A Shift in Priorities

[MrHaakwood]

It's just the feeling I got from all the hints ITTL, I wasn't implying anything about OTL.

Sorry if it seemed I was talking about germans in stereotypes.

Yeah I understood that. For me the last part seemed that "even" the German inteligence services cant find out what is going on. And if the cyber-punk EVEG secruity service doesnt have a clue, who could have?

Seems more like a matter of perception to me.

 

[Jotun]

As a rule of thumb, 80 to 90% of all intelligence work comes from open sources. The rest is taken up by SIGINT, ELINT, IMINT and so forth.

If the open part and a goodish proportion of SIGINT is cut off, you are basically back to reading from animal entrails.

TTL's North Korea is a very apt analogy.

 

[Dain]

and elaborate unpronounceable acronyms!


Germany - where you can solve everything with Design, Engineering and elaborate unpronounceable acronyms!

...and a staggering output of regulatory paperwork!

Hmpf. Let's start anew:


No-one expects the German Engineering Corps!

 

[Expat]

Or how about a camo spy zeppelin!

Seriously though, if Britain's so hard to infiltrate, Canada's probably chock-full of spies. It's absolutely vital to the nation so the powers-that-be have to be kept in the loop, it's got tons of empty space to facilitate easy infiltration, and by it's nature it's security can't be as strict as Great Britain's.

 

[Dain]

How is Canada handling the coup anyway? I assume that only the British isles themselves are under communication blackout, so all the party leaders there have a lot of resources to bring to bear on the problem...

 

[rast]

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
(François de La Rochefoucauld)

It was frustrating: she had known nothing; but Freddy Rose, Canada’s prime minister, had been intimated to the planned coup in London. Yet, the bugger hadn’t deemed it worth to bring her into the loop. Governor General Ebby Edwards had also been ignorant. – Now, there had occurred a nasty row, once Freddy had come out with the facts. Edith Rowley had been tempted to have the moronic little Jew flung into a wood cutter camp in the mountains – or, even better, have him shot on the spot, but eventually, once her wrath had slumped a little bit, had refrained from such extreme methods.

However, who were these seditious idiots in London thinking was running the show here in Ottawa? Was this dingbat Palme Dutt believing his brother-in-the-spirit Freddy was able to overrule or even oust her? – Well, Edith knew that Palme Dutt and Field Marshal Fuller were at enmity, and that she was generally seen as Fuller’s confidant. True, for sure, she would have cried wolf, had she known. But now, the calamity had happened – and there was nothing she could do about it.

Ebby Edwards was suggesting to denounce the coup. He was an old labour union carthorse and extremely distrustful of intellectuals like Palme Dutt and his fellows. – If Canada refused support for the putschists, their situation would become very difficult very quickly. As a matter of fact, Edith was controlling the pulse beat of Red Albion. – And because this was so, she was so infuriated. The putschists had to be complete imbeciles. Planning a coup without consulting her was like charging a bull with a fly flap.

But then… Yes, she would have blown the whistle. This, Palme Dutt had avoided by letting Freddy in on the coup – and tasking the bloke to divulge the story to her and Ebby. It was a reasonable behaviour, in a way… Freddy thought it was time for change. British socialism was seriously mismanaged. There was too much cronyism and otiosity. Palme Dutt and his friends would put socialism back on the scientific basis of true Marxism.

Edith wasn’t outright convinced. But what should she do? She had no clue what was actually going on in London, nobody over here had. England had been switched to complete communications blackout. – Should the putschists emerge victorious, opposing them would seriously weaken the common cause. She always had been a proponent of unity. She had domesticated Canada for Britain, had made the country subservient.

Palme Dutt’s message, conveyed by Freddy, was clear: she could continue to rule Canada. There would be no interference. – Whether this announcement was credible, she doubted. It might be observed initially, but… Now, she didn’t know Palme Dutt in the flesh. What she had heard of him, however, made her wonder. He was notorious as a radical; yet, he had been one of Oswald Mosley’s most loyal supporters. There seemed to be a quality in him that many of the old ruling circle were missing…

Now, she could afford to wait. All ship traffic to Britain had been put on hold once Britain had gone off line. London would have to come to her. – However, as the days went by, Edith grew uneasy. What was taking them so long over there? She always had assumed a coup was a matter of a few hours. This was now the third day since blackout…

 

[Bmao]

Assuming that Red Britain continues to roil in North Korea-esque secrecy and instability, this could be a prime opportunity for the US to regain influence in Canada. The US has moved past the bad times of the 30s and seems to be on the upswing again, while Britain looks like its growing more unstable by the day.

At this rate, if Canada continues to tether itself to Britain, it could be facing economic downturn. Sure, there is the political misgivings from the previous decades, but if faced with a Britain that can no longer provide for its economic needs, Rowley might not have any other choice but to bite the bullet and turn to the US as an alternative.

Canada could also use the threat of re-strengthening ties with the US to extract further concessions from Britain, should it emerge with some sort of stable political leadership.

 

[MrHaakwood]

I wanted to do this since some time, so some help would be appreciated:

The world at the end of the 40ies(or not?):

-Germany Is going to a cultural change first. Other nations will follow. I guess the whole peace movement is a figleaf for a changing of morals and a generation change. Probably because it as the moment the most wealthy nation on earth. Followed by Russia. I still cant see where this is heading.

- Germany, Russia and England are in a arms race against each other.

- Russia tries to seduce his European colonial empire back to mother Russia.

- England is on the way to becoming North Korea

- The USA is back on track since some time, but has not asserted itself on the global stage.

And here comes the problem: The state of the rest of the world. I remember that Japan tried to challenge China for the leading position in the asian block. Is this still ongoing?

And what about the other big players? The Ottomans, Middle Africans (Kay, the Southwest thingy) and India?

Best regards, Haaki

 

[rast]

Not philosophers but fret sawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.
(Aldous Huxley)

What a jumble! British Prime Minister Rajani Palme Dutt was reflecting on the path of trial and tribulation put by, while waiting to become online for his address to the nation. – Gee! Arresting the Bevin cabinet had been easy as a pie. These good people had tamely capitulated. No violence had been required. – It had been the King, who had thrown a spanner in the putschists’ works!

Yeah, George VI had refused to ask Palme Dutt to form a government without the prior vote of the House. But the faithful members of parliament, sensing that something potentially dangerous was about to happen, had scurried away in all directions. Even the concentrated force of MI5, Scotland Yard and Old Bill had required two days to scoop them out of their hidey-holes again.

Convincing the brave parliamentarians to vote for Palme Dutt had been a waltz again. They had very well understood who was top dog now. – After the vote, George VI had agreed that his hands had indeed been kissed – and had finally asked Palme Dutt, who had gladly accepted.

It had been a wholly unbloody affair. Nobody had been killed, only few had been injured. The most prominent casualty was Strafer Gott, the former MI5 chief, whose nose had been broken during his deposition. But the whole putsch procedure had taken almost four days.

It was almost a miracle that the armed forces had kept quiet. Now, Palme Dutt thought it was the combination of drubbing in Sierra Leone, Field Marshal Fuller’s subsequent retirement and the newly introduced controller supervision that had made the difference.

The alliance with MI5 had worked perfectly. The spooks had thus shaken off the military override introduced by Fuller. Would they remain loyal? Well, he had tasked David Kirkwood with directing the outfit. Kirkwood was an educated man, an engineer by profession – and had ample prison experience. He should get along well with the operatives, who now could recur as the shepherd dogs of the socialist flock.

Yes, they were going to have a lot of work. Deplorable customs had become a habit in the party. People were indulging in undue privileges. One had to educate them in the spirit of true socialism. It was a considerable task, but Palme Dutt was determined to press it home. Socialism could only mature to perfection if all impurity was removed.

Palme Dutt had decided that the great experiment should be limited to Britain and her possessions. The idea of leading the world to socialism in synchronism had to be abandoned. It was impractical. – But once Britain had attained paradise on earth, the example would spread inevitably. It was not a matter of force, it was a matter of charisma.

Many Britons were going to grumble, because the austerity Palme Dutt intended to enforce was inconvenient for them. But this was no real hardship. It would fade out, once the blessings of true socialism became evident. One had to reform the controller hierarchy, lead them to be the guardians – not the profiteers…

Palme Dutt was getting the signal; he was online now.
“Good evening, fellow Britons, sisters and brothers in common ownership…”

 

[FickleCrossroad]

As if you haven't written many "fecal matter meets spinning air-circulation device" moments...

The keg has been built and filled, the fuse uncoiled and planted... Who will light the match?

 

[norlag]

It had been the King, who had thrown a spanner in the putschists’ works!

Long live the king!!!!

Shame it didn't stop the coup.

 

[Monty Burns]

Socialism in one country only, cleaning the party?

Welcome Comrade Stalin!

 

[Expat]

Heh, wonder how long he'll stay in power based on the assumption that people will thank him for hardship. Even NK has to pretend their standard of living is the best in the world.

I wanted to do this since some time, so some help would be appreciated:

The world at the end of the 40ies(or not?):

-Germany Is going to a cultural change first. Other nations will follow. I guess the whole peace movement is a figleaf for a changing of morals and a generation change. Probably because it as the moment the most wealthy nation on earth. Followed by Russia. I still cant see where this is heading.

- Germany, Russia and England are in a arms race against each other.

- Russia tries to seduce his European colonial empire back to mother Russia.

- England is on the way to becoming North Korea

- The USA is back on track since some time, but has not asserted itself on the global stage.

And here comes the problem: The state of the rest of the world. I remember that Japan tried to challenge China for the leading position in the asian block. Is this still ongoing?

And what about the other big players? The Ottomans, Middle Africans (Kay, the Southwest thingy) and India?

Best regards, Haaki

I'm not sure if Germany *is* the wealthiest nation on the planet. By the numbers it probably is, thanks to EVEG. But the extent to which EVEG's wealth impacts Germany's wealth as a nation is probably somewhat less spectacular than it could be, since EVEG actually seems very good at reinvesting in their extraction territories.

Anyway, if it's not Germany, it's Russia.

There is basically no reasonable way for England to ever become North Korea. It's ability to screw itself in the arse ITTL has been impressive, it's true. Impressive to the point where it doesn't seem reasonable for such a string of terrible luck to continue for much longer. To go from the most powerful empire the world has ever seen to North Korea in two generations is just not in the cards.

Not to say it can't be bad, like perhaps East Germany after 40 years of communism IOTL bad. That seems a more likely target.

The US has asserted itself a little bit in company with China. They (along with Japan and the rest of the East Asian Alliance) competed with Russia for all of the world's open markets not too long ago. If we're treating that as a zero sum game, Russia won and the other players lost. But I don't think it was zero sum. All the players won something; those who didn't play (Germany, the Ottomans, everyone else, really) were the real losers.

The US has regrown its domestic market and has a decent footprint on world markets. They've got a few prestigious export industries, but media is now at the top of that list and even that's a noticeably smaller presence than IOTL.

I believe that Japan's pretty successfully turned the tables on China by pulling all of the East Asian Alliance into their camp. To me it seems like Japan's been running at 105% capacity for 15-20 years now, barely able to keep up with its own plans. Now that they've got the East Asian Alliance reoriented away from China, I would expect Japan itself to cool off a bit and that we should see the focus shift to the development of other nations of east Asia (labor and cost disparities push mfg to Vietnam, the Philippines, etc.)

As far as I know, the Ottomans are chugging along, investing in impressive ecological schemes and growing rich, with the Saudi fields still not even mentioned that I can remember!

And I would say that at this point India and MA are both just enjoying being the masters of their own houses and developing into future world powers.

 

[rast]

Ships and sails proper for the heavenly air should be fashioned. Then there will also be people, who do not shrink from the dreary vastness of space.
(Johannes Kepler)

Unaffected by British socialist shenanigans and German peace hunches, the Russian capitalists were considering the profit opportunities offered by space flight. Evidently, having a monkey or a man circle around the globe and wave might be nice for the national spirit, but hardly adequate for a nice yield – except for those who were making money with books, movies and memorabilia related to space exploration. Na’uchnaya Fantástika, as the Russians were calling it, was selling like hot cakes.

Rockets were also a sound business. Right now, unfortunately, Rozhdestvensky was still holding the monopoly; but there was no law against other companies trying to snatch a piece of the pie. Even if space flight should prove a non-starter in the long run, the military would want rockets. In fact, the generals were always sitting in the back row when it came to developing rocketry. This involved some risk, however, as selling the equipment abroad would hardly be endorsed.

Satellites were another possibility, although currently rather in the realm of na’uchnaya fantástika. But one had to look ahead. Objects could be launched into stable orbits, this was clear. But for which purposes? – Photography said some. Photos had already been taken from space. With better cameras, one could produce better pictures. – But this then would be something for the secret services, not for the layman, wouldn’t it? – Well, one could also observe the weather. Selling weather data might pay off.

Communications might be another field. Wasn’t Russia a huge country, extending over eleven time zones? Satellites might facilitate radio traffic and telephony, claimed some. How? Well, this had to be researched. It was a worthy task for the research departments. – But Russia had excellent wire communications. One didn’t need expensive satellites for that. – Perhaps internationally? Yes, may be, it had to be sounded out.

How about private property in space? Could one – say – build a private space station? Well, said the lawyers, Russian law didn’t forbid it outright. If only private means were used for construction of the device… Yet, of course, if there was a military emergency… But this could be regulated in advance by a contract. In this case, one could even get the military to contribute to the cost…

[FONT=&quot]Because Rozhdestvensky had outsmarted them several times in the past by ruthlessly investing in vague adventures – and making huge profits on it, most major Russian companies were now ready to run risks. Therefore, the Russian industry embraced the idea of investing in space travel on a broad front. Within few months, the market for engineers and technicians had been sucked empty – and Russia started importing talent from abroad. [/FONT]

 

[wietze]

it is becoming a space wank! yeah!

 

[rast]

The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun.
(Eric Arthur Blair)

Fine, the emergency was over, Britain had a new prime minister – and Lieutenant General Polly Brown was about to resume the nuclear test series. Now, whether Ernest Bevin or Rajani Palme Dutt was billeting in Downing Street Number Ten, she didn’t really care, in her mind one heinous civilian was as good as any other. Her mission was to conduct these blooming tests. The weather wasn’t getting any better. Daylight hours were also going down rapidly, had almost reached minimum. It was the 3rd of November already.

She had whipped her subordinates into action early. The countdown for the Arrow Mk.III was in progress. – And then, the radio message arrived:
SUSPEND TEST SERIES UNTIL YOUR CONTROLLER HAS ARRIVED.
Who? What controller?

Her name was Maud Woodley. She was about ten years younger than Polly, evidently a proud product of long-standing indoctrination acquired at various party institutions. She was arrogant and vainglorious. She presented Polly her certificate of authority. From now on, Polly needed Maud’s countersignature for each and every order she wanted to issue.

This day, Maud had no need to countersign anything. Polly simply turned around and left for a walk. Maud tried to follow, but her pumps weren’t good for Mainland bedrock. When she had changed to suitable shoes, Polly was gone.

Polly didn’t show up again. Maud tasked MI5 to find her – and asked for a new general. But instead, the test series was cancelled. Maud was distracted. Didn’t they have another general? She phoned her chief. Obviously, Polly Brown was a special case. It required time to instruct another soldier type. Best would be she retrieved Polly and coaxed her to continue.

But even MI5’s dogs couldn’t find Polly Brown on Mainland.

 

[Archangel]

Is Polly trying to leave the UK and defect?

 

[rast]

Expect the best; prepare for the worst.
(Muhammad Ali Jinnah)

The death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on September 11th 1948 had been a severe loss for the Indian Federation and the Realm of the Aryans. The Shia Muslim Jinnah had been a major political player – and a guarantor for religious peace between Muslims and Hindoos. In the context of the alliance, he always had been considered a proper dialogue partner in Persia and Afghanistan.

His successor as head of the National Muslim League had become Liaquat Ali Khan, a renowned proponent of Islamic democracy and Indian unity. In Lahore it was, however, feared that Ali Khan wouldn’t be able to control the Muslim separatists as effectively as Ali Jinnah had done. The lawyer and financial expert Ali Khan certainly was a splendid political expert, but he lacked the charisma to take along those who secretly craved for the introduction of sharia.

More than 65 million Muslims were living in the Indian Federation, making it the most populous Muslim country on earth. Even Greater Mysore in the south of the subcontinent was still home to 13 million Muslims. And because infant mortality had drastically been reduced, the growth rates were formidable. This was making other prominent Muslim countries, like the Ottoman Empire or Persia, look like sparsely populated solitudes.

But even this large number of faithful believers was overshadowed by an enormous mass of non-Muslims, approximately 312 millions of them on the whole subcontinent. Only very few of those were in possession of a holy book; the sweeping majority thus were howling savages in the perception of orthodox Muslims. And there were quite a lot of very orthodox believers, especially among the fast growing rural population.

The urban Muslim elites were viewing this development with uneasy displeasure. But they, the heirs of the onetime rulers of the realm, were having far less children than the ignorant farmers. Ali Khan, scion of Punjab landowning nobility, had access to his peers, but was suspected to fail opposite the ordinary peasantry. Suddenly, the long-since apprehended religious schism of the Federation appeared a distinct possibility.

 

[red1]

The Polly Brown and ?Raisa Gorbachev? (I think she's the rocket company lady, right?) stories are my favorite parts of this fantastic series. The only thing I would like to see is a new map (and several maps through the years) to go along with it

 

[Expat]

Industrialization and education would offset that kind of conservatism to some extent. And they'll both lower the birthrate as well.

I hate to put it this way, but if Muslim elites go to the Hindus with a scheme to curb the influence of conservative Muslims, I feel like the Hindus are going to think that's a very worthwhile enterprise.

The Ottomans have also made it a state policy to curb the more dangerous strains of Islam, and in the past have traveled about the world in search of conspiracies to unravel. Making themselves a customer for goods made by Indian Muslims in factory jobs that put them culturally out of reach of conservative Imams would have a couple of benefits:
1) I bet the goods will be really cheap to buy.
2) It reinforces state policy by de-radicalizing the spiritual citizens of the Caliphate.