Beveridge wrote it, Beveridge will implement it - A different Post-war Britain

A partial timeline I discovered in my draw not so long ago from early last year, I've decided to digitize it, patch it up and finish it here. The aim was to write a somewhat different history in Postwar Britain with analogues to another nation that evolved over the time period. This is also a wonderful not so serious distraction from my timeline in 00's British Politics which is rather serious.

Chapter 1.

The dust had finally settled, all the ballot papers had after a painstaking 24 hours been finally counted to determine whom would now represent their constituents and by extension which party would now lead the nation out of World War Two. The results were to prove to be quite a surprise to even the keenest political analyst of the times. Some would blame the results on Churchill for not going hard enough after the Labour Party for being the Gestapo some believed they were(1). Others blamed Mr Attlee for not throwing himself into it(2). And others just wished the Liberals the best (3).

It was very much expected that Mr Churchill would go on to get a fully elected term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but that was not to be the case as it was an overnight realization that the British Public didn't trust the peace to the Prime Minister. However on the other side of the coin His Majesties Opposition hadn't been quite trusted either to run the peace. Neither party found themselves capable of forming a government which could command a majority.

Therefore it fell to the Liberal Party who had strangely found themselves with a slightly higher seat count than they could quite muster 10 years ago. 32 seats was no great influence, but when they could potentially be deciding who was to enter government it was all the influence they needed. The decision was to allow the Conservatives to continue as a minority government, or to allow the Labour Party to govern with a majority with the option to simply make a deal from the sidelines. But in the end a decision was certainly taken.

The Liberals entered government alongside the Labour Party, the first time Labour would find themselves on the benches of government unified since 1931 alongside their new allies. Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Deputy Prime Minister Archibald Sinclair would have to work towards securing the peace, and implementing the plan of the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed William Beveridge (4). He would find himself as Minister of Health tasked together with Aneurin Bevan Minister of Welfare and Labour into implementing the Report into legislation to defeat the Five evils of society: Squalor, Ignorance, Disease, Idleness and Want. The proposed welfare state would be spine of the legislative plan of the new coalition government who would govern for the best of the British Peoples to ensure they got the recovery they deserved after the horrors and sacrifice of World War Two. Herbert Morrison would find himself as Minister of the Home Department and Leader of the Commons very much a part of the legislative plan as well personally assisting it through the Commons.

The next few years watched the government implement this new plan, watching the Brand New Health Service, Industrial Nationalisation of the essentials. Regulation was improved across the board for housing, safety at work and food. The National Insurance Act was implemented to ensure help for all in times of need(5). The government found itself working at break neck speed towards implementing the plan. In early 1949 the Liberal Leader Archibald Sinclair suffered from ill health brought on by his duties as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. He was succeeded as Liberal Leader and Deputy Prime Minister by William Beveridge who had found himself very popular amongst the British public for his role in the creation of the welfare state. A new found popularity the Liberal Party were keen to exploit to prevent them slipping as they had in before the outset of the war.

The 1949 General Election was called and the coalition remaining in their posts from beforehand went out to campaign for their respective parties with no break up like that experienced by the War Coalition of Churchill. The results were not too different from 1945. The Labour Party had took losses to Conservatives and Liberals alike, while the Liberals had taken from Labour and traded with the Conservatives. When it came to it the Liberals could put the Conservatives into government if necessary but it would be a very weak government, the decision was taken instead to continue with Labour. Although the majority was slightly weakened it was still comfortable enough to see it through the Parliament. However tensions were beginning to brew on just how the welfare state was going to evolve with Labour and Liberal members starting to have different views on just how to take it forward in the new term.

(1) Churchill restrained himself.
(2) Attlee didn't throw himself into it as much.
(3) The Liberals got more attention.
(4) Beveridge held his seat.
(5) Same system mostly, some things missing others added.
 
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@Shiftygiant Well hope its of interest.

@diestormlie Yes, sadly a little too much Civilization in my youth had its negatives for my English :p.


Chapter 2

The Labour-Liberal Coalition continued into a new term, the Liberals at least had done well enough to allow the majority government to carry on. They now had to go about continuing to govern and passing reforms the Welfare system still needed in its early stages. But it was still a reduced majority, and there were now more Liberals than the last time around sitting on the government benches.

Meanwhile the Conservatives had fought a decent campaign and got very close to the Labour vote share. But Churchill had to have a serious think about how the election had gone and how the future was now going for him. He had led the Party into two elections and emerged from both as the Leader of the Opposition, not the Prime Minister. He thought long and hard for a year still as Leader of the Opposition before finally standing down as Leader of the Party and falling into the Backbenches. Churchill had decided that two election losses was enough, there likely now wasn't going to be another election for a couple more years yet and decided to pass the party onto someone younger, his health simply wasn't what it used to be but it was a long year of deep thought for the Former Prime Minister. The state funeral he received 20 years later was a testament to the strong thoughts the British people had of him.

Anthony Eden would succeed Winston Churchill as leader of the party, he had for some time been recognised as the heir and had effectively served as his de facto deputy when needed to. Eden was accepting the Welfare State more readily so than Churchill had, and he was prepared to continue investing in it if his party were to come to power once again. A necessity now that the Coalition had made it so important with such impact in the lives of British people. Winning an election without that express support would be a difficult course of order.

The Coalition continued off into business, with the first order of business being Housing. The state of housing was incredibly poor, so the administration sought to bring this in line with a combination of new homes and towns. The new towns act had been passed in the previous parliament and would deliver over the next 20 years. While the housing acts passed in this parliament sought to bring housing into the modern era, but the effects of this policy would not be felt until later in the future as it grew. The other important legislation was education which was passed by the national government in 1944, but finally started to fall together during this parliament. New schools were built alongside the new homes to deal with the ignorance side of the five evils.

One of the situations was that of the slow devolution of the Empire into new states and what would eventually become the Commonwealth, both parties had different although not too dissimilar ideas of how the Empire should evolve but the Labour one took precedent. Although the Liberal idea of a congress was mooted it did not go very far. In quick order nations like India, Pakistan and regions in the Middle East had begun to split off and become independent nation states. For the most part this policy was mostly agreed upon between the two parties regardless. The Korean War also begun in 1950 which was agreed again, but there wasn't too much choice in that diplomatically given Britain had taken a massive loan after the Coalition formed to get the Welfare state done.

However trouble was ahead for the Coalition. The government was becoming tired in government and it had begun to show, MPs such as Gaitskell rose up to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Wilson became Minister of Housing at the age of 33 pushing it relentlessly. However problems soon started to emerge. In 1951 Gaitskell sought to institute charges for glasses and dentures, he met opposition from within the Labour Party but also from the Deputy Prime Minister and sections of his party. Beveridge was insistent it did not pass and was willing to resign if it came to pass, the stand off ended with the resignation of Gaitskell a matter of months after his appointment as Chancellor. The coalition was shook by this event. The loss of Ernest Bevin a couple of months beforehand was a hard hit to the Labour Party. Aneurin Bevan succeeded Gaitskell as Chancellor of the Exchequer from necessity. But the party was given a break from the troubles in early 1952 with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Attlee had toyed with the idea of an election at the end of the year when fortunes looked good and perhaps he could take advantage of the good will in the nation at the time, but it would end up a missed opportunity.

The second event to destabilise the government was the nationalisation of steel attempts in late 1952. There was support throughout the Labour Party to carry it out, it was mixed however within the Liberal Party. Unlike Gaitskell, Bevan would not stand down he saw the nationalisation as an absolutely essential part of the Welfare State. Although Beveridge was less keen he personally believed nationalisation should go through as did other members of the party, the right wing could not agree. The right wing of the party was glad to see a proper safety net erected for the British people, it could never agree to see Steel nationalised. Even some of the Social Liberals did not see Steel as a Public Utility. In the end it came to a vote where Beveridge to maintain party unity allowed a free vote, Steel did not pass.

Attlee in his anger and his ruthless calculation dismissed the Liberal Party from the government. The resignation of another chancellor in such a short space of time his fourth since taking office could have been mortally wounding. He saw a unified minority government as less of a problem than a disunified majority. Beveridge and the Liberals stepped back to the Opposition benches, Beveridge himself opted to resign as leader of the Liberal Party deciding the time to go to other pursuits had arrived. In truth he felt his job was done, the welfare state was in place and wasn't going to be dismantled overnight with all parties accepting it. The other issue was the affairs of the past two months had been damaging in the Social and Classic split, his successor was Gwilym Lloyd-George son of former Prime Minister David Lloyd-George. Lloyd-George had felt tempted in recent times by the National Liberal cause, but this was an opportunity to do more for the cause. This ascension led to fears within Labour a Conservative-Liberal coalition could now arise, Clement Attlee asked the queen to dissolve parliament. Things had improved since the coalitions collapse but many feared it had not improved enough.

The election resulted in Conservatives the largest party but unable to command a majority taking from Labour and Liberals, while Labour had slipped to second losing to both Conservatives and Liberals while the Liberals had minutely increased their seat count to 51. It was a reverse situation to 1945, a coalition could easily pass between the Conservatives and Liberals while a coalition between Labour and the Liberals would form a weak minority. Lloyd-George never had intentions of dealing with Labour and entered Downing Street alongside the new Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
 
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