An Extended Eden Premiership

Wolfpaw

Banned
The topic came up in another thread recently, and I thought I'd start a thread :)


So, what if Eden had managed to come through that boondoggle at Suez, or perhaps he never goes off on it to begin with. What would some of the effects of a continued Eden premiership be for the UK? IIRC, somebody mentioned that Eden wanted to help create a "propertied democracy" a generation before Thatcher, and the man was clearly an interventionist.

Rhodesia, the West Indies, East Africa and the Middle East will pose interesting challenges, to say nothing of who will succeed Eden in '59. I believe he favored Butler, but Supermac may come to the fore. Eden probably won't gut the military budget, so that'll have interesting effects on British power projection.

I dunno, just some thoughts. All input welcome, of course :)
 

Thande

Donor
Eden's drug problem would probably catch up with him. We might see Gaitskell's Labour winning in '59 (or more probably '60).
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Eden's drug problem would probably catch up with him. We might see Gaitskell's Labour winning in '59 (or more probably '60).
Would it be so bad? He seems to have improved markedly after his R&R in Jamaica in early '57.
 
Speaking of Mrs. T, she does mention in her memoirs that in the mid-'50s that the Tories were playing with a free-market analysis "that in due course would have led to free-market policies." But you won't see anything particularly radical- certainly not the financial deregulation and total war on union privileges of OTL's 1980s.

In foreign affairs, I don't know if Eden would have handled things much different than Macmillan did. Maybe our UK members could chime in on that.
 
UK in the late 50s was relatively prosperous with low inflation and high employment - it would have taken something seismic to have got Labour elected in 1959. I don't think Eden's continued presence as PM would make any difference.
 
To be honest there wouldn't have been any major changes. Eden was a foreign policy man, in fact while he had extensive experience and opinions on foreign policy matters on domestic issues he was pretty much a blank slate and went along with whatever the responsible minister said. If he'd continued there would have been some kind of foreign policy shenanigans sooner or later he regarded himself as a dragon hunter and was going to go looking for dragons to slay even if they were actually lizards.
 
I think you need to avoid the cock-up that was Eden's gall bladder operation. It almost killed him, and made him dependent upon drugs for the entirety of his premiership. Furthermore the 'slip of the knife' put him out of action when Churchill had his stroke in 1953, meaning that the Conservative Party were less inclined to tell the old man to resign since the heir-apparent also was on his sickbed - had he been on the scene he could have been PM two years earlier. Of course if he hadn't been so drug-addled he may have handled Suez far better.

Actually, had Eden been given a domestic portfolio earlier in his career he may have made a better fist of the premiership, given that all his ministerial experience was in foreign affairs.

Off the top of my head, Eden was far more sceptical about the Common Market than Macmillan was (something, incidentally, that he shared with Butler). I can't think of any other major differences, both were fairly typical of the paternalistic patrician class that headed the Tory Party in the 50s.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Off the top of my head, Eden was far more sceptical about the Common Market than Macmillan was (something, incidentally, that he shared with Butler). I can't think of any other major differences, both were fairly typical of the paternalistic patrician class that headed the Tory Party in the 50s.
Yes, Eden was a Euroskeptic. I could see him and his Tory successor (whoever that may be) encouraging a stronger relationship with the EFTA than the EEC.
 
Yes, Eden was a Euroskeptic. I could see him and his Tory successor (whoever that may be) encouraging a stronger relationship with the EFTA than the EEC.

Wasn't that De Gaulle's '63 offer when he vetoed EEC entry? I vaguely recall Thatcher saying in Path to Power that in retrospect, the deal he offered then should've been embraced with open arms. Maybe I'm thinking of something else though...
 
I actually started on a TL where Eisenhower dies in September 1955, of the heart attack he had IOTL.

Nixon ends up being relatively supportive of the British action in Suez, leading to nigociations.

This probably isn't quite what you're looking for though, as Eden hangs on for another few months, before his health forces him to resign, all be it in a more dignefyed manner. Butler takes over in late 1957 and calls the election for the summer of 1958, winning a simelar result to the one Super Mac received in 1959 in reality.

If you want a more affective Eden premiership, the best way might be a larger labour victory in 1950, or Atlee and co just scraping through in 1951.

Churchill makes way for Eden after the election and the Tories are back in office in 1952 or 1953, giving Eden a couple of extra years to govern.
 
I actually started on a TL where Eisenhower dies in September 1955, of the heart attack he had IOTL.

Nixon ends up being relatively supportive of the British action in Suez, leading to nigociations.

This probably isn't quite what you're looking for though, as Eden hangs on for another few months, before his health forces him to resign, all be it in a more dignefyed manner. Butler takes over in late 1957 and calls the election for the summer of 1958, winning a simelar result to the one Super Mac received in 1959 in reality.

If you want a more affective Eden premiership, the best way might be a larger labour victory in 1950, or Atlee and co just scraping through in 1951.

Churchill makes way for Eden after the election and the Tories are back in office in 1952 or 1953, giving Eden a couple of extra years to govern.

Or the Tories win in '50 with a small majority similar to OTL 1951. Churchill would have to retire earlier so someone else could fight a 1954/5 election.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
I actually started on a TL where Eisenhower dies in September 1955, of the heart attack he had IOTL.

Nixon ends up being relatively supportive of the British action in Suez, leading to nigociations.

This probably isn't quite what you're looking for though, as Eden hangs on for another few months, before his health forces him to resign, all be it in a more dignefyed manner. Butler takes over in late 1957 and calls the election for the summer of 1958, winning a simelar result to the one Super Mac received in 1959 in reality.
That actually exactly what I'm looking for, since that fits with my own scenario quite nicely. Could you provide a link, please?

I had a feeling Rab would be the successor, but I predict that he'll try to be the FP wonk he's always wanted to be, which means Macmillan likely keeps the Exchequer.
 
That actually exactly what I'm looking for, since that fits with my own scenario quite nicely. Could you provide a link, please?

I had a feeling Rab would be the successor, but I predict that he'll try to be the FP wonk he's always wanted to be, which means Macmillan likely keeps the Exchequer.

Sure-though it's incomplete and I haven't posted Eden's resignation yet:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=200828

I aborted the attempt temperarily after the 1956 election, mainly because I was concerned about the plausibility of some of the ideas I had come up with...
 
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