"A Very British Transition" - A Post-Junta Britain TL

This result could be beneficial for the left in the sense that it might focus minds but realistically, the only way to a majority for the UPA/SDP is via the regionalist parties, which given the situation in Scotland would present massive conflict of interest problems in a stable democracy.

I maintain that with COVID coming and the Scottish conflict looking set to erupt, we are on course for another coup (or attempted one).
 
Is there An English Defense League counterpart in this timeline? If there is really going to be balkanization we might as well, go all the way.
 
Chapter 110: The Patriots
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With a much reduced majority, the UPA would need other parties to pass it's radical manifesto

“The UPA will announce its plan to break the political deadlock “as soon as possible” after winning Thursday's General Election. In the poll, the Centrists moved into four place as National rallied and Unity endured a humiliating collapse. The UPA, led by Bell Ribeiro-Addy, won 139 seats, 33 fewer than in the inconclusive election in May. National won 106 seats, followed by the Social Democrats who won 85. The anti-austerity far-right came fourth with 71 seats. Unity slumped to fifth place, as the 77 seats it picked up seven months ago dwindled to 33. The party’s leader, Alan Sugar, resigned on Monday. Frustration and apathy appear to have affected turnout, with participation dropping from 76% in May to 65%. The result suggests the UK is no closer to ending its impasse and is again bound for months of negotiations to try to assemble a government.”
- Commons deadlock remains as far right makes big gains, Sam Jones, The Guardian (2019)

British democracy was arguably at its most precarious point since the 2009 coup, reaching its fourth election in so many years - Britain was further from Government than ever. Unity and the People’s Alliance were the biggest losers of the night, losing nearly 80 seats between the two of them. This was especially humiliating for Ribeiro-Addy who had called the election in a plea for stability, only to be repudiated by voters. The Green Left Movement also had a disastrous night, with the vast majority of defectors losing their seat, as the party only lept the de-facto 10% threshold in a handful of provinces.The reaction of several politicians was likened to rats fleeing a sinking ship. Sugar announced he was not only resigning as Unity leader - but giving up his Commons seat and quitting politics altogether.

The Centrists’ incredible surge, nearly doubling their parliamentary caucus, lit a fire under politicians across the left as the threat of authoritarianism had well and truly returned. James Cleverly was very happy to leave the other parties squabbling into yet another election - where he could fill the gap. With Britain back into political stalemate, the people were restless and even the barracks began to whisper. A third election was not an option, Brussels demanded a government, the UK’s international creditors demanded a government - most importantly the people demanded a government. There were now three options on the table, a left wing UPA-SDP Government, a centrist Government of the three establishment parties - or a united right.

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Alan Sugar's political career ended in defeat

The united right collapsed quite quickly, Cleverly made any negotiations as difficult as possible, demanding an end to devolution and a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. Unity too were particularly unhelpful in talks, with acting leader Ruth Davidson a lot more skeptical of the Centrists than her old boss had been - she demanded the protection of abortion and LGBT rights and would under no terms countenance putting Britain's relationship with the EU at risk. Political difficulties weren’t the only thing keeping a united right out of power as street protests erupted across the country against the Centrists. If Cleverly entered the Cabinet there would likely be riots.

“Riot police have removed Scottish pro-independence protesters who are blocking both sides of the A1. Demonstrators camped overnight on the motorway at a north-eastern border point near Lamberton. Officers used tear gas to clear protesters. It comes as the Scottish parliament backed a non-binding motion on the right to exercise self-determination. Over 1,000 protesters occupied the border on Monday, using vehicles and barriers to block the road before sitting on the tarmac. After warning demonstrators that they faced being evicted if they did not disperse, police moved in - some armed with tear gas canisters. Footage posted on social media showed police officers pushing people - in some cases dragging them one by one - to the Scottish side of the border.” - A1 Protesters Face Police, BBC News Bulletin (2019)

So once again Sadiq Khan held the power, after a surprisingly strong election performance Khan could now pick between a left-wing coalition or a moderate one - and would leverage this to its full effect. As someone from the left of the Social Democrats, most famed for combating the 2009 coup, Khan was naturally suspicious of National as the Social Democrats’ ancient enemy. Khan’s support for Scottish devolution now directly clashed with Tugdehat’s pledge to outlaw seperatist parties in Scotland. Whilst he did hold talks with National and Unity, these were mostly as a way of gaining leverage in talks with his preferred coalition partner - the People’s Alliance.

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As politicians negotiated, the situation in Scotland continued to escalate

Negotiations with the newly humbled Ribeiro-Addy went a lot better then they had in May, despite the left’s diminished standing in Parliament. The People’s Alliance made several moderating concessions to the Social Democrats - such as dropping proposed plans to nationalise the “big four” UK banks. However the parties agreed on a lot, outlining a progressive government including rent controls, and a green new deal. The Social Democrats would also be granted six of Britain's Cabinet posts, with nine going to the People’s Party and one to the Socialist Alternative. The agreement was subsequently ratified by UPA membership by a 77% margin.

Now the coalition had to win over Scottish parties, entering into negotiation with RISE and the SNP. Khan had recognised the need to restore calm to Scotland, and had considerably softened his position to seperatism as an ideology. In return for Parliamentary support, the coalition supported pardons for Scottish seperatist leaders as well as a radical devolution of powers and money to the provinces, including generous university grants for Scottish students. Despite not being granted a referendum on independence, promises of pardons subsequently made it very easy for SNP and RISE leaders to support a People’s Alliance government. With the two parties signed and delivered Ribeiro-Addy had a solid but not unshakable majority.

Britain’s right was outraged, Tugendhat accused the government as built on “a coalition of lies, a coalition of extremists and a coalition of chaos”. Despite the howls of protest from National benches, Ribeiro-Addy now had a majority and on the seventh of February 2020 she was elected as Britain’s first woman of colour Prime Minister and first radical leftist leader and the youngest Prime Minister since Pitt the Younger. Mountbatten would be spinning in his soon to be vacated grave. It was also notable for being the first coalition government in Britain since the Second World War. Despite having a proportional system, British politics had always been suspicious of coalitions - the Junta had started as an “Emergency Government of National Unity”. Time would only tell if Ribeiro-Addy could build a new pluralistic politics as she appointed her Cabinet.

“In a few minutes, Mr Speaker, I will take my hands off this dispatch box to hear from the Leader of the Opposition. I will listen to his interventions and each honourable member will use his time as he sees fit. The only thing I ask is that you think of the people who watch us from their homes. Come up to this platform, propose an alternative vision to the program that I have proposed, defend it with passion and conviction. Vote according to your conscience, because it will be, Mr Speaker, an honour to listen to you and debate with you. The only thing I ask of you is that we do not contribute with our words to making coexistence suffer. Let us not transfer from this House more division to the street, more discord to the companies, more disagreement to the families. That, Mr Speaker, is patriotism.” - Bell Ribeiro-Addy Victory Speech (2020)

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Khan and Ribeiro-Addy had repaired their personal relationship
 
I guess a reckless coalition of socialists and separatists (to use the Canadian phrase) was the best Britain could have hoped for, but since a) this is @powerab's Britain we're talking about, and b) we're two months out from COVID...yeah, I'll grab the popcorn. Another great update!
 
December 2019 Election Detailed Results
December 2019 Election Detailed Results
  • People’s Alliance : 139 (-33)
  • National Party: 106 (+28)
  • Social Democratic Party: 85 (+17)
  • Centrists: 71 (+28)
  • Unity: 33 (-44)
  • RISE: 16 (-4)
  • Scottish National Party: 13 (+4)
  • Green Left Movement: 9 (+3)
  • Plaid Cymru: 8 (+1)
  • Forward Wales: 5 (-)
  • Worker’s Party of Scotland: 3 (-)
  • Sinn Fein: 3 (-2)
  • Ulster Conservatives: 3 (+1)
  • Social Democratic and Labour Party: 2 (-)
  • Northern Irish Liberals: 1 (-)
 
December 2019 Election Detailed Results
  • People’s Alliance : 139 (-33)
  • National Party: 106 (+28)
  • Social Democratic Party: 85 (+17)
  • Centrists: 71 (+28)
  • Unity: 33 (-44)
  • RISE: 16 (-4)
  • Scottish National Party: 13 (+4)
  • Green Left Movement: 9 (+3)
  • Plaid Cymru: 8 (+1)
  • Forward Wales: 5 (-)
  • Worker’s Party of Scotland: 3 (-)
  • Sinn Fein: 3 (-2)
  • Ulster Conservatives: 3 (+1)
  • Social Democratic and Labour Party: 2 (-)
  • Northern Irish Liberals: 1 (-)
Mebyon Kernow lost it's seat?
 
Mebyon Kernow lost it's seat?
Yes alas, Dick Cole chose to retire at the 2019 election, taking a lot of his personal vote with him. MK had been declining for years since the transition and the Centrists saw a political surge in Cornwall.

This all culminated in the Cornish nationalists failing to hold their seat
 
Yes alas, Dick Cole chose to retire at the 2019 election, taking a lot of his personal vote with him. MK had been declining for years since the transition and the Centrists saw a political surge in Cornwall.

This all culminated in the Cornish nationalists failing to hold their seat
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the people were restless and even the barracks began to whisper.

Mountbatten would be spinning in his soon to be vacated grave.

the Junta had started as an “Emergency Government

we're two months out from COVID
Why does this all feel like it's going to end with General Boris Johnson (notable for his clean cut and brushed hair) making a televised address to the nation on the 23rd of March 2020 ordering people to stay in their homes and announcing the banning public and private gathering "to prevent the spread of Covid" and advising that troops and police will be on the streets enforcing this and that the military will be taking over key government functions "until the present crisis has passed......".
I can imagine him announcing that key government ministers have gone into "self isolation" due to Covid and that their roles will be fulfilled by senior military officers "for the duration of the current emergency" and ending his speech by quoting Admiral Hill Norton and stating "There is no alternative".
 
Why does this all feel like it's going to end with General Boris Johnson (notable for his clean cut and brushed hair) making a televised address to the nation on the 23rd of March 2020 ordering people to stay in their homes and announcing the banning public and private gathering "to prevent the spread of Covid" and advising that troops and police will be on the streets enforcing this and that the military will be taking over key government functions "until the present crisis has passed......".
I can imagine him announcing that key government ministers have gone into "self isolation" due to Covid and that their roles will be fulfilled by senior military officers "for the duration of the current emergency" and ending his speech by quoting Admiral Hill Norton and stating "There is no alternative".
Seeing the chaos engulfing Britain, Johnson's family never moved back to the UK, he became an author and right-wing commentator in the states. He is currently the Republican candidate for New York's 23rd congressional district for the 2006 midterms
 
Yes alas, Dick Cole chose to retire at the 2019 election, taking a lot of his personal vote with him. MK had been declining for years since the transition and the Centrists saw a political surge in Cornwall.

This all culminated in the Cornish nationalists failing to hold their seat
it all ended in tragedy after all

rip mebyon kernow, the real heroes of AVBT. they may have lost their seat, but they won our hearts
 
Finale: A Very British Democracy
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The UK's new Cabinet began by taking the knee outside Westminster Abbey

“British Prime Minister Bell Ribeiro-Addy presented her new government Monday. The government is a coalition between the UPA and the SDP. The Deputy Primeministership has gone to Sadiq Khan, who's portfolio covers social rights. The SDP leader is a former lawyer and one of the only Cabinet members to have before held a government position. The other three Great Offices have gone to senior UPA politicians. Bell's right hand woman Caroline Lucas has been appointed Chancellor, Alternative Leader Richard Burgon has been named Foreign Secretary and People's Party Deputy Owen Jones will oversee Justice. Lucas promised to “reposition UK finances in the EU and the world”. Burgon pledged to strengthen links with Latin America and the Caribbean. Defence will be the responsibility of Rachel Shabi, a counter-terrorism expert.”
- The new faces in the UK’s coalition government, Jack Blanchard, Politico.EU (2019)

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Cabinet 2020-
  • Prime Minister - Bell Ribeiro-Addy (PP)
  • Deputy Prime Minister - Sadiq Khan (SDP)
  • Chancellor of the Exchequer - Caroline Lucas (PP)
  • Foreign Secretary - Richard Burgon (SA)
  • Justice Secretary - Owen Jones (PP)
  • Defence Secretary - Rachel Shabi (PP)
  • Home Secretary - Rachel Reeves (SDP)
  • Development Secretary - Kate Osamor (PP)
  • Education Secretary - Rebecca Long-Bailey (PP)
  • Industry, Tourism and Trade Secretary - Frances O’Grady (SDP)
  • Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Secretary - Shami Charkrabarti (PP)
  • Public Administrations Secretary - Clive Lewis (PP)
  • Culture Secretary - Lisa Nandy (SDP)
  • Health Secretary - Manuel Cortes (PP)
  • Environment Secretary - Mhairi Black (PP)
  • Housing Secretary - Wes Streeting (SDP)
The most surprising thing about Ribeiro-Addy’s cabinet, wasn’t that she’d appointed a majority woman Cabinet, or that she had a record number of BME Ministers - but that no one had stopped her. Bell spent her first week in Downing Street, then her first month, and still no one acted against her. Columns of tanks didn’t roll down Whitehall, she wasn’t shot by a Civil Assistance paramilitary or taken down by an internal party coup. Her Cabinet certainly didn’t lack targets, her Chancellor was a radical feminist europhile, her Foreign Secretary a member of the Communist Party and her Justice Secretary a proud gay man. Yet aside from protests and the old egging they were left alone. For the first time in years Britain had a semi-stable government.

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Pardoning separatist leaders had brought an uneasy truce to Scotland, but many questions were left unresolved

It was a testament to Britain’s newly matured democracy, the military had been leashed, the paramilitaries had been quashed and the five party system had stabilised - at least for now. This wasn’t to say Britain was a utopia, spats within the coalition government were already beginning to show on the surface as the coalition’s first budget only passed by three votes - but pass it did, the first budget to pass Parliament on its first try since 2016. It was one of the most radical budgets in British history, including nearly 200 billion euros of extra state spending into schemes such as an expanded NHS, as well as granting extra spending money to local and provincial governments.

In Scotland, an easy quiet had set in, with their leaders released and a more sympathetic government in place the separatists had entered a truce with Westminster - with their fingers hovering over the no-confidence button. A newly freed Harvie had a mandala style reception when arriving back to Edinburgh airport. The condition for their leader’s pardon was for RISE and the SNP to openly reject illegal referendums and most in those parties now accepted a unilateral referendum wasn’t the way to go, slowly building up connections with the establishment to ensure one in future. SNLA attacks still occurred but were infrequent as tensions cooled north of the border. The pardons weren't without strings, Harvie and Brown were both banned from holding UK level office, neutralising one of the nationalist's most effective performers, but Harvie was enjoying life as an elder statesman MEP.

“Bell Ribeiro-Addy has called for a new “era of dialogue” as her government pardoned Scottish independence leaders. Announcing the pardons on Tuesday, Ribeiro-Addy said the decision had been taken in the interests of national unity. “The Government has taken this decision because it’s the best one for Scotland and Britain. The decision will honour the spirit of coexistence and harmony set out in the Cardiff Accords,” she said. But, while Ribeiro-Addy stressed that those convicted would remain banned from UK public office. She added the pardons would be conditional on their recipients not committing serious crimes over a given period of time. “The pardons directly affect a handful of people, but this government of is thinking of the thousands who support them,” she added.” - Government pardons jailed Scottish leaders, Sam Jones, The Guardian (2020)

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A new generation of soldiers were loyal to democracy

The barracks were quiet, officers privately complained about the socialists in Downing Street, but political actions were a lot softer, critical interviews in the press, or refusing to salute the Prime Minister - rather than any more hard, direct actions. What remained of Britain’s Mountbattenite officers were all old men, bearing down the mandatory retirement age. They smoked, drank and complained but that was all they did. They told each other the People’s Alliance would fail, Soon the people would be begging them to take charge once again. Only time would tell if they were right, but the military had nowhere near the power they had twenty years ago - the soldiers of the past wouldn’t care what the people thought - they would march on London whenever they pleased.

Mountbatten would be removed from Westminster Abbey early in 2020, and a new truth committee was established to investigate the atrocities of the Junta. Finally the families of the disappeared and the repressed would get some justice. Instead of keeping a stiff silence like the political class of the 2000s and 2010s - the coalition openly talked about the Junta, they talked about justice, not just progress. Old wounds were opened to finally be treated for a society that had defined itself on a pact of silence. All the pain and trauma came pouring out over hundreds of interviews across six months that shook the nation. Prime Minister Ribeiro-Abby pledged never again, never again would the British people submit to authoritarianism or tyranny. A painful but necessary message.

Most historians defined 2020 as the end of Britain’s transition to democracy, the election of a black radical leftist to Downing Street, and the peaceful transfer of power that followed proved the power of the Juntistas had well and truly broken. Mountbatten’s exhumation was a literary and symbolic end to the transition. Britain’s problems were by no means over, Scottish nationalism was still a powder keg, they owed billions to the EU and a strange new pandemic began to travel across the nation. Britain was now a thriving multi-party democracy, political violence was mostly a thing of the past replaced by lively debate in the Commons chamber. Britain was once again a true democracy - a very British democracy.

“The British government approved on Tuesday a draft bill aiming to erase the legacy of Louis Mountbatten's dictatorship. The bill allows the shutting down of associations and civil groups that still glorify Mountbatten's memory. The text also declares null all “summary trials” during the four decades of repression under Mountbatten's regime. The new legislation aims to honour those who suffered persecution or violence and cover a wider range of victims related to the Junta. It will also promote the search and exhumations of victims buried in mass graves. If passed into law, the bill will create two official remembrance days to honour the victims, and an official registry of the victims will be set up. Government estimates point to 161,000 civilians who disappeared throughout the dictatorship.” - UK's Memory bill to honour dictatorship victims, Reuters (2020)

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Hopefully the Junta's ghosts could finally receive peace
 
Powerab, this has been an excellent read and I have enjoyed every bit of it! Quite amusing that this ends at a time of great political drama in the UK real life - are you sure you didn't provoke Tom Tugendhat to run for Tory leader as a way to advertise this thread?
 
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