Alec Douglas-Home Election Victory

How would the conservatives in government run the country if they won the election in 1964? I am interested in how they would respond to social changes, the economy and Vietnam.
 
How would the conservatives in government run the country if they won the election in 1964? I am interested in how they would respond to social changes, the economy and Vietnam.

The biggest problem in 1964 was the value of the pound and the record balance of payments deficit.

The Tories had tried to ignore these problems and IMO they would face an avalanche of problems in the aftermath of the election. If they win they would have to either radically deflate the economy or devalue the pound. Whichever they do they will be slaughtered at the next election.

A Tory government would be too cash strapped and unpopular to do anything about Vietnam. Also Alec Douglas Home was a foreign policy expert and I think intervention wasn't his style.
 
British involvement at anything above the symbolic level isn't going to happen, Britain is broke and has way to much else on it's plate though a squadron of SAS is a possibility. The Tories are going to get hammered into the ground come the next election which will be in '68 or '69 so you might see a multi-term Labour government with a safe majority during the 70's rather than the OTL succession of one term government. As for economic policy there will have to be a devaluation but the Tories are still thoroughly Butskellite and fully signed up the Keynesian planned economy post-war consensus so there won't be too much of a deviation. Equally most of the social reforms of the era were passed on free votes with majority support from the Tory benches so you will likely still the Jenkins reforms occur.
 
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