly.
 
Part 6: A Coalition, a Social Crediting and the Imperial Decision

1931: A year after the 1930 General Election in the UK the Conservatives created a coalition government with the closest party to them policies-wise – The BNL. This coalition government led with a majority of 107 seats. This government had most of its positions filled by members who strongly advocated ‘Imperial Preference’, or a system close to this. This coalition was strongly contested by both the Liberals and Labour parties, though both Lloyd George and George Lansbury had little power they agreed that the next chance they got, they would create a coalition between them to simply stop the Conservatives and BNL.
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Coalition Government in the 36th Parliament

Lord Salisbury – Prime Minister, Lord Privy Seal
Lord Ampthill – Lord Chancellor, Leader of the House of Lords
Lord Rothermere – Lord President of the Council
Sir Murray Sueter – Chancellor of the Exchequer, Leader of the House of Commons
Lord Irwin – Foreign Secretary
Neville Chamberlain – Home Secretary
Leo Amery – Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
Lord Beaverbrook – Secretary of State for the Colonies
Sir Henry Page Croft – Secretary of State for War
Sir Samuel Hoare – Secretary of State for India
Lord Londonderry – Secretary of State for Air
Walter Elliot – Secretary of State for Scotland
Sir Barry Domvile – First Lord of the Admiralty

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Excerpt from “Socialism in Britain, 1920-39” by Thomas P. Linehan (Manchester University Press: 2007)

In the year of 1931 Oswald Mosley formed the ‘New Party’ after the Labour party and its leadership had pushed him away. With him he took Robert Forgan (a close friend of his,) John Strachey, Cynthia Mosley (his wife,) John Beckett, William Allen and Aneurin Bevan. Later the Liberal MP Cecil Dudgeon joined the party. While both Mosley and Beckett were meant to travel to Italy in 1931 though for still unknown reasons they never made it to Italy…

…One of the policies adopted by the Fabian socialist party was Oswald Mosley’s ‘Mosley Memorandum’. This was a large document on how Oswald Mosley believed unemployment should be tackled. They also soon took on a system of ‘Social Credit’ and became known as the ‘New Credit Party’. It rapidly overtook the success of the already established ‘Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Ireland’ and around 45% of the members of the SCP joined the NCP, a great success for Mosley in the first year of his party’s creation…

…Mosley soon managed to gain the support of Hastings Russell, heir to the Duke of Bedford. And in the first by-election his party stood in, in Ashton-under-Lyne (1931) the NCP candidate managed to gain 33% of the vote, while the Labour gained 16% and the Conservative candidate gained 51% of the vote…

…It’s evident through the voting patterns of the by-elections the NCP stood in that the public began to view the NCP as a newer, better and anti-revolutionary version of the Labour Party. They also preferred Oswald Mosley to George Lansbury, which probably led to more votes going to the NCP…

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Excerpt from “The British Empire and the Commonwealth” by Lawrence James (Abacus: 1995)

In 1931 a pro-protectionist coalition took over in Britain, and they set about trying to create a more isolationist British Commonwealth. The first example of this was in 1932 during the British Empire Economic Conference. During this conference in Ottawa, members from the colonies and autonomous dominions within the Empire debated on the economic system and by the end of the debate all members had agreed on an increased form of Imperial Preference. Due to this the Import Duties Act passed earlier in the year was developed to envelop the entirety of the British Empire and autonomous dominions, though the Import Tariffs were raised to 40% from its initial 33%…

…This would have greater effects on the future of the British Commonwealth of Nations and the British Empire…

…Also throughout the British Empire (mainly Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India) there are numerous exhibitions opened to encourage people being patriotic of the British Empire and also to encourage ‘buying Empire’...
 
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Right. I'm re-booting this TL as I'm interested in re-doing it with a couple of different things.

Should I bother first and foremost? And also I was planning on just doing it in one style of writing, which would would be the best in your opinion?
 
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