A Stronger, Warlike Britain?

What would be required to happen for a TL diverging in 1944/45 to lead up to a Britain that has the economic and military capability to fight a major european war while preventing interference from other countries by the mid 1990s?
 
What I'm aiming for is a plausible "every western european country for itself" in the 1990s (which britain wins). I think Trinity's gonna have to be a dud for this to work...
 
There was a thread a few weeks ago about the British sticking to their own nuclear program and I believe it was reckoned plausible that thye could have had a wrking bomb by early 1945, maybe that's the PoD along with American neutrality and thus a much more weary USSR?
 
There was a thread a few weeks ago about the British sticking to their own nuclear program and I believe it was reckoned plausible that thye could have had a wrking bomb by early 1945, maybe that's the PoD along with American neutrality and thus a much more weary USSR?

Think our TL has a more warlike Britain, don't you agree?;)
 
Perhaps Britain somehow holds on to India? Combine with the ECSC failing to form, and maybe Franco's regime toppled a decade earlier?
 
Holding onto India huh? Very interesting, I've always wondered about that. If civil disobedience fails it could pan out more like Algeria, Vietnam and Namibia except even worse. A bloody struggle in which the British won't leave could even end up making a very different Indian nation. I guess that's why the Brits decided they'd better quit while they were (kind of) ahead.
 
I think a good POD could be Yugoslavia staying together long enough to beat the Dream Team in the 92 Olympics uniting the country. Without the pressure of intervention in Bosnia the US winds down its involvement in Europe focusing more on Central Asia. Europeans consequently have to step up defense spending and are more willing to do so as a means of independence from America.
 
PoD 44/45? Maybe Churchill suffering from a heart attack and being persuaded not to stand in the next election. Anthony Eden wins by a small majority.

Or maybe Labour don't have enough seats for a majority and have to form a coalition, Churchill refuses to serve as Deputy PM.
 
PoD 44/45? Maybe Churchill suffering from a heart attack and being persuaded not to stand in the next election. Anthony Eden wins by a small majority.

Or maybe Labour don't have enough seats for a majority and have to form a coalition, Churchill refuses to serve as Deputy PM.
Going from hazy memory I remember reading somewhere that apparently one of the other major failings of the Conservative election campaign was that during war they didn't pay much attention to their regional and local party apparatus unlike Labour did whilst a part of the all-party coalition. That meant that when the election came around they had to start rebuilding whilst Labour was already fully organised. The other main problem was that whilst they like Churchill they were less keen on the Conservative party itself going on its policies in the 30s and the coalition had given Labour the opportunity to show they could handle government and their policies appealed more.

Considering how one sided our timelines results were I think you're going to be hard pressed to stop the Labour party from winning even with something like a double point of departure of the Conservatives keeping their local constituency party organisations running so ready to fight the election effectively, and have Churchill some disabled and forced to stand down so he doesn't make the silly statements he did. At best you'd probably get Labour winning but with a reduced majority so maybe less of a mandate to implement drastic reform or changes?

That might get you something to build on so that the Conservatives win a slim majority in the 1950 general election as opposed to Labour being re-elected with with a slim majority as in our timeline. The Conservatives were already elected back into government in 1951 so what would the extra year give us? Looking at the list of nationalised industries coal mining, the railways, road haulage, the canals, cable and wireless, the electricity and gas industries had all been nationalised but the steel industry wasn't taken over until 1951 apparently. An early election possibly avoid the government taking over the steel industry but that's all really.

None of this is really my area of expertise though so I'm more than happy to be corrected if I've misunderstood something.
 
I've often wondered if an Tory government under Powell in the 60's might lead to a more independetly minded, "Gaullist" Britain, not so disimilar to France. But without a realistic economic and political alternative to Europe where Britain is generally one amongst equals and not an outright leader then i find it hard to see a post war Britain where military spending is much higher than OTL.

Russell
 
http://www.ssplprints.com/lowres/43/main/58/209327.jpg

Enoch Powell on a pogo stick - now that is a disturbing image :eek:
 
But without a realistic economic and political alternative to Europe where Britain is generally one amongst equals and not an outright leader then I find it hard to see a post war Britain where military spending is much higher than OTL.
Well if you had perfect foresight/future knowledge then you could avoid a lot of the social and industrial pitfalls that Britain fell into and vastly improve the economy, without that knowledge though it's going to be hard to avoid as a lot of the damaging policies had at the time and the post war consensus had broad - if grudging from some - support from all of the major parties.

That's one of the things about ISoTs that deal with the second world war period like the Foresight War or some of the ones in the ASB forum that's always interested me as much as the war fighting. The possibility that if you have someone with half decent historical knowledge of the rest of the century, how much could you improve/wank things like industry, the economy, society etc. after the war? Some of the absolute disasters seem to of been completely self inflicted.
 
In the defence field alone Britain made some shocking errors, like declaring manned aircraft obsolete, the fuckaround with TSR2/F111K/AFVG/UKVG/Tornado and the Victorious rebuild. Avoiding these strengthens the British economy and military power.
 
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