Bombing Parliament

What would happen if a bomb goes off in a session of Parliament, filled with the current cabinet and the opposition, both major and minor, causing casualties with both death and injuries?

What is the domestic and international response?
 
What would happen if a bomb goes off in a session of Parliament, filled with the current cabinet and the opposition, both major and minor, causing casualties with both death and injuries?

What is the domestic and international response?

Depends on where the bomb came from.

Whether the bomb came from Al-Qaida or the Real IRA is going to have vastly different political consequences.
 
then

Everyone is stunned the security services underestimated them so badly (if its now) or if its the 80's then depends on who survived in the British cabinet.

North Ireland will have problems if the British government over react as the RIRA have only limited support and harsh measures would be counter productive.
 
Lets assume the IRA does it. The effects of this?

Leaving aside the fact that the dissidents have failed in every major attempt they've made for sometime?

A crack down on the dissidents in NI and the ROI and their supporters abroad. NI will probably see a collapse of the GFA.

Other than that I'm not sure.
 
If that much of the UK government is dead it may be up to the queen to organize the new elections in the immediate sense. Long term this is going to redefine the words "political shitstorm".
 
The technical answer is that the Queen summons the politician most likely to be able to form an interim government and instructs them to do so. If they can do so then those supporting him/her decide who will get which job and work continues until a new General Election.

In the immediate aftermath seniority devolves down the food chain until the Queen has a new government formed as above.

Politically, anti terrorist resources are enlarged and, possibly, some legislation to make the work of the security services easier.

Which IRA? The official IRA died out years ago. The Provos now are part of the Northern Ireland Assembly and are UK Parliamentary MPs (even if they do choose not to sit.) The remaining splinter groups are so small and devoid of popular support that they are probably known to the security services by name and collar size.

The immediate action would be to strengthen the Police on the ground to forestall any Loyalist revenge actions: which is where the 'Troubles' began.

Really this is something that the UK would treat more as an act of god (in the insurance sense, not the religious one) than a national assault. If I may put it in American; Shit Happens. Irish terrorism is like the weather. It just happens. We got used to it. The proper concern is for the victims.

The UK experience is that you defeat terrorism with intelligence and politics. Military action is to allow these to take place. Otherwise, in the classic Western movie genre, your armed posse can look like a lynch mob.
 

AndyC

Donor
What if Gordon Banks had played? is one of the earliest alternate History timelines I've ever read.

Written by Anthony Wells (who now runs UK Polling Report) some years ago, this event occurs within it. Definitely worth reading for all fans of alternate history UK political timelines.
 
It happens in What if Gordon Banks had played. It caused a Tory landslide of unprecedented proportions.

For two reasons: one, the obvious sympathy and 'we must support those who will stand up to these terrorists' vote for the Tories, and two, the bomb blew up on the opposition side of the House, killing the leader of the Labour Party and dozens of its MPs. The decapitated Labour then was in no fit state to fight an election.
 
What would happen if a bomb goes off in a session of Parliament, filled with the current cabinet and the opposition, both major and minor, causing casualties with both death and injuries?

What is the domestic and international response?

You need to give us a date. This is an alternate history forum.
 
The technical answer is that the Queen summons the politician most likely to be able to form an interim government and instructs them to do so. If they can do so then those supporting him/her decide who will get which job and work continues until a new General Election.

In the immediate aftermath seniority devolves down the food chain until the Queen has a new government formed as above.

Politically, anti terrorist resources are enlarged and, possibly, some legislation to make the work of the security services easier.

Which IRA? The official IRA died out years ago. The Provos now are part of the Northern Ireland Assembly and are UK Parliamentary MPs (even if they do choose not to sit.) The remaining splinter groups are so small and devoid of popular support that they are probably known to the security services by name and collar size.

The immediate action would be to strengthen the Police on the ground to forestall any Loyalist revenge actions: which is where the 'Troubles' began.

Really this is something that the UK would treat more as an act of god (in the insurance sense, not the religious one) than a national assault. If I may put it in American; Shit Happens. Irish terrorism is like the weather. It just happens. We got used to it. The proper concern is for the victims.

The UK experience is that you defeat terrorism with intelligence and politics. Military action is to allow these to take place. Otherwise, in the classic Western movie genre, your armed posse can look like a lynch mob.

Yeah, I mean the IRA got absolutely everywhere. My mum had issues getting to work in Leicester when they pulled that trick with the M1.
 
Let say around 1981 after Bobby Sands death from a hunger strike for the sake of discussion.

The ballot faction of the IRA/SF would be weakened, though the Bullet faction would most likely be shattered by a more aggressive reaction. Loyalist reprisals would be huge and increase the instability in NI. As a result the Peace Process is very much dead for a generation I'd guess, and may not be capable of being recreatable.

NORAID should be significantly reduced as I'm guessing they would be seen as terrorists much earlier than OTL.

I'm guessing much more pressure would come on the Republic to crack down on known figures in the 26 counties though how that ends who knows, the 80's are a bad time for the Republic regardless adding significant Dissident issues is certainly not going to help things.
 
The Army and RUC knew who was in the IRA and other groups. They can now go and get them. They can now play by their rules. They can go and kill them and no one will care. If the army has to cross the boarder, so be it, what's the republic going to do about it?
A hell of a lot of pressure is going to put on the US to put a stop to NORAID. Don't forget who is POTUS, he needs us more than he needs a few 'Irish' votes.
Up shot. 5,000+ IRA members and supporters killed/bunged up, marshall law in N.I.
 
Ummm… didn’t this pretty much happen in OTL anyway? The IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton with most of the Conservative cabinet in it during the party conference, and Airey Neave was blown up by the INLA inside the Palace of Westminster. So far as the UK political class and their reactions are concerned, there isn’t a lot of difference between these and the chamber itself being blown up.

The real difference will be in who takes over afterwards. Remove Michael Foot and with him goes the longest suicide note in history. Remove Margaret Thatcher, and you probably butterfly away both the Falklands War and the industrial/economic changes that took place in the UK in the 1980s.

There’s a fairly good case to be made that Northern Ireland will be the part of the UK least affected by a large bomb inside the chamber of the House of Commons…
 
The Army and RUC knew who was in the IRA and other groups. They can now go and get them. They can now play by their rules. They can go and kill them and no one will care. If the army has to cross the boarder, so be it, what's the republic going to do about it?
A hell of a lot of pressure is going to put on the US to put a stop to NORAID. Don't forget who is POTUS, he needs us more than he needs a few 'Irish' votes.
Up shot. 5,000+ IRA members and supporters killed/bunged up, marshall law in N.I.

If after all the Republicans did in OTL the UK didn't take such huge steps, they aren't going to do so in this event. Even at the very height of the Troubles the UK mostly honoured the Border (accept when they patrols got lost, very funny story about a platoon doing a quick march through a town when somebody pointed out they were in the Republic).

The UK forces in NI would have their hands full trying to keep stability in NI and the two sides apart (no matter the outrage the vast majority of Nationalists would be innocent and would need protection from reprisals from the Loyalists). More over if this was planned the main IRA personnel would most likely have crosssed the border and be well South for protection.

There would be substantial issues for the UK security services as to how they would have failed so completely, as getting a bomb (of what size?) into the Chamber is vastly more difficult than any of the OTL acts.
 
The owner of CNNIBN news channel was very happy because his news channel was getting millions of viewers during Mumbai Terrorist attack in year 2008.

289 people were killed in the terrorist attack but the media moghul in India was happy because his channel got millions of new viewers.

:confused:

If it's back in 1981, did 24 hour news really exist? If not the coverage would be far more limited.
 
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