Challenge: Liberals vs Labour

As the title says, make a POD in the boundaries made by the forum in which the two largest parties in Britain by the early 21st century is the Liberals (or a suitable successor), and Labour.
Tories can exist, but must be consistently smaller then either of the two parties.
Preferably no larger then the LibDems are in OTL.
 
OK... this looks interesting. And very difficult! Given that the Tories have a fair claim to be the 'natural party of government' (going on years in power vs year out).

Afraid I don't have any ideas on this one - nothing solid, anyway. It would take something truly catastrophic with them in office.
Maybe the Suez Crisis goes bad? I mean as in nuclear war 'bad'. The Tories get blamed, are seen as warmongers, they're kicked out and never really trusted again? Then Labour are voted in three times in succession, while former Tories move en masse to the Liberal Party, revitalising it but making it the OTL 1960s/70s Conservative Party in all but name.

That's the only one which comes to mind... don't know how plausible it is.
 

Glen

Moderator
As the title says, make a POD in the boundaries made by the forum in which the two largest parties in Britain by the early 21st century is the Liberals (or a suitable successor), and Labour.
Tories can exist, but must be consistently smaller then either of the two parties.
Preferably no larger then the LibDems are in OTL.

Its possible. Throw in some strategic defections and deaths among the Conservative leadership, lace with some good scandals, and you might drive most of the Center-Right into the Liberals by default. Note that this will shift the Liberals towards a more Tory-like political platform, though probably still with a Liberal flavor.
 
Charles Kennedy takes the pledge (re alcohol) and gets someone good to make this a positive (in the way that GW Bush did)

Tories keep Ian Duncan Smith.

Blair did not promise to retire before the 05 election.

Blair and Duncan Smith sound sympathetic to ideas of extending war to Iran.

Half way through the 05 election tories are third in some polls....
 
It was the Liberal Party that opposed giving women the vote in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when women finally did get the vote in 1918 they rewarded the Liberals by voteing Torie or Labour. If the Liberals hadn't opposed giving women the vote they might have never withered to the minor party they are now.
 
It was the Liberal Party that opposed giving women the vote in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when women finally did get the vote in 1918 they rewarded the Liberals by voteing Torie or Labour. If the Liberals hadn't opposed giving women the vote they might have never withered to the minor party they are now.
To be fair, Trade union money and a great social divide had sommit to do with it. Somehow keep the unions and Labourites within the Liberal fold and you have a two party state for good.
 
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Well the Liberals were in power from 1906, and with the rise of Labour you could justifiably wonder whether you were looking at the beginning of the end of the Conservatives. The Labour Party would become the party of the working man, the Liberals that of the more professional man and of the merchant classes, whilst the Conservatives come to represent vested interests which are increasingly being marginalised.

No First World War would be an interesting one, and if the UVF rise up against Home Rule, then what role for the Ulster Unionist wing of the Conservatives ? They could be represented as being the people preventing a solution in Ireland, representative of the vested interests again

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
To be fair, Trade union money and a great social divide had sommit to do with it. Somehow keep the unions and Labourites within the Liberal fold and you have a two party state for good.

Yeah, but this is Liberals vs. Labour we're going for, not Liberals vs. Conservatives as per C19th. Besides which, the 'Briiiits Iiiiin Spaaaaace!' TL already has that... :D
 
Yeah, but this is Liberals vs. Labour we're going for, not Liberals vs. Conservatives as per C19th. Besides which, the 'Briiiits Iiiiin Spaaaaace!' TL already has that... :D

Damn, it looks like this is another one I killed.

Anyone? Any plausible ways the two main parties in TTL's 2008 Britain could be the Liberals/Lib Dems/whatever you want to call them, and Labour?
I thought it was an interesting one...
 
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