Challenge: Heath wins second term in 1974

Yes, but Heath's better known for creating the domestic policy mess (with Wilson) which Mrs. Thatcher cleaned up permanently. The problem is the solutions to the problems that caused Heath to be defeated in 1974 (not aggressively confronting the unions, stagflation) required a dose of Thatcherite "Blue" Toryism to fix, and an abrupt 90 degree ideological turn is ASB for someone as stubborn as Ted Heath.
 
Have him go for an election in January 1974 rather than February 1974. I can't remember why exactly but the feeling was that he could have won an election in January but not in February. In any case he was expected to win a healthy majority at the start of the election IRL, but that fell away due to the prolonged Miners' Strike.

A lot of the defeat was due to Heath's rather wooden public persona though. I'm in little doubt that a more charismatic politician could have easily won that election for the Conservatives (say if Iain Macleod hadn't died) - Labour weren't all that credible with their splits on Europe and movement to the left, hence why they actually got less votes than the Tories.
 
LD: Yes, Thatcher said in her memoirs that she was one of the Cabinet members, along with Peter Walker and Peter Thorneycroft, who were clamouring for a snap election in January 1974 based on breaking the unions in the manner that Thatcher herself did a decade later. She said that Heath at the time was somewhat detached from political realities (understatement of the decade), focused on income and price controls for some reason. But yes, Heath made Gordon Brown look charismatic in comparison, which was partly why he lost the backbenches: they thought he was an uptight, rude arsehole. Particularly when you have Wilson as your opponent, who was just as subtly manipulative of his image as Thatcher and Blair were later.
 
Top