Challange: A non Labour/Tory Government

Right, I've got a challenge for all you British political types. A TL where a party apart from the Conservatives or Labour win the general election.

Extra points if
  • They win a majority (though I will accept coallitions, in fact i believe there are already TLs where the Lib Dems were the senior partner following the 2010 GE)
  • You don't use an invented national crisis such as a natural disaster, nuclear meltdown or foreign power declaring war that could be considered ASB.
  • The Party ISNT the Liberal Democrats.
  • and finally, the more recent the PoD the better

Right, lets see what you can do. I'll try and think of something. I've got an idea, but its a bit of a Wank.
 
Alliance wins in 1983, consolidates itself and wins re-election under the 'Democrats' banner in 1987.
 
My poorly thought out and wanky contribution:

Combination of Black Wednesday not being as painful for the tories (if at all) and Labour going into the 97 GE without a properly formed "new Labour ideology" (perhaps owing to Smith surviving his heart attack.

Labour form minority govt in 1997 with conessions to Lib Dems, notably on parliamentary reform. A form of Proportional representation is pushed through. Ashdown remains as party leader

In 2001 Labour form a coallition govt. with the Lib Dems.

2003- Ashdown leaves coallition govt over Blair's plans for Iraq. Forcing an election. Tories form government with UKIP+Unionist support. Lib Dems make further gains owing to anti-war sentiment.

2008/9- Election is held at the peak of the banking crisis and blame is put on Tory economic policy (somewhat libertarian owing to UKIP influences). Lib Dems come first and form coallition with Labour as the (slightly) Junior party. Vince Cable is Prime Minister.

So there :p

I'm aware of the eleventy-twelve holes in that TL btw.
 
1983, the P O D is no Falkland Islands War and Thatcher remains unpopular. t The Alliance wins.

Alliance wins in 1983, consolidates itself and wins re-election under the 'Democrats' banner in 1987.

A bit ASBish, I think- the Alliance was spread far too thinly to be able to form a majority Government in 1983. And there were other reasons for the Tories winning then, besides the Falklands Factor- the economic upswing being the main one. In a world without the Falklands, I'd expect Thatcher to be re-elected, just with a slightly smaller majority rather than a landslide.
 
  • No Falklands invasion meaning no boost for Thatch.
  • Michael Foot makes several huge gaffes(?) during the period 82-83.
  • Tories win minority in 83, SDP-Libs overtake Labour as opposition.
  • Thatcher loses leadership of Tory Party, replaced by Hesseltine.
  • 1984 sees second General Election due to miners strike. SDP-Libs become largest grouping. Tories finish second ahead of a strong Labour party. Coalition between SDP-Liberal/Labour.
  • 1987 sees another General Election, SDP-Libs win majority.
 
Probably Multi-POD, 1983, SDP-Liberal Alliance (not just Falklands though, a serious Thatcher blunder would be needed to really stick the boot in).

How about no Falklands War, followed by a very narrow Thatcher victory. This would be followed by an even bloodier crackdown on striking coal miners (possibly causing riots and a breakdown in England's coal supply), and then a terrible winter, where the UK freezes and is humiliated by being forced to import massive amounts of heating fuel. This heating crisis would be compounded by Thatcher's economic policies, which had exploded the number of homeless and impoverished the working class. The Conservatives would be destroyed totally in the upcoming election, and replaced on the right by a rump Conservative group (Red Tories most likely) and populist far right parties. You might, somewhere down the line, see a former right-populist party move to the center, picking up working class Labour voters, and taking power in a coalition with the remaining Conservatives.
 
Ok then. Further challenge. Part in govt (Coallition or minority) Which Isn't the SDP, Libs or Lib Dems.

(Double points if its the Greens)
 
Ok then. Further challenge. Part in govt (Coallition or minority) Which Isn't the SDP, Libs or Lib Dems.

(Double points if its the Greens)

2010 general election, the others gain more seats, it's a hung parliament, the Lib Dems and Tories can't comprimise. Labour makes a 'rainbow coalition' with the other parties.
 
2010 general election, the others gain more seats, it's a hung parliament, the Lib Dems and Tories can't comprimise. Labour makes a 'rainbow coalition' with the other parties.

That will work, especially as Lucas (the Green MP) said she'd back such a Rainbow Coalition.

Getting Common Wealth to prop up Labour in 1951 seems potentially plausible too. You'd need a fair few PoDs here and there, though, and I wouldn't have any idea how to do it.
 

Thande

Donor
Your best bet is the 1970s and early 80s when there was a general malaise of discontent with the two big parties, a resurgence of interest in the Liberals, and so on. A lot of people in the 1970s predicted there would be a new Centre Party formed--in OTL this took the form of the Liberal/SDP Alliance and then the Liberal Democrats, but it could have happened differently. For example, in 1978 Edward Heath, removed as leader of the Tories and opposing Thatcher's more extreme policies, approached the Liberals with the idea of forming a Centre Party out of the left wing of the Tories, the Liberals, and the right wing of Labour.
 
Ok then. Further challenge. Part in govt (Coallition or minority) Which Isn't the SDP, Libs or Lib Dems.

(Double points if its the Greens)
OK, just to sketch something out. The POD would be Paddy Ashdown not being in Parliament post-1987, either because he didn't win Yeovil originally in 1983 or lost the seat in 1987 (less likely, IMO). Things run pretty much as in OTL post the 1987 election with all the Steel/Owen feuding over the Liberal-SDP merger, but this time there's no Ashdown to become the leader of the new party in 1988. Steel or Beith becomes leader and the party gets the same kicking -possibly worse - in the 1989 European elections as it did OTL, with the Greens getting 15%+.

With no Ashdown to turn the party around, though, the Democratic Salads (or whatever name they end up with - IIRC, Ashdown pushed quite hard for Liberal Democrats to replace SLD) remain in the doldrums. Seeing the party heading for the rocks, some liberals jump ship and back Jonathan Porritt's moves to make the Greens more electable.

At the 1992 election, the alt-Lib Dems do badly, being knocked back to a few seats on the Celtic fringe. Beith quits, replaced by Kennedy, but he can only stabilise the party. The Greens don't make a breakthrough, but the influx of some pavement politicians from the alt-LDs and a less hairshirt image means they get a respectable showing in several seats, scooping up a lot of the old Lib/SDP votes.

In the bigger picture, Major wins the election with a slightly larger majority than OTL, which makes him slightly less dependent on the bastards in the Tory party. It's not a perfect term in office, but it's better than OTL. Meanwhile, John Smith's heart attack is butterflied away, so he leads Labour into the election in 1996/97.

With the alt-LDs now almost irrelevant (they pick up a handful of seats, just enough to mean they need two taxis for the Parliamentary meetings), the Greens break through, mainly in the sort of English seats that the LDs won in OTL. The SNP and Plaid do decently as well, and Smith ends up either just short of a majority, or with a wafer-thin one. To ensure a stable government for his reform programme, he negotiates a coalition agreement with the Greens, SNP and Plaid to deliver it over a four-year Parliament.

OK, now you can pick the holes in that.
 

Thande

Donor
With no Ashdown to turn the party around, though, the Democratic Salads (or whatever name they end up with - IIRC, Ashdown pushed quite hard for Liberal Democrats to replace SLD)

I believe at the time other people in the party were pushing to use the name "Democrats" as it was a snappier one-word phrase that would have comparable resonance to "Labour" or "Conservative".
 
Your best bet is the 1970s and early 80s when there was a general malaise of discontent with the two big parties, a resurgence of interest in the Liberals, and so on. A lot of people in the 1970s predicted there would be a new Centre Party formed--in OTL this took the form of the Liberal/SDP Alliance and then the Liberal Democrats, but it could have happened differently. For example, in 1978 Edward Heath, removed as leader of the Tories and opposing Thatcher's more extreme policies, approached the Liberals with the idea of forming a Centre Party out of the left wing of the Tories, the Liberals, and the right wing of Labour.
The best way for that to happen could be the usual "If Gordon Banks played" PoD whereby Enoch Powell becomes Tory leader after the 1970 election, because while the Tory left disliked and feared Thatcher they hated Powell - which could be enough to spark the major realignment on the centre that is being sought here.
 
British Politics...

Well, I like a challenge. The only way I can see the Greens getting involved is if the Liberal Democrats fold due to money troubles in 1989 and the Greens effectively become the third party. They might win enough seats in 1992 (unlike the Lib Dems) to trigger a Hung Parliament.

Other options - you really need the Tories to fracture for this to work. One possibility is in 1981 when a number of "wets" like Gilmour and Prior cross the floor and join the SDP. It won't make much difference if the Falklands War happens as in our TL but without it, it's conceivable the enlarged Alliance might draw enough votes to deprive Thatcher of a second term.

Another is to have IDS survive the conficence vote in 2003 (sounds like a good start for a TL). The Tories are thrashed in 2005 but IDS survives and beats off the largely denuded field of challengers. In secret negotiations, he proposes a merger with Farage's UKIP if the Conservtive membership agree to support a policy of EU withdrawal.

The proposal is carried 60-40 and Ken Clarke leads a walkout of some 40 MPs, hundreds of councillors and activists not to the Lib Dems but to a new Reform Party. Reform soon agreed an electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats however and both Clarke and Nick Clegg campaigned strongly against Duncan Smith and Gordon Brown.

Clarke triumphs in the second election debate on foreign policy and the third on the economy with brutal put-downs for the other leaders.

On May 5th 2010, Reform/Liberal Democrats polls 38% and wins a narrow majority over Labour and the shattered Conservatives. Clarke becomes Prime Minister with Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.
 
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