S T E A M P U N K
1979-1980: Stafford Throckmorton (Unionist)
1979 (Minority) def. Ed Mackenzie (Liberal), Charlotte Devlin (Irish Parliamentary Party), Max Harrison (Social Democratic Federation)
1980-1983: Ed Mackenzie (Liberal minority with supply and confidence from the Irish Parliamentary Party)
1983-1992: Arthur Burley (Unionist)
1984 (Coalition with the SDF) def. Ed Mackenzie (Liberal), Max Harrison (Social Democratic Federation), Charlotte Devlin (Irish Parliamentary Party)
1988 (Majority) def. George Bryce (Liberal), Stuart Donaghue (Irish Parliamentary Party), Max Harrison (Social Democratic Federation), Bobbie Thatcher (British Workers')
1992-1995: Phillipa Rose (Liberal)
1992 (Coalition with the IPP and the SDF) def. Arthur Burley (Unionist), Eoin McClane (Irish Parliamentary Party), Horatio Menzies (Social Democratic Federation), Bobbie Thatcher (British Workers')
Opinion Polls for 1995 General Election
Unionist: 35.3%
Liberal: 30.8%
BWP: 20.5%
SDF: 8.1%
IPP: 2.1%
Others: 3.2%
The British party political system is facing a reckoning, possibly the largest since the Home Rule and Tariff Reform debates at the end of the 19th century that almost splintered the United Kingdom and remade the Tories into the modern Unionist Party. The established parties disagree on a great deal. Trade policy, the relationship with the African Dependents, the more complex relationship with the Imperial Federation as a whole, the correct attitude to take to European entanglements, economic regulation and intervention (or the lack of it), devolution, the list goes on. But there is one bone of contention, that the establishment parties all agreed upon long ago and until recently was not a topic of public debate except amongst some crank theorists. That issue being that of national hygiene, or eugenics.
That the Unionist and Liberal parties were firm defenders of the National Hygienic Acts was well known and acknowledged. What was less widely recognised was the Social Democrats were also defenders of the national hygiene, in favour of the segregation and voluntary sterilisation of physically and mentally subnormal and deficient stratas of the population. As this was a topic that neither of the big two parties debated at any length, the SDF focussed their campaign literature on workplace safety, reforms to public healthcare, and support for the trade unions, as well as being loud in their condemnation of wars, either those of 'imperial aggrandizement' in the case of the Unionists, or 'European busybodying' in the case of the Liberals. In the 1960s and 70s, they successfully courted populist sentiment, adopting different styles of rhetoric when in different parts of the country. They fought where they could win and built up a heady level of support, such that in the late 70s, the country was faced with a very hung parliament indeed.
This was nothing new. Liberal governments had long grown accustomed to working with the Irish Parliamentary Party or whichever faction seemed cleaner when that party went through it's periodic phases of purging corruption or splitting over some issue or another. The Unionists on the other hand, had only had the displeasure of courting a partner twice since the turn of the century, the first upon their formation when the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists danced together, and again in the 1940s when the Unionists and Liberals had come together in the name of national unity to fight the Fu Dynasty of China. Now though, there was no potentially earth-shattering crisis. There was simply the parliamentary arithmetic that the Unionists were the largest party, but that they did not have a majority.
What happened at first was that the Unionist tried to go it alone. Their then leader Stafford Throckmorton could not countenance working with either the Irish nationalists or the socialists. His minority government managed a year before a confidence motion which the government failed. A weaker Liberal minority government ensued which managed three years with support from the IPP before it fell apart. The Unionists had since selected a new leader, more pragmatic than the arch-traditionalist Throckmorton. Burley treated with the SDF and with their support was able to command a majority. The two parties enjoyed a honeymoon and Burley sought to secure the greatest possible advantage by asking the King to dissolve Parliament.
The result was a boom for the Social Democrats, and while the Unionists made modest gains, the coalition continued. It was this longer period of Coalition that spelled doom for the SDF. Now they were forced to put their ideals to the test, and they were found wanting. First they had to deal with the costly intervention in Argentina, then they had to support Unionist plans for altered tariffs, and their own plans for slum clearances and new housing projects were put on the backburner. Max Harrison, once one of the country's most popular politicians now found himself it's most reviled. At best, he was the punchline for a sordid joke, at worst he was burned in effigy in Birmingham's streets. Most controversially the Unionist-SDF Coalition passed a National Hygienic Act that introduced compulsory sterilisation in Britain's prisons, introduced payments to the female tenants of workhouses that lasted only for as long as they did not become pregnant (and financial incentives for male tenants to undergo voluntary sterilisation), and compelled vagrants to register at their nearest workhouse or face imprisonment.
In 1988, amidst a stable economy, the SDF was burned back. While they lost several seats to the Liberals, it was a new force in British politics which arose to replace them in many urban areas. The British Workers' Party was socialist, but that was where the similarity ended. While the SDF had shrunk away from war, the BWP loudly banged the drum of jingoism. They were more radical in their support for the industrial unions. And they were firmly opposed to the National Hygienic Acts, condemning them as human butchery that made cattle of men.
In 1992, Burley's government lost it's majority, largely due to increasing controversy over the extension of the occupation of parts of Argentina combined with a simultaneous intervention in China that heightened tensions with Berlin. Burley's attempt to pass a Temperance Act also went down poorly in both Parliament and the wider country. Phillipa Rose was able to cobble together a majority with the IPP and the truncated SDF. Over the last three years, she has pulled troops out of Argentina, but has brought Britain closer to the Latin Entente which has not helped relations with the German Empire. The lowering of tariffs and attempts to peg the pound to a fixed rate with the Latin franc has seen the economy and public spending shrink and the cost of living has risen. The IPP is suffering one of her periods of internal tension, though it has not come to a split yet. Nevertheless, the impending split cost the government a crucial vote which led to Rose deciding to dissolve parliament and seek a renewed mandate. The SDF's polling is risible, while the BWP are biting at the Liberal's flanks. While it looks like the Unionists may win the most seats, the choice of partners has shrunk considerably, it will either be socialists of the BWP who want nationalisation of workhouses and heavy industry and the abolition of National Hygiene, or the IPP whose current instability will make them a fairweather friend at best.
