Just to gauge interest, would people be interested in US-only updates? I sometimes feel like they could use more fleshing out. I know it's not the original focus of the TL but I'm quite enjoying the parallel stories and would like to do justice to both.
 
Chapter Nine
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David Owen (Third Ministry): 1988-92
The Romantic Egotist

The man who had conquered the Socialist menace. The man who'd overseen the biggest rise in living standards since Harold Wilson, and stood side by side with the United States and Europe as the Soviet Union had fallen. No Prime Minister since Churchill could claim such a body of work, and in 1988, many thought David Owen had outdone the hero of the Second World War. Owen's re-election in 1988 had been a formality, with only eight seats falling from Democratic control, all in the Midlands area. Much like President Bush, Owen had comfortably triumphed despite the concerns of industrial areas, who were feeling left behind in the age of Silicon Surrey, and the increasing focus on the service sector as Britain hurtled towards the Nineties. Owen would retire in 1992 having served almost twelve years as Prime Minister, yet any sense of honour was robbed from that achievement by the circumstances of his departure, and the damage it very nearly caused for his chosen successor, had they replaced him as intended.

The first year and a half of Owen's third (at such a young age!) ministry went as smoothly as the previous eight had. Owen was unprecedentedly comfortable as Britain's father figure, enjoying a booming economy and popularity abroad thanks to his dynamic foreign policy team of George Robertson and Michael Heseltine. Not long after, Robertson was offered, and accepted, the position of Secretary General of the European Defence Community. Owen let him go gladly, seeing Robertson's appointment as the apotheosis of his success on the international stage. He replaced him with John Major, a rather grey figure who had impressed Robertson with his dedication as a junior minister. In Major, Owen saw a blank canvas he could paint a future plan onto, for despite earlier comments, he was in fact planning to retire in 1990, to make way for a new man (or woman, Owen acknowledged, though this was unlikely), who could refresh the dominant Democratic paradigm, to ensure absolute control for the forseeable future. Owen foresaw a future in international diplomacy, perhaps as Secretary-General of the UN, which had been suggested to him by President Bush and his UN Ambassador James Baker. However, while Owen might have dreamed of the world stage, he had to contend with a very local series of disputes.

One of the ideas concocted by Secretary of State for the Environment and Local Government Alan Beith had been devolution to not only the constituent nations of the United Kingdom, but to individual local authorities as well. Mayoralties were to be offered to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and oddly Bristol, via referendum, as well as accompanying 'Federal Assemblies'. It was even suggested that these areas could become states in a federal UK. Owen was no federalist, but he had fallen in love with the US system over his time serving with Jack Kemp, and he endorsed the idea as a way of consolidating Democratic power: if these new units of power could be won over as routinely as they were during general elections, Democratic victories were assured. Thus the government created referenda to be held during May 1990, at the same time as local elections.

However, Owen had not counted upon general frustration amongst many areas of the North, which had grown at a lethargic rate compared to London and the rest of the South. As the holder of a Plymouth seat, Owen had never really learnt to appreciate the frustrations of those struggling to survive, and so he ignored calls for the NLE to guarantee some basic form of employment, or introduce a minimum wage. "Businesses run themselves better than the government does, and so it would be churlish for us to suggest how they pay their workers", Owen said in 1989, and was met with widespread opprobrium. Suddenly Britain's champion was increasingly resembling the sort of out-of-touch Conservative that had fiddled Britain into depression during the 1920s. Indeed, despite his Labour origins, Owen was reported to have commented 'I'd have been happier as a Tory' to a journalist friend, deepening suspicions that moves towards economic growth had not deliberately benefited the lower-and-middle-classes, but had rather been directed towards securing support from right-leaning media figures such as Conrad Black, the Canadian mogul who had purchased the Times and Sun in the late 1970s.

Thus, while the government's devolution program passed decisively, it was not an endorsement of Owen but a rebuke. In 1991, a mixture of left-leaning Democratic and "People's" (the Socialists having rebranded themselves once more to avoid the stains of the Skinner era) mayors were elected, calling for a new program of investment in the Midlands and the North, but Owen, having responded to a minor recession in 1990 with spending cuts and even a restriction of the NLE to the 'greatly in need', refused. In the heartlands of Britain, voters turned to the resurgent People's Party, who co-opted the Eurosceptic and Ameri-phobic platform of the National Unionist Party, who found themselves outflanked by the bold promises of Eric Heffer, who sought greater devolution, as well as a renegotiation of terms with Europe.

All of this fed into a toxic mixture, with Owen facing calls for his resignation from 1991 onwards. However, he stuck on, reshuffling his Cabinet to include more loyalists, who increasingly tended towards right-wing policies. When Home Secretary Kenneth Baker suggested the death penalty could be restored for 'extreme un-patriotic behaviour', it became clear Owen was desperate. Finally, in February 1992, Owen announced he would step down as Democratic leader and Prime Minister, avoiding reforms passed in late 1991 that would elect the Democratic leader via popular ballot. The final election by MPs, however, would not end the way Owen desired. Frustrated with his right-leaning policies and increasingly authoritarian response to dissent, Democratic MPs passed over Owen's chosen successor John Major, and chose a man rather more in line with traditional Labour values. He represented one the areas recently granted devolutionary powers, but pledged to govern 'a United Britain, with a united people behind it". He would arrest the slide towards neoliberalism, and made common cause with the favourite to replace President Bush in the idea that the UK had 'big problems' with inequality, lack of representation, and poverty. He wasn't a man to suffer fools gladly, and the 1990s would become renowned as a time for tough solutions to tough problems.

 
Interesting timeline- I’d personally like to keep the UK focus over the US, though some more data on what the rest of the world is up too would be great.

I do have some questions:
1. Does this UK with the ‘white heat’ have its own rocket/satellite program? In OTL it was this or Concorde, I can this UK doing both.
2. Does BR avoid the worst of Beeching and have the 50-60’s investment BR needed for modernisation? (Suggestion: See Devvy ‘s timeline: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-12-08-service-to.209652/ )
3. No Suez, does this mean the UK is still considered a ‘Great Power’ rather than an has-been?
4. Stronger Commonwealth?
5. Is Israel the same or has butterfly’s destroyed it, expanded it etc. One state solution?
6. Social butterflies of the Democratic Party? 60’s revolution? Punk?
7. With Britain more European, less American cultural influence?
8. Does UK withdraw from Laos as the US expanded the war, you kinda skipped it?
9. Does Laos have the same effect on the US as ‘Nam OTL?
10. Alternative energy? I can see these governments being involved and interested in such earlier as part of their technological drive.
11. CND, American bases, cruise..?
12. What happened to Margaet Thatcher?
13. Is monetarism dead on the vine here?
14. Have they repaired the Palace of Westminster or is it still a huge safety risk?
15. Northern Irish Troubles?
 
Interesting timeline- I’d personally like to keep the UK focus over the US, though some more data on what the rest of the world is up too would be great.

I do have some questions:
1. Does this UK with the ‘white heat’ have its own rocket/satellite program? In OTL it was this or Concorde, I can this UK doing both.
2. Does BR avoid the worst of Beeching and have the 50-60’s investment BR needed for modernisation? (Suggestion: See Devvy ‘s timeline: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-12-08-service-to.209652/ )
3. No Suez, does this mean the UK is still considered a ‘Great Power’ rather than an has-been?
4. Stronger Commonwealth?
5. Is Israel the same or has butterfly’s destroyed it, expanded it etc. One state solution?
6. Social butterflies of the Democratic Party? 60’s revolution? Punk?
7. With Britain more European, less American cultural influence?
8. Does UK withdraw from Laos as the US expanded the war, you kinda skipped it?
9. Does Laos have the same effect on the US as ‘Nam OTL?
10. Alternative energy? I can see these governments being involved and interested in such earlier as part of their technological drive.
11. CND, American bases, cruise..?
12. What happened to Margaet Thatcher?
13. Is monetarism dead on the vine here?
14. Have they repaired the Palace of Westminster or is it still a huge safety risk?
15. Northern Irish Troubles?

I'll do my best to answer some of these questions in later updates, but I'll admit it's been quite broad-strokes on issues that should have been mentioned.

I tried my best to keep periods of stagnation/uncertainty (it's a market economy after all) in the same place, so I feel like punk and other counterculture movements would still have arisen as planned, though there's no such thing as the Sex Pistols ITTL.

Britain is absolutely more 'European', and as such isn't a great power, but it's far more involved in the European Community, which in turn is pushing Europe as a bloc into far more of a counterweight to the US (see the European Defence Community, for example).

Alternative energy is part of the big push towards R&D in the 1980s, especially as the Democratic Party doesn't traditionally rely on coal mining areas (they're solid for the Socialists/People's party). I would say we're at a time where the UK is making a major push towards nuclear power as the norm, which has attracted some opposition, but not enough to scupper it, or really create much of a Green Party.

The Northern Irish Troubles are something I'm reluctant to engage with because I can't properly map out a new situation that wouldn't be unfeasible or offensive to various communities. I'd say that there are still tensions and a fair amount of violence, but the stability of the Democratic regime in the UK has meant the UUP/Tory split of the 1970s hasn't come to pass, and Ian Paisley remains a noted but ineffectual rabble-rouser.

Laos was very similar to Vietnam, though arguably on a smaller scale. Barry Goldwater was able to finesse a strong stance on the war into his law-and-order platform, but general fatigue with the conflict (and his hard-right policy prescriptions) led to him being defeated comfortably in 1972. I know I said Eugene McCarthy, but I'm starting to feel like it would be a different Democrat...
The UK withdrew from Laos around the same time as the US started to under the incoming Democratic administration, though Denis Healey wasn't best pleased about it. He and Secretary Muskie had one of the coldest Foreign Secretary-Secretary of State relationships since the 19th century.

Margaret Thatcher is a member of the National Unionist Party. She has served as their spokesperson on Education, Industry, and most recently Home Affairs, and was tipped for the leadership in the 1980s, but as of now is considering retirement from Parliament. David Owen toyed with inviting her into his last Cabinet, but it was vetoed even by his staunchest right-wingers.

The Palace of Westminster isn't the current site of Parliament in 2018, but there'll be more on that later...
 
The Future of This Timeline
Hi all.

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. I have been fully submerged in my final year of undergraduate studies, and now have additional responsibilities that put an even greater strain on my free time. More to the point, I have run out of ideas that are genuinely interesting for the UK part of this timeline. As such, I will not be writing any more updates for this timeline. I cannot promise any more regular updating of future timelines, but I am currently working on something (in very vague terms) that is set in the same world, and US-focused, which is ultimately where my AH interests lie. Thank you for following this timeline, and I hope you take a look at any future work I do. I committed to an incredibly ambitious TL at the same time as an enormous amount of academic work, which perhaps wasn't the wisest thing to do.



Much love to you all, and I'll be back with a less wide-ranging TL just as soon as I've polished off my final exam.


Terence x
 
Just to complete my general outline for this TL:

Owen was going to be succeeded by Gordon Brown, who'd run the 90s in a populist left-leaning fashion. Social issues would be put on the backburner compared to increasing the welfare of working people. Brown would eventually wind up enough people to be replaced by an OTL Tory (most likely Ken Clarke, but also possibly Portillo), who'd keep things stodgy and seek further EU convergence. This would become increasingly unpopular, and the People's Party and the National Unionists would eventually make common cause, as the Clegg Ministry collapses in 2013 to be replaced by the National People's Party, who run the first non-Democratic majority government since Macmillan's. My choice for Prime Minister was an interesting one- 'Big' Sam Allardyce, who left football for politics, and eventually led the country for almost three years. He came down hard on immigration, and even cut some welfare programmes for non-natives. The Democrats nearly split, but eventually recognised they needed to appeal to the working-class voters who plumped for Big Sam. Allardyce was relatively popular at first, but it became clear his coalition of right-wingers and leftie Eurosceptics wasn't tenable, and his reluctance to unilaterally exit the EU eventually saw him ousted by a certain Mr Farage, who promptly faced a vote of no-confidence, before losing to the resurgent Democrats under Andy Burnham. However, Burnham still wasn't entirely suited to the new image of the Democratic Party, and he quickly realised he stood in the way of success. Replacing him was James Cleverly, the right-leaning but liberal former soldier, who was Britain's first ethnic minority Prime Minister. The left of the Democratic Party hasn't been truly represented since Gordon Brown, and there are a few murmurs of discontent. But, as ever, Britain is a one-party state, and so ideas of a split are quickly ignored. Instead, they're waiting for Cleverly to slip, at which point Britain's elections-within-a-party might allow a figure more conducive to economic transformation back into power.


With that said, Britain remains bright, prosperous, and much more like a Scandinavian country than its current state OTL.

As for America-well, that'd be telling..
 
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