DBWI: What if Blair hadn't been Prime Minister

I recently discovered that ex-PM Eric Blair once thought of becoming a writer rather than a politician. I know that without him the "New Labour" movement probably would have fizzled out after 1926, but who knows what the other consequences would have been?

Maybe the country would have swung the other way, politically - and under the Conservatives, would Baldwin have used the "dodgy dossier" to lead the country into the occupation of Spain? Somehow I doubt it.

(I'm not trying to start a flamewar here- although we now know Franco had no intention of attacking Gibraltar, it's obvious that Britain did the right thing in deposing him in 1936).

So basically, what if Blair hadn't entered politics?
 
I recently discovered that ex-PM Eric Blair once thought of becoming a writer rather than a politician. I know that without him the "New Labour" movement probably would have fizzled out after 1926, but who knows what the other consequences would have been?

Maybe the country would have swung the other way, politically - and under the Conservatives, would Baldwin have used the "dodgy dossier" to lead the country into the occupation of Spain? Somehow I doubt it.

(I'm not trying to start a flamewar here- although we now know Franco had no intention of attacking Gibraltar, it's obvious that Britain did the right thing in deposing him in 1936).

So basically, what if Blair hadn't entered politics?


Blair as an author? I at first scoffed at the notion, but then, as I think about it, I can see him writing essays and think-pieces promoting the notion that people are ethically required ("duty bound" so to speak) to work toward the abolition of suffering or some such socialistic social-engineering mumbo-jumbo.
 
Blair as an author? I at first scoffed at the notion, but then, as I think about it, I can see him writing essays and think-pieces promoting the notion that people are ethically required ("duty bound" so to speak) to work toward the abolition of suffering or some such socialistic social-engineering mumbo-jumbo.


Sort of like that American writer, Churchill? (Except left-wing, of course).
 
He certainly could have a career in fiction of some sort or another; have you read some of the hokum he was putting out after the "dodgy dossier" got sent his way? How Franco was "45 hours away" from being able to attack Washington, DC, and how "we didn't want the smoking gun to be a chlorine gas cloud?"

I still can't believe President Prescott Bush let us get dragged into your quagmire
 
Would Blair do AH? I could see him doing future history.

I don't know about that. Given the rhetoric undergirding many of his speeches, all that we would get from his pen would be stories of struggle and triumph; stories of virtue, valor and the vitality of the human spirit; stories of rich opportunities and a better tomorrow. In other words, a lot of action, suspense and drama, followed by a positive, uplifting and hope-filled ending every time. I'd enjoy such stories, but they certainly would not become iconic best sellers.
 
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