Keeping the British Liberal Party flag flying high

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pipisme

The Conservative Party election manifesto said that a Conservative government would introduce legislation to end rent control, and establish independent television companies financed by advertising, thus ending the monopoly of the BBT [British Broadcasting Trust]. Both proposals were opposed by the Liberal and Socialist Labour parties.

In OTL forty opinion polls were published for the general election on 26 May 1955. [1] There was about the same number in this TL for the general election on 6 October 1955. The average of the last polls published on 5 October was a Liberal lead of 3.1 percent over Conservative after the don't knows had been excluded. The figures were:
Liberal: 41.2%
Conservative:38.1%
Socialist Labour: 19.2%
Others: 1.5%.

This represented a swing of 3.25 percent from Conservative to Liberal since the previous general election in October 1950.

[1] See http://users.ox.ac.uk/~nuff0084/PollsandtheVoteinBritain.pdf, Table 1.
 
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pipisme

On Thursday 6 Oct polling stations opened at 7 am and closed at 9 pm. The weather that day was cool with sunny periods and heavy squally thundery showers caused by strong north-westerly winds produced by a deep depression in the North Sea. [1] The election results programme on television broadcast by the BBT began at 9.30 pm. It was presented by David Dimbleby with David Butler commenting on the results and giving the swing between the parties. The time before the first results expected soon after 10 pm was filled up by reports from counts in Salford, Cheltenham and Exeter, where declarations were expected early, and interviews with the Chairmen of the Conservative and Liberal parties who and the General Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party. All said that their parties would do well. There were also interviews with two distinguished historians.

At 10.12 the first declaration came from Salford Town Hall where the Mayor, acting as the Returning Officer, read out the result for Salford East. This was a Socialist Labour gain from Liberal with a swing of 4.15% from Liberal to Socialist Labour.

[1] Here is the Meteorlogical Office report for the weather in the UK for October 1955: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/mohippo/pdf/n/t/oct1955.pdf. Often there are sunny periods when there are squally thundery showers, and a north-westerly airstream means below average temperatures.
 

pipisme

From the election results programme about half a minute after the declaration of the Salford East result:
'We are now going over to Exeter for the result there'. The returning officer having read out the number of votes cast for each candidate said, 'and I hereby declare that the said Rolf Dudley Williams is hereby elected to serve as member of parliament for the Exeter constituency.' Williams was the Conservative candidate. Back in the studio David Butler remarked that it was a swing of only 0.4 percent from Conservative to Liberal, when the Liberals would have won it with a swing to them of 2.65%. David Dimbleby said that the Liberal candidate, Jeremy Thorpe, was a controversial choice. 1]Many Liberals in the constituency wanted a local candidate.
The third result to be declared was Cheltenham which the Tories held with a swing from them to the Liberals of 3.2 percent. The first Liberal gain was Oxford where a Conservative majority of 1079 became a Liberal majority of 213.

[1] I know that Jeremy Thorpe was born in 1929 in OTL and therefore after the POD in December 1923, but lets say the Jeremy Thorpe in this TL was an ATL brother of the OTL Jeremy Thorpe.
 
idumea

idumea

Oh dear, these early results do not look good enough for Megan. If she gets back in her government might need rather more Slabs.
 

pipisme

379 results were declared overnight. The Prime Minister, Megan Lloyd George, was re-elected in Anglesey, and Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, the leader of the Conservative Party, and Clement Attlee, the leader of the Socialist Labour Party and Foreign Secretary, were re-elected in Liverpool Kirkdale and Stepney East respectively. The Liberals gained the following seats from the Conservatives [in alphabetical order]: Bath, Birmingham Northfield, Cardiff South-East, Carshalton, Chislehurst, City of Chester, Ealing North, Finchley, Hampstead, Harrow East, Hastings, Ilford North, Luton, Manchester Withington, Poole, Reading South, Salford West [by 39 votes after two recounts] Southampton Test, Stockport South, Torquay, Tynemouth, Warrington, Wednesbury. They also gained Lambeth Vauxhall from Socialist Labour, making a total of 23 gains. The Tories held onto several marginal seats including Bristol North-west, Darwen, Liverpool West Derby, and Manchester Rusholme.

Socialist Labour gained the following seats from Conservative: Birmingham Aston, Blackburn East, Burnley, Cardiff West, Glasgow Central, Glasgow Shettleston, Grimsby, Liverpool Exchange, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Sheffield Hillsborough, Walsall They also gained Dunfermline Burghs, Huddersfield East, Leeds Central and Oldham West from Liberal, making a total of 15 gains and one loss.

In Northern Ireland the Progressive Party gained Belfast South from the Ulster Unionists and the Northern Ireland Labour Party gained Belfast West from the Ulster Unionists.

The counts in Middleton and Prestwich, and Twickenham both of which the Tories were defending were postponed until 9 am on 7 October after two recounts.
 
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pipisme

In the overnight results the Liberals also gained Kingston-upon-Hull South-West, Oxford, and Portsmouth Central from the Tories. Socialist Labour also took Birmingham Duddeston, Coventry West, and Finsbury and Holborn from the Tories.
 

pipisme

Counting in the general election resumed at 9 am on 7 October. The first seat which changed hands was Shipley [in the West Riding of Yorkshire] which was a Liberal gain from Conservative, and more Liberal gains from Conservative followed during the course of the day. After one more recount the Tories held Middleton and Prestwich by a majority of 17. It took two more recounts to elect the Liberal candidate in Twickenham by a majority of three votes. The other Liberal gains from Conservative were as follows:
Aberdeenshire West, Angus North and Mearns, Brecon and Radnor, Cambridgeshire, Crewe, Derbyshire South-West, Devizes, Harborough, Hemel Hempstead, Hereford, Holland-with-Boston, Honiton, King's Lynn, Louth, Scarborough and Whitby, Shrewsbury, Skipton, Stalybridge and Hyde, Sudbury and Woodbridge, Taunton, Tiverton, Uxbridge, Westmorland. That is 23 seats. There were four Socialist Labour gains from Conservative: Bothwell, Newark, Skelmersdale, and Whitehaven.
 

pipisme

At 11.43 am the declaration of the result for Chippenham, which was won by the Liberals, meant that they together with Socialist Labour and the Northern Ireland Labour and Progressive MPs had 320 seats in the House of Commons, and thus an overall majority. It was now impossible for the Tories to win a majority. When all the results had been declared the number of seats in the House of Commons won by each party was as follows [after October 1950 general election]:
Liberal: 287 [239]
Conservative and Unionist: 232 [303]
Socialist Labour: 118 [97]
Northern Ireland Labour: 1 [0]
Progressive: 1 [0]
----------------
Total: 639 [639]
----------------
The percentage votes obtained by each party was as follows [in October 1950 general election]
Liberal: 39.2 [37.4]
Conservative and Unionist: 37.8 [40.9]
Socialist Labour: 21.2 [20.4]
Others: 1.8 [1.3]
----------------------
Total: 100.00 [100.00]
----------------------
The swing from Conservative to Liberal was 2.45%. The turnout fell from 76.2% to 74.1%.
 

pipisme

The Northern Ireland Labour Party [NILP] was allied to but separate from the Socialist Labour Party in Britain. In the October 1955 general election Jack Beattie gained Belfast West for the NILP from the Ulster Unionist Party. [1]

The Progressive Party was formed in 1936 as a merger of the Liberal and Progressive Unionist parties in Northern Ireland. [2] Sheelagh Mary Murnaghan was elected as the Progressive Party MP for Belfast South in the general election. [3] In addition to gaining Belfast South the Progressives were only 4.6 percent behind the winning Ulster Unionist candidate in North Down. After the election Beattie and Murnaghan said they would sit on the government benches in the House of Commons.

[1] Here is his entry on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Beattie.

[2] See post #1996 on page 100.

[3] Here is her entry on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheelagh_Murnaghan.
 
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lurker

pipisme said:
At 11.43 am the declaration of the result for Chippenham, which was won by the Liberals, meant that they together with Socialist Labour and the Northern Ireland Labour and Progressive MPs had 320 seats in the House of Commons, and thus an overall majority. It was now impossible for the Tories to win a majority. When all the results had been declared the number of seats in the House of Commons won by each party was as follows [after October 1950 general election]:
Liberal: 287 [239]
Conservative and Unionist: 232 [303]
Socialist Labour: 118 [97]
Northern Ireland Labour: 1 [0]
Progressive: 1 [0]
----------------
Total: 639 [639]
----------------
The percentage votes obtained by each party was as follows [in October 1950 general election]
Liberal: 39.2 [37.4]
Conservative and Unionist: 37.8 [40.9]
Socialist Labour: 21.2 [20.4]
Others: 1.8 [1.3]
----------------------
Total: 100.00 [100.00]
----------------------
The swing from Conservative to Liberal was 2.45%. The turnout fell from 76.2% to 74.1%.
Click to expand...

Your numbers don't add up. The four parties have 407 seats.
 

pipisme

Cylon_Number_14 said:
What factors were attributed to such a good showing for the Liberal Party? (or rough showing for the Conservatives)
Click to expand...

Economic prosperity with low unemployment and low inflation, a 'give away' budget the previous April, and farmers were doing well which helped the Liberals in rural seats. Also the Conservatives were damaged by their proposal to abolish rent control, especially in those constituencies with a high proportion of tenants in the private sector. However compared to the previous general election, the Conservative vote was 0.4% higher than the Liberal vote in that election, and only seven fewer Conservative than Liberal MPs elected.
 
idumea

idumea

pipisme said:
I've checked my figures again and the figures for the number of MPs elected add up to 639:
287
232
118
1
1
---
639
----
Click to expand...

I think he means the government benches between 320 for a majority and 407 total, however I read this as meaning the outcome was assured earlier in the morning before 87 further seats were announced.
 

Thomas1195

Banned
pipisme said:
Economic prosperity with low unemployment and low inflation, a 'give away' budget the previous April, and farmers were doing well which helped the Liberals in rural seats. Also the Conservatives were damaged by their proposal to abolish rent control, especially in those constituencies with a high proportion of tenants in the private sector. However compared to the previous general election, the Conservative vote was 0.4% higher than the Liberal vote in that election, and only seven fewer Conservative than Liberal MPs elected.
Click to expand...
How does the Liberal Manifesto look like?

Besides, does the Beveridge welfare state exists ITTL?
 

lurker

pipisme said:
I've checked my figures again and the figures for the number of MPs elected add up to 639:
287
232
118
1
1
---
639
----
Click to expand...
idumea said:
I think he means the government benches between 320 for a majority and 407 total, however I read this as meaning the outcome was assured earlier in the morning before 87 further seats were announced.
Click to expand...
Yes. I meant that the ruling coalition has over four hundred seats, not 320. But I see the intended meaning; I didn't read closely enough.
 

pipisme

Thomas1195 said:
How does the Liberal Manifesto look like?

Besides, does the Beveridge welfare state exists ITTL?
Click to expand...

I have not said anything about the Liberal Manifesto because I don't have the time to research it.

The Seebohm Committee on the future of social insurance, chaired by Seebohm Rowntree, published its report, which recommended a comprehensive system of social insurance, in March 1932 [see post #154 on page 8].It was implemented by the Liberal/Labour coalition government which took office in November 1932 [see post #180 on page 9]. Family allowances had been paid since February 1929 [see post #97 on page 5].
 
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