Exocet - the Effects of a different Falklands
- Thread starter Nevran
- Start date
So does that mean 2010s become OTL 2020s, with MERS/Ebola crisis being much worse TTL?
Honestly, I don't know enough about the Philippines politics to give a good answer right now. I'll add it to the to-do list for a future update. Any suggestions you have, please give me a PM though.
Ah, luckily for this world, there's not going to be a global pandemic beginning in 2010.
The 2010s could actually be significantly better than ours, and it could be the missing 90s decade this TL never got...
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t there some kind of foreshadowed energy crisis in the early 2010s, at least in the UK?
Yep, I have foreshadowed a looming energy crisis. I've got a update which should give a few more hints to the future very soon too.
2007 French presidential election
War, violence, riots and political turmoil defined Fabius’ presidency. By 2007, Fabius had been abandoned by his own party, blamed for the rot which had set into French politics and left office with cataclysmic approval ratings. Even if 2002 was a poisoned chalice, Fabius was blamed for the the worst excesses of the post-Noël era.
Looking with hindsight however, Laurent Fabius was not meant to suffer such a fate. In 2002, Fabius almost resembled a Robert Kennedy-esque figure, with the 2002 presidential a mirror of the 1968 US presidential election. Fabius, on a clear “Stop the War” pledge, rallied the support of left-wingers and minorities and 'took' the Socialist party from then-incumbent Jacques Delors and his close ally Dominique Strauss-Khan. Unlike with Kennedy, the assassin's bullet had already been fired and had already killed another leading light of the party, in Lionel Jospin.
A photo finish between Jean-Marie Le Pen for the conventional centre-right candidate Jean-Louis Debré heightened fears of another divisive and difficult election. Luckily for Fabius, Debré kept putting his foot in it. Supporting the War in Algeria, now in its seventh year, moving to the right on immigration and attacking refugees did little to boost Debré’s campaign. Fabius got Delors’ endorsement and won the election relatively comfortably, even if Union kept the election closer than opinion polls suggested.
Fabius’ election marked the highpoint of the ‘boom du millénaire’, or Millenium Boom. Public spirits were high, people optimistic that the wars could end, the ecu and Europe could bring about a new age of prosperity and France could return to a state of normalcy.
As with most European leaders in the early 2000s, Fabius had to deal with the minor recession caused by the introduction of the Ecu. In part because of this recession and the legislative elections held in 2000 which had delivered a large Socialist majority already meant that Fabius chose not to hold snap elections after winning in 2002 and chose to wait until 2005. Afterall Fabius had been PM, and had a pretty good claim to retain the mandate in the legislature.
Choosing his close ally Arnaud Montebourg, a left-winger to become Prime Minister, ambitious proposals to boost intelitech provisions in education and business were passed, a “Living Wage” was instituted, and environmental policies prioritised. However, these victories came because of the collapse of the main opposition, rather than the legislative abilities of the PM. Montebourg was a difficult PM, trying to dominate domestic politics but often doing little to help by this domination. A show-horse, not a work-horse, after a flurry of legislative activity (bills which had begun under Fabius and before Montebourg's tenure), the legislature ground to a halt and inertia set in.
This inertia was even more surprising considering that the centre-right conglomeration 'Union', in the immediate aftermath of the 2002 election, collapsed into a quagmire of corruption, personal sleaze scandals and sensational arrests including both a former president and prime minister, Union, like RPR before, collapsed in on itself. While the centre-right would eventually reform into the Union Républicaine (UR), the collapse of the party gave them time to lick their wounds and leave the political spotlight. As such Fabius, was almost alone at the top of French politics.
It was in these early months that Fabius sealed his political fate. Having ran on a “Stop The War” pledge, Fabius oversaw French troops finally leave Algeria. The troops in Libya (numbering around 35,000, before ballooning to 50,000 just before the signing of the Dakar Accords in April 2006) however, were left in the desert sands. With men and women still fighting, dying and spilling blood, it became clear that the War was still on.
Whilst true that if French troops (alongside other NATO troops, especially the Americans) had withdrawn from Libya in 2003, it’s likely that terrorist groups and militias would’ve decimated the fragile democratic government and caused untold misery for millions, this excuse did little to improve Fabius' standing with his base and those who voted him into office. Whilst Fabius promised that troops were now acting as peace-keepers, 'the betrayal' narrative went public. When Newt Gingrich won the presidency and surged troops in Libya in 2005, (to get the Dakar Accords over the line) France was forced to call up reserves, with Fabius’ “Stop the War” pledge having been buried in the desert sands and the 'betrayal' narrative having now gone mainstream. When Libya collapsed into civil conflict and sectarian violence once Western troops left in 2010, Fabius made a statement in which he spoke of his "deep regret" for keeping troops in Libya for as long as he did.
It was those on the fringes of politics which benefited most from this 'betrayal'. Hard-right and Gaullist politicians kept hoping for another De Gaulle, another figure to end the wars in Northern Africa which France had been locked into. A man who could stop the deaths of the now-hundreds of young French men and women. Someone who could bring about order and stability. Meanwhile, hard-left politicians, unions and activists would march on the streets, protesting the 'betrayal' of Fabius. Afterall, French troops were still in the quagmire that was Libya. This anger would only be multiplied in the aftermath of 7/17 and the West’s response to the attacks.
Even respected newspapers such as The Economist began to comment on whether the French Fifth Republic would survive or whether the next riot, the next assassination, the next news report about more blood split in Northern Africa.
The far-right, also went built electoral and political strength, with he cordon sanitaire placed on the FN by most voters had been lifted in the years since Noël and the Fabius presidency. When FN placed second in the 2004 European parliament elections, and the PS sunk to levels unprecedented for a governing party in modern times, Fabius had ran out of political capital, barely two years into his term.
These dire results, a replication of the absymal 2004 regional elections, forced the resignation of Montebourg as Prime Minister. His replacement, François Hollande, a critic of Fabius was nonetheless appointed as Prime Minister, a return to the balancing act of keeping the different factions within the PS happy with the other. Cynically, Hollande was also believed to have been appointed to take the heat from the upcoming 2005 legislative elections.
Greater consternation came for Fabius with the European constitution. Fabius, privately, was against the idea of a European constitution, due to its potential to erode social democracy and French sovereignty. However, during an intra-party meeting of the Socialists, he admitted that he would not publicly oppose the constitution and instead would delegate to the National Assembly, which would quickly and quietly vote in favour of adopting the constitution. Former PM Montebourg attempted to force Fabius and Hollande to hold a referendum on the constitution and then co-ordinated with far-left and far-right wing legislators in the assembly to vote down the constitution. Both these efforts failed but divided the Socialist Party irrevocably and saw Montebourg fall out of favour with both Fabius and the PS establishment. Ironically, when the UK voted against the European constitution a year later, it made all this political blood-letting useless and built pressure in the French political system, which a referendum might of helped release.
As such, the 2005 legislative elections saw UR win in a landslide and saw France return to a period of cohabitation government. The PS fell into deeper political turmoil, with Hollande publicly turning against the President, in a similar vein that Michel Rocard did to Mitterrand back in 1988. Fabius would complicate matters as when in a leaked tape, during an off-the-record conversation with a Le Monde reporter, said that his relationship with UR PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin was far better than his relationship with Hollande. Fabius's leaked quote that “[Raffarin] doesn’t stab me in the back” epitomised the state of the PS. Fabius shortly after announced he would not run for a second term, and given his approval ratings and stature both within and outside the Socialist Party, was a reilef to many.
In this light, with two controversial former Prime Ministers in Montebourg and Hollande in a fighting match against the other, the Socialist Party instead rallied behind Martine Aubry, the daughter of former President Jacques Delors and herself a long-time and prominent figure in the party. Pledging a return to the more conciliatory and centrist president that her father had been and a pledge to return to some form of normalcy, (with voters looking back on Delors with some sense of nostalgia), was a tonic to Socialist Party members, sick of the psychodrama of the Fabius/Montebourg/Hollande era.
However, to the shock and horror of millions, Jean-Marie Len Pen did it once again and came second in the first round, piping Aubry to the campaign by a few percentage points.
UR meanwhile had chosen Foreign Affairs Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, who while not as charismatic as some of her rivals, was a party insider with deep connections in and outside of UR. As expected, the French establishment unified around Alliot-Marie, but unlike in 1995, significantly more voters were willing to hear Le Pen out this time. Frequent sexist attacks on Alliot-Marie hurt her standing with voters and the corruption, scandal and the still-remembered and disastrous Chirac presidency was a drag of Alliot-Marie’s campaign.
In one of the ugliest and divisive campaigns in modern times, Alliot-Marie, both thanks to the French right have finally united into an effective electoral vehicle, and centrist and centre-left voters forced to back her campaign, won the election in a landslide. However, with almost a third of French voters choosing Le Pen, it was clear that the a political earthquake had occurred.
Fabius nonetheless has gone down better in history books than his contemporaries of the time expected him to be regarded as. A poignant example of this was that it was during Fabius' term that the Eiffel Tower was rebuilt, and re-opened to the public. A symbol of France, with its scorched remains having been the shattering of the post-Cold War optimism, was back.
Looking with hindsight however, Laurent Fabius was not meant to suffer such a fate. In 2002, Fabius almost resembled a Robert Kennedy-esque figure, with the 2002 presidential a mirror of the 1968 US presidential election. Fabius, on a clear “Stop the War” pledge, rallied the support of left-wingers and minorities and 'took' the Socialist party from then-incumbent Jacques Delors and his close ally Dominique Strauss-Khan. Unlike with Kennedy, the assassin's bullet had already been fired and had already killed another leading light of the party, in Lionel Jospin.
A photo finish between Jean-Marie Le Pen for the conventional centre-right candidate Jean-Louis Debré heightened fears of another divisive and difficult election. Luckily for Fabius, Debré kept putting his foot in it. Supporting the War in Algeria, now in its seventh year, moving to the right on immigration and attacking refugees did little to boost Debré’s campaign. Fabius got Delors’ endorsement and won the election relatively comfortably, even if Union kept the election closer than opinion polls suggested.
Fabius’ election marked the highpoint of the ‘boom du millénaire’, or Millenium Boom. Public spirits were high, people optimistic that the wars could end, the ecu and Europe could bring about a new age of prosperity and France could return to a state of normalcy.
As with most European leaders in the early 2000s, Fabius had to deal with the minor recession caused by the introduction of the Ecu. In part because of this recession and the legislative elections held in 2000 which had delivered a large Socialist majority already meant that Fabius chose not to hold snap elections after winning in 2002 and chose to wait until 2005. Afterall Fabius had been PM, and had a pretty good claim to retain the mandate in the legislature.
Choosing his close ally Arnaud Montebourg, a left-winger to become Prime Minister, ambitious proposals to boost intelitech provisions in education and business were passed, a “Living Wage” was instituted, and environmental policies prioritised. However, these victories came because of the collapse of the main opposition, rather than the legislative abilities of the PM. Montebourg was a difficult PM, trying to dominate domestic politics but often doing little to help by this domination. A show-horse, not a work-horse, after a flurry of legislative activity (bills which had begun under Fabius and before Montebourg's tenure), the legislature ground to a halt and inertia set in.
This inertia was even more surprising considering that the centre-right conglomeration 'Union', in the immediate aftermath of the 2002 election, collapsed into a quagmire of corruption, personal sleaze scandals and sensational arrests including both a former president and prime minister, Union, like RPR before, collapsed in on itself. While the centre-right would eventually reform into the Union Républicaine (UR), the collapse of the party gave them time to lick their wounds and leave the political spotlight. As such Fabius, was almost alone at the top of French politics.
It was in these early months that Fabius sealed his political fate. Having ran on a “Stop The War” pledge, Fabius oversaw French troops finally leave Algeria. The troops in Libya (numbering around 35,000, before ballooning to 50,000 just before the signing of the Dakar Accords in April 2006) however, were left in the desert sands. With men and women still fighting, dying and spilling blood, it became clear that the War was still on.
Whilst true that if French troops (alongside other NATO troops, especially the Americans) had withdrawn from Libya in 2003, it’s likely that terrorist groups and militias would’ve decimated the fragile democratic government and caused untold misery for millions, this excuse did little to improve Fabius' standing with his base and those who voted him into office. Whilst Fabius promised that troops were now acting as peace-keepers, 'the betrayal' narrative went public. When Newt Gingrich won the presidency and surged troops in Libya in 2005, (to get the Dakar Accords over the line) France was forced to call up reserves, with Fabius’ “Stop the War” pledge having been buried in the desert sands and the 'betrayal' narrative having now gone mainstream. When Libya collapsed into civil conflict and sectarian violence once Western troops left in 2010, Fabius made a statement in which he spoke of his "deep regret" for keeping troops in Libya for as long as he did.
It was those on the fringes of politics which benefited most from this 'betrayal'. Hard-right and Gaullist politicians kept hoping for another De Gaulle, another figure to end the wars in Northern Africa which France had been locked into. A man who could stop the deaths of the now-hundreds of young French men and women. Someone who could bring about order and stability. Meanwhile, hard-left politicians, unions and activists would march on the streets, protesting the 'betrayal' of Fabius. Afterall, French troops were still in the quagmire that was Libya. This anger would only be multiplied in the aftermath of 7/17 and the West’s response to the attacks.
Even respected newspapers such as The Economist began to comment on whether the French Fifth Republic would survive or whether the next riot, the next assassination, the next news report about more blood split in Northern Africa.
The far-right, also went built electoral and political strength, with he cordon sanitaire placed on the FN by most voters had been lifted in the years since Noël and the Fabius presidency. When FN placed second in the 2004 European parliament elections, and the PS sunk to levels unprecedented for a governing party in modern times, Fabius had ran out of political capital, barely two years into his term.
These dire results, a replication of the absymal 2004 regional elections, forced the resignation of Montebourg as Prime Minister. His replacement, François Hollande, a critic of Fabius was nonetheless appointed as Prime Minister, a return to the balancing act of keeping the different factions within the PS happy with the other. Cynically, Hollande was also believed to have been appointed to take the heat from the upcoming 2005 legislative elections.
Greater consternation came for Fabius with the European constitution. Fabius, privately, was against the idea of a European constitution, due to its potential to erode social democracy and French sovereignty. However, during an intra-party meeting of the Socialists, he admitted that he would not publicly oppose the constitution and instead would delegate to the National Assembly, which would quickly and quietly vote in favour of adopting the constitution. Former PM Montebourg attempted to force Fabius and Hollande to hold a referendum on the constitution and then co-ordinated with far-left and far-right wing legislators in the assembly to vote down the constitution. Both these efforts failed but divided the Socialist Party irrevocably and saw Montebourg fall out of favour with both Fabius and the PS establishment. Ironically, when the UK voted against the European constitution a year later, it made all this political blood-letting useless and built pressure in the French political system, which a referendum might of helped release.
As such, the 2005 legislative elections saw UR win in a landslide and saw France return to a period of cohabitation government. The PS fell into deeper political turmoil, with Hollande publicly turning against the President, in a similar vein that Michel Rocard did to Mitterrand back in 1988. Fabius would complicate matters as when in a leaked tape, during an off-the-record conversation with a Le Monde reporter, said that his relationship with UR PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin was far better than his relationship with Hollande. Fabius's leaked quote that “[Raffarin] doesn’t stab me in the back” epitomised the state of the PS. Fabius shortly after announced he would not run for a second term, and given his approval ratings and stature both within and outside the Socialist Party, was a reilef to many.
In this light, with two controversial former Prime Ministers in Montebourg and Hollande in a fighting match against the other, the Socialist Party instead rallied behind Martine Aubry, the daughter of former President Jacques Delors and herself a long-time and prominent figure in the party. Pledging a return to the more conciliatory and centrist president that her father had been and a pledge to return to some form of normalcy, (with voters looking back on Delors with some sense of nostalgia), was a tonic to Socialist Party members, sick of the psychodrama of the Fabius/Montebourg/Hollande era.
However, to the shock and horror of millions, Jean-Marie Len Pen did it once again and came second in the first round, piping Aubry to the campaign by a few percentage points.
UR meanwhile had chosen Foreign Affairs Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, who while not as charismatic as some of her rivals, was a party insider with deep connections in and outside of UR. As expected, the French establishment unified around Alliot-Marie, but unlike in 1995, significantly more voters were willing to hear Le Pen out this time. Frequent sexist attacks on Alliot-Marie hurt her standing with voters and the corruption, scandal and the still-remembered and disastrous Chirac presidency was a drag of Alliot-Marie’s campaign.
In one of the ugliest and divisive campaigns in modern times, Alliot-Marie, both thanks to the French right have finally united into an effective electoral vehicle, and centrist and centre-left voters forced to back her campaign, won the election in a landslide. However, with almost a third of French voters choosing Le Pen, it was clear that the a political earthquake had occurred.
Fabius nonetheless has gone down better in history books than his contemporaries of the time expected him to be regarded as. A poignant example of this was that it was during Fabius' term that the Eiffel Tower was rebuilt, and re-opened to the public. A symbol of France, with its scorched remains having been the shattering of the post-Cold War optimism, was back.
Out of curiosity - why did Raffarin not run? PM has, especially if in opposition, been regarded as a President-in-waiting for much of the 5th Republic
That is unusual; the PM would be considered a contender for the party out of power. I know that the author didn't give much explanation into why the conservative establishment swung behind Marie. But I suspect that the UR doesn't like Raffarin because he is seen to be too chummy with President Fabius. President Fabius is too radiactive and the calculation may have been that they should have chosen someone that would be more palatable to the electorate.
Also, I may have missed this but: what happened with the 2005 Australian election? Was Costello re-elected?
Part this, Raffarin is content being PM and his close relationship to Fabius.
Mix in with a bit of Chirac-ist distrust with Raffarin. Raffarin being closer to the UDF and being a D'Estaing man would've supported his former boss' attempt in 1995 to come back to power would've rankled a lot of Chirac supporters and right-wingers.
Sprinkle with MAM being deceptively good at winning UR leadership races and a long-time waiting in the wings means she runs, and Raffarin doesn't.
I agree it's unusual, but I wanted someone different in MAM rather than Raffarin, even if some disbelief has been suspended to get there.
Nope not missed, just I didn't get the chance to cover it. Australia's got a future update but I'm doing them (like Germany) every other election. Costello easily won the 2005 election against Labor's Jenny Macklin but rumours are that he's planning to stand down before the next election (2008) and there's already jockeying in the Liberal Party to replace him.
Once the landing force was ashore, they originally planned to keep at least the GR3's on land - they had a lot of AM2 matting to build a short strip for them. There were also plans to fly some F4M's down and operate them from a temp airstrip - they might well need additional matting to do that but it was considered. Phantoms would be really bad news for the Argentinians as they had Skyflash AAM's.
2007 London mayoral election
Tony Banks, one of the greatest champions of London devolution, the main parliamentary sponsor of creating a directly-elected mayor, had achieved his long-time ambition to become the Mayor of London. Banks, a feisty character who commanded respect across the political spectrum, had grown increasingly tired of the day-to-day minutiae of being in opposition and in parliamentary procedure. As such, one his resounding victory in 2003, Banks relished the opportunities granted to him as Mayor. His first agenda item was the introduction of the so-called ‘congestion charge/'CC’, which would impose a flat tax on all vehicles (with some exceptions for electric, public transport, taxis and disabled drivers) driving around in central London, as a way to reduce air and noise pollution and make the city more pedestrianized. Banks worked with government figures (who themselves were crafting the ambitious Climate Change Act 2006) including Environment Secretary Andrew Lansley and Transport Secretary Tony Baldry to coordinate national and regional policy, avoid potential overlap with Westminster and combine efforts and resources. As such, by 2007, the congestion charge had been introduced to Central London with little fanfare.
Banks also revitalised London’s public transport, with a major funding and PR campaign for a redesigned London bus and significant improvements to cycle routes and bike-sharing facilities across the capital. As public bicycle stations popped up across the capital, they became affectionately and posthumously named “Banks’ Bikes”. Tragically, Banks, in January 2006 died after suffering a severe heart attack. Tributes poured in for the Mayor, with significant political figures attending his funeral.
Banks death also left open who would succeed him. The legislation creating the position for Mayor of London was vague. Deputy Mayor Oona King, appointed by Banks to the role, after conferring with the Greater London Council quickly moved and took on the mantle of “Acting Mayor of London”, until the scheduled 2007 election. King would only take on the official moniker after her later election victory.
Oona King was a trail-blazing Mayor both by being London's first female and first ethnic minority mayor. She also broke significant milestones internationally with this achievement, becoming one of the first ethnic minority and female mayors of a major global city. King was also someone who had widely been seen as a rising star in the Labour Party, even before taking the position of Mayor. Having been in the London Assembly since the creation of the Assembly in 1995, she was able to corral the Assembly (in effect a glorified whip) during council discussions and often represented Banks during LMQ’s (London Mayor’s Questions). Such experience bode well for her time as Acting Mayor of London, quickly gaining the necessary buy-in and legitimacy from the Assembly to step into Banks role.
King was also charismatic, telegenic and seemed to represent the new face of London and someone in tune with the times. Also, King politically complemented Boateng’s modernisation efforts for the Labour Party and was often full of praise for Boateng, as was Boateng for King. An electoral asset for Labour, King would often campaign for Labour in battleground seats, boosting Rupa Huq in the Chesham and Amersham by-election and a more popular asset than some of Labour's Big Beasts. Largely, King continued the path set on by Banks, perhaps with her engaging more with businesses and attending snazzy conferences in the City to woo donors.
By 2007, King chose to run for her own term as Mayor, building on Banks’ legacy but running distinctly on her own merits. King focused her campaign on infrastructure and transport issues. King campaigned on supporting Crossrail, having been approved near the end of Cook’s premiership, but now locked in a planning and political landmine, continuing the provision of free travel for older people and pledging to introduce a similar travel pass for students between 16 and 21 on London Transport and the tub. King, controversially, also pledged to expand the congestion charge to include significantly more boroughs, with the "CC" stretching from Chelsea to Greenwich, with King saying her dream was to make London a “walkable city” by 2020 .
Her opponents, Alliance’s Lembit Öpik attacked the planned expansion of the congestion charge, and the potential impacts on poorer people and those who owned small businesses which relied on vans and transportation. The Conservative candidate, James Cleverly went further and attacked the congestion charge wholesale, arguing that it unfairly penalizes motorists and had done little to reduce either the amount of traffic in London and pollution in London. Cleverly ran an aggressively right-wing campaign against King, getting criticism from liberal Conservatives such as Old Bexley and Sidcup MP Nick Clegg for such a campaign. Cleverly’s strategy of moving right to appeal to Union voters seemed to work in the first round, with the candidate securing an easy second place finish (King in first) with Union’s candidate Peter Whittle notching only 6% of the vote, a massive underperformance compared to Union’s strong local election results.
As the run-off progressed, it was clear who would triumph. Continuing the trends seen across the country, King and Labour notched a massive victory in the capital. The night of the result, Michael Portillo after Cleverly’s concession, told journalists that Chris Patten was in part responsible for the defeats seen across the nation and that he needed to go, and he needed to go now. The following weekend saw the Telegraph and the Times featuring columns and editorials calling on Patten to resign whilst the Sun and the Daily Mail had wholesale turned and demanded Patten’s resignation.
It wasn’t the angry noises which marked the end for Patten. It was silence. From his Cabinet, his allies, from his Number 10 and from the Prime Minister himself. The clock had stopped ticking.
Banks also revitalised London’s public transport, with a major funding and PR campaign for a redesigned London bus and significant improvements to cycle routes and bike-sharing facilities across the capital. As public bicycle stations popped up across the capital, they became affectionately and posthumously named “Banks’ Bikes”. Tragically, Banks, in January 2006 died after suffering a severe heart attack. Tributes poured in for the Mayor, with significant political figures attending his funeral.
Banks death also left open who would succeed him. The legislation creating the position for Mayor of London was vague. Deputy Mayor Oona King, appointed by Banks to the role, after conferring with the Greater London Council quickly moved and took on the mantle of “Acting Mayor of London”, until the scheduled 2007 election. King would only take on the official moniker after her later election victory.
Oona King was a trail-blazing Mayor both by being London's first female and first ethnic minority mayor. She also broke significant milestones internationally with this achievement, becoming one of the first ethnic minority and female mayors of a major global city. King was also someone who had widely been seen as a rising star in the Labour Party, even before taking the position of Mayor. Having been in the London Assembly since the creation of the Assembly in 1995, she was able to corral the Assembly (in effect a glorified whip) during council discussions and often represented Banks during LMQ’s (London Mayor’s Questions). Such experience bode well for her time as Acting Mayor of London, quickly gaining the necessary buy-in and legitimacy from the Assembly to step into Banks role.
King was also charismatic, telegenic and seemed to represent the new face of London and someone in tune with the times. Also, King politically complemented Boateng’s modernisation efforts for the Labour Party and was often full of praise for Boateng, as was Boateng for King. An electoral asset for Labour, King would often campaign for Labour in battleground seats, boosting Rupa Huq in the Chesham and Amersham by-election and a more popular asset than some of Labour's Big Beasts. Largely, King continued the path set on by Banks, perhaps with her engaging more with businesses and attending snazzy conferences in the City to woo donors.
By 2007, King chose to run for her own term as Mayor, building on Banks’ legacy but running distinctly on her own merits. King focused her campaign on infrastructure and transport issues. King campaigned on supporting Crossrail, having been approved near the end of Cook’s premiership, but now locked in a planning and political landmine, continuing the provision of free travel for older people and pledging to introduce a similar travel pass for students between 16 and 21 on London Transport and the tub. King, controversially, also pledged to expand the congestion charge to include significantly more boroughs, with the "CC" stretching from Chelsea to Greenwich, with King saying her dream was to make London a “walkable city” by 2020 .
Her opponents, Alliance’s Lembit Öpik attacked the planned expansion of the congestion charge, and the potential impacts on poorer people and those who owned small businesses which relied on vans and transportation. The Conservative candidate, James Cleverly went further and attacked the congestion charge wholesale, arguing that it unfairly penalizes motorists and had done little to reduce either the amount of traffic in London and pollution in London. Cleverly ran an aggressively right-wing campaign against King, getting criticism from liberal Conservatives such as Old Bexley and Sidcup MP Nick Clegg for such a campaign. Cleverly’s strategy of moving right to appeal to Union voters seemed to work in the first round, with the candidate securing an easy second place finish (King in first) with Union’s candidate Peter Whittle notching only 6% of the vote, a massive underperformance compared to Union’s strong local election results.
As the run-off progressed, it was clear who would triumph. Continuing the trends seen across the country, King and Labour notched a massive victory in the capital. The night of the result, Michael Portillo after Cleverly’s concession, told journalists that Chris Patten was in part responsible for the defeats seen across the nation and that he needed to go, and he needed to go now. The following weekend saw the Telegraph and the Times featuring columns and editorials calling on Patten to resign whilst the Sun and the Daily Mail had wholesale turned and demanded Patten’s resignation.
It wasn’t the angry noises which marked the end for Patten. It was silence. From his Cabinet, his allies, from his Number 10 and from the Prime Minister himself. The clock had stopped ticking.
The end is nigh. (Low-key though, even I've got to the point where it feels like he's ran out of time)
It was a dream-team.
Albeit King's deputy mayor in James Purnell lacks the ideological balancing which made the Banks/King relationship work.
I love giant infrastructure plans so you're in luck. Cook's government did a significant amount of investment in public infrastructure, but was focused away from London. Birmingham New Street. Manchester Metro and the electrification of the Leeds-Huddersfield-Manchester line are some examples. Patten was less focused on public "legacy projects" and more on privatisation and Public-Private Initiatives. As such, HS2/Crossrail/Heathrow expansion are on the backburner.
HS1 has an underground terminus beneath Kings' Cross and St Pancras rail station has been sold into private hands, and is being remodelled into a convention centre/events space. Whilst the Jubilee Line Extension is of OTL, Stratford is not going to be as significant a terminus for rail and the Underground in TTL, as no Olympics and less emphasis on urban regeneration kiboshes those plans.
Nope.
Facebook/Facemash = Zuckerberg's company. Started out as a dating site and Zuckerberg sold it to Myspace in 2005, after struggling with the app. Myspace goes the way of the dodo in TTL too, and so does Zuckerberg/Facebook.
ConnectU = The Winklevoss twins keep their IP and their company in TTL. A mashup of Twitter and Facebook, ConnectU is the most popular social media company globally and rumours of a rebrand to simply call the platform, "U" are floating around.
YouTube = The interweb isn't in a good enough position to see YouTube flourish, so the platform has slides slowly into irrelevancy. YouTube's replacement, Vimeo.
Linker = A Linkedin offshoot, Linker is a social LinkedIn and takes on Instagram/Twitter aspects. Linker, which grew exponentially alongside Apple and the iPhone, popularised the ⌘ as this universes #.
And... OTL around that times MOC made a desition to give 2014 Olimpics to Russia.
As I understand, TTL, after Belarus and Crimea, it would removed from the table? It would be interesting to give 2014 Olimpics to OTHER Post-Soviet Nation, may be Kazakhstan Medeu/Almaty, or Georgian Bakuriani (these names were called in the context of Sochi possible concurents) ?
Or made Games sill held in Russia, but... in Belarus Authonomous Republic, in Lahoysk near Minsk, or other such place? It would be the most scandalous Olimpics in a Century, but....)))
As I understand, TTL, after Belarus and Crimea, it would removed from the table? It would be interesting to give 2014 Olimpics to OTHER Post-Soviet Nation, may be Kazakhstan Medeu/Almaty, or Georgian Bakuriani (these names were called in the context of Sochi possible concurents) ?
Or made Games sill held in Russia, but... in Belarus Authonomous Republic, in Lahoysk near Minsk, or other such place? It would be the most scandalous Olimpics in a Century, but....)))
So, the network development was the same as OTL? Becaurse OTL the first election with the active use of the social media was US 2008 elections, and in 2010 social media played a role in the Arabian Sprind.
And in Russia, around 2010, one anti-corruption activist, named Alexey Navalny, started his YT bloge)))