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"History loves shooting stars like Bottomley. It's all the better when they burn out." Winston Churchill 1917

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Exert from a Lecture by Prof. Daniel Greening, University of Glasgow, Feb. 1975

"The Asquith Ministry suffered a great blow after the Easter Rising. Evidence shows that the Prime Minister was going through great personal tragedy due to the death of his son, Raymond Asquith, during a visit to his battalion while he had already been requesting to be allowed to be returned to active duty and the news of an uprising in Dublin only compounded stress onto the Prime Minister[1]. As well as this, he also needed to contend with powerful forces who saw him as tired and unable to run the war.

Lloyd George was now calling for a smaller War Cabinet to be established, Lord Northcliffe was using his presses to damage Asquith's government and the Conservatives, along with military figures, were rapidly losing faith that the Prime Minister was focusing on the war effort as a whole and not just thinking about political effects. One of the final straws was Asquith's back-pedalling on Lloyd George's request after an editorial from The Times suggested he lost control, the Secretary of State for War then resigned.

Without the support of the press, the Conservatives and even the public, Henry Asquith resigned as Prime Minister and would see Lloyd George take his place in a matter of days. He refused, along with other leading Liberals, to serve in the new Cabinet due to what he saw as a perceived betrayal by an over-ambitious traitor which allowed for the Conservatives to gain more positions in the War Cabinet while it also allowed another figure to enter the Cabinet. One who had been making a name for himself as a maverick, a great orator and a bit of a conman.

Horatio Bottomley had humble origins, as I'm sure most of you know, going from an orphan to the founder of the Financial Times, John Bull and the man who would shape the very fabric of British politics itself. He had already been going on many 'patriotic war lectures' where he would call upon young men to join the army and fight against the Germans in Europe with considerable success and to his joy as more and more people began to see him as a great man and soon his reputation as a conman who was thrown out of Parliament for bankruptcy amongst the public was soon vanishing in favour of the image of a noble patriot who loved his country immensely[2].

So when Henry Asquith resigned and the government was going to be reshuffled, it was no surprise that a movement to put him into the new War Cabinet was started. Bottomley, never one to allow opportunity to pass while in good health[3], was soon at the head of this campaign as sources said that "his speeches now had a sense of upcoming glory and rewarding which comforted his audience as they thought he was talking about them, rather then himself". Lloyd George, already a good friend of Bottomley, was receptive towards this campaign and soon began to try and find a place to put Bottomley so that he could be in the Cabinet.

Horatio Bottomley was soon made into Lord Bottomley and was soon invited into the War Cabinet into the new post of Minister of Information, designed to increase morale and support in Britain with the use of the media, make sure that something like the Easter Rising did not occur again and use propaganda in neutral countries to increase support for the Allied Powers. Horatio Bottomley was delighted that his hard work seemed to be paying off and was also happy about how he was right that "this war is my opportunity" and resolved to try and improve his reputation even further.

The first thing he did as Minster of Information was get the support of Lord Northcliffe and other press barons, such as Lord Beaverbrook, recently knighted as a way to avoid giving him a Cabinet position as originally promised, by speeding up the process of allowing Beaverbrook to purchase The Daily Express by June 1916[4]. The next thing he did was use said press barons to unleash a barrage of propaganda to try and encourage soldiers into joining the army and getting their relatives to support the war effort.

The other thing he did was target those who had wronged him or had been firm opponents of the war, Ramsay MacDonald suffered a media campaign that could be described as brutal at best for a few weeks until pressure from the Labour benches had forced Lloyd George to convince Bottomley to call off the media assassination. Instead, Bottomley went around the country once more but with many newspapers showing exerts of his speeches in their articles, using his skills with words to convince thousands to sign up and end a war which was supposed to have ended a few years ago.

Bottomley's charisma allowed for more support to be given to the Ministry as explicit instruction were given to make sure that the Minister didn't get up to old tricks and in reward for the Herculean task, they were granted more and more powers. War films, war photographs and art were designed to paint a heroic image and the idea of noble sacrifices being made for the greater good of the nation allowed for more support for the war to appear, war bond sales to heavily increase[5] and for Lloyd George and Horatio Bottomley to become beloved names in certain households. Intelligence records would soon be granted to the Ministry of Information, only for the entire staff to resign and be re-hired by the Foreign Office, requiring replacements[6].

Press barons such as Northcliffe, Beaverbrook were happy with the arrangement as their Minister did not look upon them with suspicion and, if anything, allowed them more freedom in what they did as long as they pushed forward the agenda needed. Where normal politicians would frown and insult[7], Bottomley would support and push forward. This would be beneficial for Bottomley as the presses would sing his praises and some of his fellow MPs could only watch aghast as his profile was raised further and further.

Another act of the Ministry of Information was to order that those who "strongly opposed the war effort and tried to negatively interfere" would face a panel to see whether they were foreign agents or were working for outside interests, a tone which only became louder as the Russian Revolution began. Lloyd George, while unsure, maintained support throughout the remaining two years of the war as he would soon face pressure over withholding troops from the front after the Battle of the Somme and Bottomley's media profile allowed him to survive the open split in the Liberal Party that emerged later on.

As the war ended and negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles began, Horatio Bottomley soon realised that he had the chance to make a new image for himself. His popularity now was only beaten by Lloyd George's[8] and he knew that he needed to take advantage of this. What occurred was something that led to the creation of one of the most important parts of the first half of the 20th century and the beginning of a reshape in British politics, he would join the Coalition Liberals in the House of Lords while also accepting work in writing editorials for Northcliffe and Beaverbrook's newspapers so that he would begin creating a new party from a bi-partisan group to allow for a strong network before launching his new party.

He founded the Independent Parliamentary Group[9], a group of MPs and Lords from both sides of the benches, though mostly it was discontent Conservatives and Liberals, to push forward an agenda of a new Britain. Bottomley would later say that the group's founding, "Opened a great third way for our nation," while others would say it only caused chaos in the political system."

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[1] This is a POD. Raymond Asquith died during the Battle of the Somme IOTL after his request to fight alongside them was finally granted, while ITTL he is killed earlier during around March, which means that Asquith gets personal tragedy to go with Easter Rising. This makes him less willing to fight and gives off a weaker image during the Easter Rising which means the media is even more against him then IOTL while making Lloyd George more bold. This will be mentioned later.

[2]Bottomley really did go around the country in music halls in order to recruit young men into the army and his profile was raised more, he was a bit more critical of the government IOTL but always supported the war effort.

[3] Butterfly here, at the time of Lloyd George's ascension, there was a movement to get Bottomley into the Cabinet but he had a fever and so couldn't strike when the iron was hot. ITTL, due to an earlier resignation, he can campaign on this all he likes.

[4]Beaverbrook bought The Daily Express in November 1916, sped up by a friendly Minister and by someone who doesn't want the negative media attention that Asquith got and also wants to maintain popularity

[5] The films, photographs and art were all done IOTL, the third is not exactly the same but it carries a similar message and war bond sales did increase when Beaverbrook implemented this, though it was later due to the Ministry of Information (also OTL) being founded later then ITTL.

[6] This funny story happened IOTL too, Balfour was either a really good boss or Beaverbrook was a very bad one.

[7] OTL too. Beaverbrook and Northcliffe were not looked upon with positive eyes by the political elite due to earlier behaviour and the fact that they were seen as 'press lords' who were just there to keep coverage positive. Here, Bottomley wants everyone to know how fantastic his existence is and how lame his enemies are.

[8] Basically, Lloyd George said to be so popular that some Conservatives said "He can be dictator for life if he wishes" and the public saw him as someone who cleaned Asquith's mess up and had 'won the war' by getting rid of the man so Bottomley ITTL could be seen as very loved, much to some people's dismay.

[9] He did this IOTL but he has something much bigger planned here and is trying to build the foundations of something big and new rather then have a momentary career boost.
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