AH Vignette: The First Debate

Fantastic twist. It was the smoking indoors that first got me thinking - one of those would-be culture shocks for a short distance time traveler. That got me thinking for other Gordon, Dave, and Nicks; but in the vein of an alt-2010 setting or somewhere in the 1960s with Richard Dimbleby (you of course went one generation better).

The use of obscure (to a 2010 audience) political references (Chinese Labourers from the 1900 campaign) had me wondering too. An alt-election where the electorate consists entirely of political geeks perhaps? But the real reveal was much better.
 

Thande

Donor
On reading it back, I actually phrased the Chinese labour reference better than I thought ('his party had once' could indeed be read as dredging it up through political geekery rather than being in relatively recent memory). I was thinking when I wrote it that it was giving the game away too much, but evidently not.

I think the reason why the twist seems to have worked well is because people guessed it might be the past, but underestimated how far back, because - as I said above - we just don't picture politicians from before the 1960s or so being filmed, even though being filmed does not necessarily mean for broadcast on TV.
 
Well, he was both an ethnolinguistic minority and a religious one......
Indeed. On realising just who 'David' was, I assume Nick meant the latter. While I may be mistaken, I reckon they'd be more het up by his lack of 'proper Church' upbringing (what was he, Unitarian?) than the fact he grew up speaking Welsh. Of course,I could be totally off base.
 

Thande

Donor
Oh, and while there wasn't explicitly an OTL expenses scandal at this time (chalk that up to butterflies) this was mainly used so I could wedge in a confusing reference to 'the cash for peerages scandal', as both Lloyd George and Blair had them in OTL.
 
Indeed. On realising just who 'David' was, I assume Nick meant the latter. While I may be mistaken, I reckon they'd be more het up by his lack of 'proper Church' upbringing (what was he, Unitarian?) than the fact he grew up speaking Welsh. Of course,I could be totally off base.
Welsh Nonconformist, so not entirely unrelated issues. Probably go down better than Unitarian or Catholic or Jew, but not necessarily that much.
 
Nice. It was obvious that there was something very different to 2010, but I couldn't put my finger on what. I was certain that President O being cut off quickly meant it was not Obama but I just could not work it out. Well done with keeping it from me.

So, what is the outcome of the election? Unionist majority? Liberal-Labour coalition? Unionist minority? Liberal majority or minority?
 

Thande

Donor
Nice. It was obvious that there was something very different to 2010, but I couldn't put my finger on what. I was certain that President O being cut off quickly meant it was not Obama but I just could not work it out. Well done with keeping it from me.

So, what is the outcome of the election? Unionist majority? Liberal-Labour coalition? Unionist minority? Liberal majority or minority?
Probably Liberal-Labour coalition, given that it's more or less stated that the Unionists were in power when the Wall Street Crash happened. Hence why Lloyd George notes he has to be careful in judging his attacks because he might end up in teeth clenched coalition with Bell after the election. The implication is that Labour haven't yet managed to form a government in TTL, still being stuck with third party status, but are benefiting from not being tainted with any of the bad decisions of the past decade or so (as with the Lib Dems in 2010).
 

AndyC

Donor
Very nice.
As others have said, the "President O-" bit made it very obvious that it wasn't Obama, but I initially just came up with a 1992-alternate. And then couldn't make anything fit, anyway.

I really didn't consider the Thirties. Well played.
 

Thande

Donor
Very nice.
As others have said, the "President O-" bit made it very obvious that it wasn't Obama, but I initially just came up with a 1992-alternate. And then couldn't make anything fit, anyway.

I really didn't consider the Thirties. Well played.

Thanks! From the Ur-example of debate-focused political timelines on the forum (well, British ones anyway), I appreciate it!
 
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