Keep Calm And Carry On: A Political Drama

Whose leader of the opposition here. Is it Attlee or Acland?

Seems like Acland to me, Mumby mentioned that the Labour Party has split (as is seen with the Morrison thing) so I only assume that Acland put off his defection to Labour and has now become Liberal Leader?
 
Seems like Acland to me, Mumby mentioned that the Labour Party has split (as is seen with the Morrison thing) so I only assume that Acland put off his defection to Labour and has now become Liberal Leader?

I think I got confused because there is a reference to Attlee rising from the opposite side of the aisle to Morrison. So I assumed it was Attlee
 
In this world, Churchill keeps the War Coalition together until Victory in Asia which in his estimation only takes place with this final treaty.
1952? Gods, this will not end well. I have been wondering about a slightly later 1945 general election but that was just March 1946 thanks to the Labour agreeing to stay a part of the government until all hostile powers were defeated, which unexpectedly ends up including Japan and Siam, before returning to opposition whilst the Conservatives run caretaker government for six months as a tidying-up period and consolation for the 14 months they lost to the war before the general election. 1952 is just demented, I like it. :)
 
I suspect mcdo would be more an expert than myself on this, but for what I know the LDP arose from the 55 system with a merger between two centre-right parties with the urging of the US, as a giant against the JSP(Japanese Socialist Party).
What I thought was that, if there is a greater threat of Communism, perhaps in the 20s and 30s, we could see a merger between two large right-wing parties that continues to dominate British politics(as in, no PMs from the Opposition) until the fall of Communism.
Please forgive me if I'm just saying jackshit, I basically don't know British politics.

We've only ever had one centre-right party really. You'd need to keep the Liberals as the primary Opposition to the Conservatives, whilst keeping Labour weak, only to surge forwards after the war, prompting a Liberal-Conservative merger (Unionist Party? Reform Party?), which may well be a dominant party system, though I'm tempted to say that Labour's roots as a trade unionist party not a socialist one may be enough to bring it to the forefront before the fall of Communism

Whose leader of the opposition here. Is it Attlee or Acland?

Seems like Acland to me, Mumby mentioned that the Labour Party has split (as is seen with the Morrison thing) so I only assume that Acland put off his defection to Labour and has now become Liberal Leader?

It's Acland.

And oh, the deliciousness, you have know idea...

I think I got confused because there is a reference to Attlee rising from the opposite side of the aisle to Morrison. So I assumed it was Attlee

Morrison is Home Secretary and Leader of the rump Labour Party.

1952? Gods, this will not end well. I have been wondering about a slightly later 1945 general election but that was just March 1946 thanks to the Labour agreeing to stay a part of the government until all hostile powers were defeated, which unexpectedly ends up including Japan and Siam, before returning to opposition whilst the Conservatives run caretaker government for six months as a tidying-up period and consolation for the 14 months they lost to the war before the general election. 1952 is just demented, I like it. :)

I have pushed this about as far as it is humanly possible I reckon.
 
Acland as LotO? I think I know where this is going...

Slightly surprised that Morrison remained loyal while Attlee jumped ship; my impression of the two is that it would've happened the other way round, but I can see how it would've come about this way.

Good stuff all round - onwards!
 
On a side note is there a POD for the continued success of the Common Wealth party?

Or was it very much a short lived party of its time?
 
Completely unrelated to the timeline itself whilst I know that the title is a nod to the old WWII poster my mind still reads the second part as a complete different kind of Carry On. ;)

ooh-matron.png

ooh-matron.png
 
Clement Attlee put down a letter from Canada that he'd been trying to read for half an hour down and looked at the ceiling. It hadn't been a good past seven years. He had hoped in 1945 that he was moments away from being able to reshape the face of Britain's society and economic settlement, the builder of a New Jerusalem. Instead, Winston had clung doggedly to power. And in peace time, he had taken the Beveridge Report, and accomplished much of what Attlee had hoped to do. He had established the British Hospitals Service, established the 'cradle-to-grave' welfare state, and put combating the 'Five Giant Evils' at the heart of his domestic policy. And of course, the British people lapped it up. The biggest stick they had to club the National Government had slipped through the fingers over night. Acland talked a big talk of mutualised industries, local soviets and a 'socialism of liberty', but Attlee didn't see that washing with the British public.

He thought back to 1945, when he was the second most powerful man in the land. He had stood before Churchill and said that he would not back the National Government till victory in Asia. He wanted an election now, with peace in Europe. He hadn't known then just how far Herbert had been willing to go to be Leader of the Party. He'd stuck the knife in shortly after that meeting and shook hands with Churchill and a lot of the PLP had looked very apologetically at Clement as he sat on the backbenches, and they voted to keep with Churchill till Victory In Asia.

And Victory, the true victory not the treaty that Churchill claimed ended the war, came very quickly with two American atomic detonations. Clement had struck, and this time had carried a significant chunk of the PLP with him, marching to the Opposition benches. But Morrison had doggedly sat there, clinging to his Leadership and the Labour brand. For the second time, Labour had found itself split thanks to a collaborator leader. But Morrison had enough backing to keep the Labour label, and Clement found himself having to refound, or rather reunite with, the Independent Labour Party.

It had been in 1947 that Acland had come to the fore. By-elections were eroding the National Government's majority, and while the ILP was performing well, it was Common Wealth and the Progressives who were really storming ahead, and while the ILP was larger for now, Acland was building quite a following. Clement could feel the years leaning on him, the frustrations, the failures. He wanted to relax again and enjoy the years he had left with his wife. He had proposed the merger, not Acland, though he had heard whispers from allies, like Priestley. The Alliance came first, and had borne results, as a spate of resignations as several MPs became increasingly decrepit, ILP and Common Wealth alike winning seats with increased numbers. And then came the formal union, under the Common Wealth banner. Clement had been happy to take a back seat to Acland, and the younger man had raced into the leadership role. Clement found himself a comfortable role as spokesman for Dominion Affairs, as Acland assembled his Cabinet-In-Waiting, and he was happy.

That hadn't lasted long. While the National Government whithered, Common Wealth grew, but he became concerned about how far the party was drifting away from the course being set by the government. While the National Government hadn't introduced nationalisations, there was increasing 'managerialism' in the workplace, and while Attlee and many of his allies thought this a not altogether bad thing, Acland's plans were far more radical. He was particularly concerned by Acland's resolve to abolish the nuclear weapons programme that was being undertaken by Churchill. Poor old Bevin had been summarily dismissed to the backbenches by Acland for his opposition to the Leader's policy, and when he had died not long after, Clement couldn't find it in his heart to forgive Acland.

Perhaps he might have taken Bevin's place, but now it seemed that Acland was determined to keep men such as himself, old men of the old world, away from power. He had been kept at Dominion Affairs, reading letters from Australia and Canada and dying slowly of boredom. Now, finally, something interesting was happening. Acland's time of triumph approached, and yet he was also uniquely vulnerable. For the past five years, he had been left to his own devices, all the big personalities happy to see their numbers grow while a future general election was a nebulous thing on the horizon, but now that it hoved into view, awful and concrete, these personalities clamoured for influence. It hadn't shown at PMQs but beneath the surface, Common Wealth was restive. Acland believed himself invulnerable, but Clement had plans to disabuse him of that fact. He looked at the man sitting opposite him.

'Well then, Nye,' he smiled, 'what are we to do?'
 
I'm not quite sure how everybody missed this update, but it's a good'un.

A little bit info-dump in style, but it sort of works, seeing as it's Clem ruminating on the time between when there should have been an election and when it's actually happening. The information itself is very good, though. Labour appears to have had its clothing stolen by old Winston, and it seems British Home Stores will be fighting to use their acronym, as Churchill has managed to nick that for his hospitals too! I do wonder about the differences between the NHS of the early 50s and this BHS. We shall have to see if any differences emerge.

I now look forward to the night of the Red Knives.
 
I was right! Well, about Common Wealth being the Official Opposition. Nice bit about Clem's faction leading the ILP; I can only imagine Morrison's cold fury at what happened.

It always feels a bit sad seeing Attlee in a reduced position; nice to see that here he isn't going down without a fight. I wonder what he and Nye happen to be cooking up?
 
Top