Communist Britain

*Dr Nick voice* Hi, everybody!

Currently I am participating in a political simulation which takes place in 1993 after the fall of a Marxist regime in the UK, and which is now deciding upon a new government.

I have come to ask the opinions of the board on the question of a Great Britain which turns into a socialist/communist republic. Is there a way in which Britain could turn into such a state after WWII?

I have suggested a scenario in which Attlee's policies remain popular into the 50s, in which Labour gradually goes more left-wing and transforms Britain into the BPR, with the Conservatives go Thatcherite earlier and consign themselves into oblivion. Unfortunately, I'm not at all as well-versed in the electoral politics of Britain between 1945 and 1972 outside of Northern Ireland and a little Churchill, so I don't know if even that idea is possible.

I'm sure this idea has come up before, however it would help us greatly in the simulation if some ideas could be had on such an idea as Britain going all the way with socialism/communism.
 
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Getting rid of the monarchy would essentially be political death, even today support for a republic is half hearted at best. However Labour could still transfrm Britian for the better whilst retaining the monarchy, similar to the Scandinavian model.
 
You probably need some serious disasters to cause such a drastic change in the political landscape in Britain.
 
My TL, The People's Flag, uses some of the ideas of the Kaiserreich universe to develop a Britain, defeated by Germany in WWI, turning into a socialist and Syndicalist state in the 1920s after the General Strike is poorly handled (troops are sent against marchers and many are killed, troops begin deserting and defecting as morale is so low in the defeated army anyway). Take a look if you need some ideas, I'm up to 1935 in Britain at the moment.
 

world

Banned
Labout government changes the voting system to one of Proportional Representation in the 1940's.
Labour form a coalition with the Communist party after the 1950 election giving them a small majority.
Next election is 1954 with rationing over and the economy booming Labour and their Communist allies
 

Hendryk

Banned
Labour form a coalition with the Communist party after the 1950 election giving them a small majority.
Learn your history before you post. The Labour Party couldn't stand the Communists. Forming a coalition with them would have been quite out of the question, not to mention electorally stupid; at its height the British Communist Party barely got more than 100,000 ballots.
 

world

Banned
Learn your history before you post. The Labour Party couldn't stand the Communists. Forming a coalition with them would have been quite out of the question, not to mention electorally stupid; at its height the British Communist Party barely got more than 100,000 ballots.

The Communist party if you knew your history :rolleyes: gained 2 MP's while standing 22 candidates in 1945.
In 1950 they gained 100,000 votes while contesting only 1/6th of the seats.
Under PR the vote would be far higher and thus by the the 1951 election the Labour party would need Communist support to stay in power.
 
The pre-WWII scenarios are helpful, and I've looked at some, but post-WWII is preferable. However, the switch to PR is interesting.
 
During the mid/late 70s Britain had severe economic problems. Harold Wilson (far left by today's standards) talked left but tried to curtail the power of the unions. In 78-79 was the "Winter of Discontent" a period of mass labor unrest.

http://libcom.org/history/1978-1979-winter-of-discontent

During the 80s the head of the Labour Party,Neil Kinnock, then in opposition, actually for a time called for Britain leaving NATO (although Kinnock was a centrist). In the early 80s there was a fight between the left and right for control of the Labour Party. The right pretty much won.

Anyway there was turmoil around this time. Maybe with some tweaking you could get a communist Britain.

The film "A Most British Coup" has the scenario of a radical left Labour PM beginning a democratic socialist revolution. Britain leaves NATO and borrows money from the Soviet Union after a US freeze on assets.
 
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