Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to make Freddie Mercury PM of Great Britain, preferably with him having a music career before or during this period.
AH challenge: Freddie Mercury as PM
- Thread starter Onkel Willie
- Start date
I think this might belong in ASB, but anyway...
In response to the overbearing social conservatism of Thatcher, Queen becomes far more political. Freddie never enters the underground scene (bathhouses, frequent unprotected sex, etc.), so he never gets HIV. In 1982, the album "Hot Space" is shelved in place of a very political album about the Falklands War. Freddie Mercury is seen as a "spokesman of a generation". He publicly endorses the Liberals in the '83 election, leading to a resurgence in Lib popularity, despite an overwhelming Conservative victory. In 1984, the song "I Want to Break Free" is released, but rather than being a love/breakup song as in OTL, it is a left-wing anthem about oppressive conservatism controlling people's lives. At Live Aid, widely considered Queen's best performance, Mercury announces that Queen will be taking a hiatus after the band's next album is released so that he can run for parliament from the Hammersmith constituency (he resided in West Kensington at the time, within the Hammersmith constituency). In the 1987 election, Mercury wins. He is seated and quickly rises in the (admittedly small) ranks of the Liberal party. He helps to negotiate the merger with the SDP, with the rallying cry "A United Left for a United Britain". Mercury becomes vital for the Lib Dems, reaching out to young people (under 40) to run and vote in the next elections.
In 1992, a seemingly Labour lead was trounced by late-deciding young voters, who responded to criticism of Labour in The Sun and to left-wing attacks on Major's economy, especially the recession. The election resulted in a Hung Parliament with a fairly large Conservative lead and with Labour still the Official Opposition, but with the Lib Dems in posession of a good 150 seats and Labour egos sore. Many on the left wing of the Labour party defected to the Lib Dems, and before the next election, the Lib Dems were the Official Opposition. Mercury was made shadow Home Secretary, and he was surrounded by experts who could brief him on the issues as they happened. A master showman, Mercury continued to shore up support, even while the new Labour leader, Tony Blair, tried to save the Labour brand. Urged by party leaders, Paddy Ashdown resigned as Leader of the Opposition in 1995, and Mercury easily won election to the post with an understanding that he would follow the experts. Anticipating the Labour drift to the right, Mercury held the left. He endorsed an expansion of the welfare state, health care, and education funding, as well as a stronger right to privacy and freedom of speech. In the 1997 Elections, the Lib Dems trounced Labour and managed to edge out the Conservatives. As the Parliament was seated, a deal was made with Labour to share power, where Blair would be Home Secretary and Brown would be Chancellor of the Exchequer. With this New Left leadership in place, Prime Minister Freddie Mercury would have a secure leadership of the United Kingdom for several years.
(A bit kooky, I know, but hey, the whole idea is crazy.)
In response to the overbearing social conservatism of Thatcher, Queen becomes far more political. Freddie never enters the underground scene (bathhouses, frequent unprotected sex, etc.), so he never gets HIV. In 1982, the album "Hot Space" is shelved in place of a very political album about the Falklands War. Freddie Mercury is seen as a "spokesman of a generation". He publicly endorses the Liberals in the '83 election, leading to a resurgence in Lib popularity, despite an overwhelming Conservative victory. In 1984, the song "I Want to Break Free" is released, but rather than being a love/breakup song as in OTL, it is a left-wing anthem about oppressive conservatism controlling people's lives. At Live Aid, widely considered Queen's best performance, Mercury announces that Queen will be taking a hiatus after the band's next album is released so that he can run for parliament from the Hammersmith constituency (he resided in West Kensington at the time, within the Hammersmith constituency). In the 1987 election, Mercury wins. He is seated and quickly rises in the (admittedly small) ranks of the Liberal party. He helps to negotiate the merger with the SDP, with the rallying cry "A United Left for a United Britain". Mercury becomes vital for the Lib Dems, reaching out to young people (under 40) to run and vote in the next elections.
In 1992, a seemingly Labour lead was trounced by late-deciding young voters, who responded to criticism of Labour in The Sun and to left-wing attacks on Major's economy, especially the recession. The election resulted in a Hung Parliament with a fairly large Conservative lead and with Labour still the Official Opposition, but with the Lib Dems in posession of a good 150 seats and Labour egos sore. Many on the left wing of the Labour party defected to the Lib Dems, and before the next election, the Lib Dems were the Official Opposition. Mercury was made shadow Home Secretary, and he was surrounded by experts who could brief him on the issues as they happened. A master showman, Mercury continued to shore up support, even while the new Labour leader, Tony Blair, tried to save the Labour brand. Urged by party leaders, Paddy Ashdown resigned as Leader of the Opposition in 1995, and Mercury easily won election to the post with an understanding that he would follow the experts. Anticipating the Labour drift to the right, Mercury held the left. He endorsed an expansion of the welfare state, health care, and education funding, as well as a stronger right to privacy and freedom of speech. In the 1997 Elections, the Lib Dems trounced Labour and managed to edge out the Conservatives. As the Parliament was seated, a deal was made with Labour to share power, where Blair would be Home Secretary and Brown would be Chancellor of the Exchequer. With this New Left leadership in place, Prime Minister Freddie Mercury would have a secure leadership of the United Kingdom for several years.
(A bit kooky, I know, but hey, the whole idea is crazy.)
Wow, I actually didn't think someone could come up with a plausible way to make it happen.
Oh and, welcome to the board.
Oh and, welcome to the board.
Surprisingly reasonable seeming. I do wonder, though, how the British public would feel about electing a Persian PM. This opens some exciting questions like:
-How does Freddie Mercury feel about Iran?
-How does he feel about the war on terror?
-Without getting into the bathhouse scene, would he still be as good a musician?
Surprisingly reasonable seeming. I do wonder, though, how the British public would feel about electing a Persian PM. This opens some exciting questions like:
-How does Freddie Mercury feel about Iran?
-How does he feel about the war on terror?
-Without getting into the bathhouse scene, would he still be as good a musician?
Since Freddie would be the darling of the left, people who would vote for him would probably be open to voting for people of other races. Besides, he might be Persian, but since he's known for being in a rock band, he's basically culturally white.
Mercury would probably be non-interventionist, as the Lib Dems of today seem to be the only people who had opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. Therefore, his policy on Iran would probably be the same: sensible dialogue, but no military tension. A Mercury Government would probably manage to avoid the War on Terror on the hopes of peace, but he would probably send some troops after the 7 July Attacks in order to appease the people (assuming he's still PM by then).
Deleted member 5719
Can I ask how the lib-dems got left of labour in 1985?
They arguably were between 1999-2006, but that's more to do with Blair's gallop to the centre right than anything else.
They arguably were between 1999-2006, but that's more to do with Blair's gallop to the centre right than anything else.
Can I ask how the lib-dems got left of labour in 1985?
They arguably were between 1999-2006, but that's more to do with Blair's gallop to the centre right than anything else.
I was thinking more of a "Freddie supports Liberals because they're outside the norm, influx of youth voters results in a leftward swing"-type movement. It seems like if he were to join the Liberals, he could drive them leftward, forcing Blair to overcompensate in 1997, bringing Labour farther right than OTL, allowing the Lib Dems to split the centre and take the left.
Well, Freddie Mercury had no ties to Iran -- he was born & raised in Zanzibar, went to boarding school in India, and then moved to England as a teenager. And besides, he wasn't Muslim: he was in fact a lapsed Zoroastrian.