Oscar Wilde MP

Wilde although best known for his literature, wit and fall from grace due to his homosexuality/bisexuality depending on the interpretation, was expected by many of the time to enter politics. Not terribly uncommon for the upper-class of Victorian Britain, he was often encouraged to seek a seat in Parliament. He was also a keen radical and wrote essays on Socialism, Libertarianism and Anarchism, describing Kropotkin as "a man of soul, a white Christ emerging from Russia".

So let's say he does move towards politics, when? Let's say for instance the scandal that led to his imprisonment, which destroyed his health and killed him before he was fifty, never happens. He continues into the 20th century as a controversial but much respected figure. Where would he go? The Labour Party seems most obivous ideologically, but was very much a working-class trade union based group, despite the likes of the Fabian Society. So it is a possiblity, but I think he'd become part of the rising New Liberalism of Asquith (who he was apparently a good friend) and Lloyd-George and possibly move to the left if things don't suit him. If anything like WWI happens in such a timeline, his pacifism might see him side with Ramsay McDonald and the ILP. One thing is for certain, he'd no doubt be a dominant orator in the House, however he could very well end a radical but ineffectual backbencher. Then again his high standing and connections might see differently.

What do people think, is it a possibility and how do you think it would pan out?
 
Here is my ATL for Oscar Wilde.

He joins the Liberal Party in 1902. He is elected as a Liberal MP in the general election of January 1906 in a previously Conservative held seat. He narrowly manages to hold on to his seat in the general elections of January and December 1910. In February 1912 Prime Minister Asquith appoints him Under-Secretary at the Home Office. He loses his job when Asquith forms a calition government with Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law in May 1915. He becomes active as an anti-war Liberal MP. He votes against conscription. He does not have the support of Lloyd George in the December 1918 general election and loses his seat to a Conservative, coming third place behind Labour.

He joins the Labour Party in 1919. He is elected as a Labour MP in 1922 and 1923. In 1924 he reluctantly agrees to the request by Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald to become a hereditary peer in order to increase Labour Party representation in the House of Lords. He dies at the age of 77 in 1932.
 
Hmm... Wilde would make a strange MP- he certainly wouldn't be a popular one. Could be done though.

PoD; 1883. Oscar Wilde considers casting Henrietta Hodson in The Duchess of Padua; although she turns down the role, the pair remain in touch and soon Wilde becomes friendly with her long-term lover Henry Labochere. At first, Wilde hopes that Labouchere, a Radical MP, drama critic and theatre owner, will produce some of his work; as the friendship develops however, Labouchere convinces him to take a greater interest in politics (this conveniently butterflies away the Labouchere amendment, which is an added bonus).

In 1885, Wilde stands for, and is elected to, the new constituency of Islington East; the campaign is a fiesty one characterised by Wilde's witty and flamboyant speeches. Wilde soon establishes himself, along with men like George Curzon, as one of the 'up and coming' younger MPs in the Commons. His speeches, while often reducing the House to gales of laughter, are regarded as being lightweight; likewise, his socialistic views mean that his reputation is that of a highly amusing dilletante, rather than a serious politician.

Wilde never sees high office, although he is a close friend of Lord Rosebery during his premiership. As the 1890s progress he makes increasing contact with the Labour movement, and although he is never entirely taken to heart by the ILP, he is present in 1903 when the Labour Representation Committee is formed. A great friend of the working man and an ardent believer in working-class education, Wilde spends the last years of his life giving financial and personal support to a whole generation of young Labour politicians, including a young Hugh Dalton and Tom Driberg.

Wilde stands down from his seat in 1906, and is given a peerage the same year. In 1924, he sees the first Labour Government, although by this stage he is no longer in active politics. He finally dies in 1926, at the age of 72; his posthumous memoirs are published the following year, to equal amounts of acclaim and scandal. They remain one of the most readable accounts of British politics in the late 19th and early 20th century.
 
Thank you both, as I imagined, Wilde would be colourful but not taken seriously, as well as being somewhat stuck between the Liberals and Labour.

However is their any chance he could gear his intellect towards policy-making? I have a feeling if directed a politics Wilde, particularly in the young Labour Party, would be a major 'ideas man'. I just like the idea of an septegenarian Wilde standing in the Lords during the Labour minority government in 1924 and proposing the dissilution of the House itself! :D
 
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