I am uneducated on the matter but could parties host debates for contesting the leadership? If a party (probably Labour or Libs) did that it could put pressure on earlier debates in the general.
The Labour Party had several in 2010.
I am uneducated on the matter but could parties host debates for contesting the leadership? If a party (probably Labour or Libs) did that it could put pressure on earlier debates in the general.
The Labour Party had several in 2010.
I don't think they got much TV coverage, though. On the other hand, I'm sure I remember a prime time TV debate between... IDS and Ken Clarke?
I am uneducated on the matter but could parties host debates for contesting the leadership? If a party (probably Labour or Libs) did that it could put pressure on earlier debates in the general.
Someone has usually wanted debates at each general election, the trick is lining things up so that both major parties want them at the same time. If we start with 1964, Wilson is convinced, what with the whole British Kennedy vibe, so we need to swing the Tories. He put people off in 1963 by being too brash, too American for British politics, but since that's what a leader's debate would be, he might be a plausible person to make it happen.
You would need a different leader who the party sees as playing well on television and also doesn't see the debates as a gimmick (ruling out Butler and Hailsham).
If Maudling managed to give a more confident speech at the party conference then you could see his campaign surviving and if Hailsham can be convinced to march alongside, Butler may bow out as he did with Home (even with the backing of Macleod, Powell, Hailsham, Maudling and many others IOTL). Though Reggie would also have to be able to face down Wilson in PMQs to build up the confidence that he could defeat Wilson in the election debates.
Gosh, I'm sure my post had a 'how about Quintin Hogg' before all the bit about brash Americanisms...
-coughs-
Hogg seems combatative enough to take a challenge from Wilson if it were offered in 1964, it would be much more his style to try to turn around a difficult campaign that it was Home's.
Hailsham had two problems, one was that the Americans weren't too fond of him after some shenanigans during the Test-Ban negotiations and the other was that many in the party leadership thought there was too much of an eager air around his campaign. The reception when Hailsham renounced his peerage was seen as too brash and loud and some pictures of him with his daughter made some think he set it up that way to gain media fawning.
An interview on the BBC over the Profumo Affair where he accused the media of undermining the government and Parliament didn't help his case either, being the start of where Macmillan went off him as the anti-Butler candidate. CJF is doing a TL which has dealing with Gaitskell surviving and one of the butterflies is Macleod taking Hailsham's place and doing a better job in dealing with the interview, maybe something similar could have happened. You just need to make the party statesmen think that Hailsham can beat Wilson in said debates.