British Military and Police What Ifs

To have a large standing army in Britain with popular support you'd need a POD before the commonwealth. This is because the memories of the actions of the new model army during this period cast a long shadow of the British Army - even today it's the British Army not the Royal Army as I often see it referred to in alt histories

For a long period a standing army equalled oppression in the minds of the British. This only changed during the 20th Century. That's also the reason behind having an unarmed police force as an armed police force would have been seen as an instrument of oppressions. Even today this is one of the arguments against arming any but specialist police units.

It's also interesting to note that the reason the British (and hence a lot of other countries) police forces wear a blue uniform and not a red uniform is that originally a red uniform was equated with the army (and hence the organisation that oppressed the people) whereas a blue uniform wasn't
 
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