Dry British Empire?

"Prohibition is Described as "Several Periods During Which the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and salt of alcoholic beverages Were restricted or illegal." Prohibition America underwent from January 16, 1920 - February 17, 1933. Interestingly, Was not America the only country to experience Prohibition in the 20th century. Other Areas affected by the Prohibition includes:

Prince Edward Island in Canada and other locations in Canada Were under Prohibition from 1901 to 1948.
Finland Was Also under Prohibition, Called kieltolaki, from 1919 to 1932.
Prohibited alcohol Iceland from 1915 - 1922, and beer Was not allowed to be sold"

What if in 20s, prohibition had become law also in UK and in all British Empire?
 

Das_Colonel

Banned
Can't see that happening somehow, considering alcohol is a cornerstone of British society. Despite the temperance movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Especially not in Australia.
 
Can't see that happening somehow, considering alcohol is a cornerstone of British society. Despite the temperance movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Especially not in Australia.

Alcohol isn't exactly a minor part of American society. For a short period of time George Washington not only distilled whiskey but was one of the countries largest distillers.

New Zealand and Australia almost had prohibition. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, which successfully lobbied to have alcohol banned in America, came close to making prohibition laws in those countries.

I believe that the UK never had prohibition because the right to vote for women under equal terms as men didn't happen until 1928. By that time, prohibition was probably seen as a failed experiment and was rapidly losing popularity.

I could see the UK enacting prohibition if equal suffrage was enacted earlier, like 1918 just after the war. The Representation of the People Act of 1918 had many restrictions on which women could vote. If women had equal terms then, they would have represented a large majority of the electoral votes due to the number of men killed in the war. They could have easily pushed a prohibition bill if they wanted. And if the UK banned alcohol it may boost the movement in other parts of the empire.
 

Pangur

Donor
as if !

If they tried to go dry before 1921 that would have included Ireland - no chance of that working and regardless of the date it would also have applied to Scotland -- yeah right !!
 
If they tried to go dry before 1921 that would have included Ireland - no chance of that working and regardless of the date it would also have applied to Scotland -- yeah right !!

Actually Scotland came a mite closer: we had Sunday prohibition on sales for quite a while (legend has it that the railings on the Solway bridge were put there to prevent all the Scotsmen staggering home on Sunday night from falling in). Pub culture was no more Scottish than it was English, but Scotland was also under the profound cultural influence of some rather moralistic Calvinist churches at the time.

But stereotypes are fun! :rolleyes:
 
What if in 20s, prohibition had become law also in UK and in all British Empire?
The Temperance movement (of both the Christian and women flavour) had been around in Britain for decades and never got anywhere. To quote the wiki;

"Between the wars American exponents of the sterling example set to Britain by National Prohibition, such as William "Pussyfoot" Johnson and Dr Armor, toured the country, to be met with derision and (in Johnson's case) violence.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement#cite_note-25"

If prohibition becomes law the governing party faces waves of popular unrest before being utterly annihilated at the next election, the new government immediately repeals the law.

The monarchy suffers a complete collapse of support as people start asking why King George V was so stupid as to give royal assent to something so spectacularly unpopular with his people, after all what good is a constitutional back stop that doesn't back stop? Ditto the House of Lords. In fact I could see things going so bad for the monarchy we may have a winner in Jape's British Republic AHC.
 
What would they specifically ban? Would this ban only be for Great Britain? I see the Island of Man and the Channel Islands getting some incresed tourism, same with the Faroes. How would the need to specify which groups got to keep wine for communion or whiskey for painkillers work out?
 
It's actually said that gin and gin houses starting probably in the 17th century were what prevented the Brits ruling the entire world, no doubt Guinness is what stopped my fellow country men from doing so!
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
What if in 20s, prohibition had become law also in UK and in all British Empire?

The British Parliament could not have passed such laws for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa, which were already self-governing with their own parliaments. Technically-speaking, an argument could be made that they had authority to do so until the passage of the Statute of Westminster in the early 30s, but within the realm of political reality it was clearly not possible.
 

mowque

Banned
Canada had dry laws, as well as Russia during this period. I'd be very interested in seeing a dry run in the UK.
 
Here's an idea. They try combining it with an anti-narcotics push and also an upshot in iced teas, coffee, chocolate, and cola. Also try having non-alchoholic ciders be increasingly introduced at royal events. After all, the you wouldn't want the Muslims or certain Christian grous to be left out in toasting the Crown. On a only somewhat related question, didn't the Europens agree to ban all importation of alchohol and arms into Africe between Nambia and the Sahara basically?
 
"After Edward, Prince of Wales, returned to Britain following his 1919 tour of Canada, he recounted to his father, King George V, a ditty he'd heard at a border town:
Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry,
Went across the border to get a drink of rye.
When the rye was opened, the Yanks began to sing,
"God bless America, but God save the King!"

:D ;)
 
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