As said above; is there any plausible civil war that could knock out or cripple Britain leading up to WWII? A socialist revolution in 1927, maybe?
Is there way escalate Irish War? Perhaps Scots would try revolt too.
Are you familiar with 1938 - A Very British Civil War?
The General Strike getting nasty.
Historically there was some overspill from the war in Ireland, but not much.AFAIK the Scots were defanged from the Highland Clearances, too few to really revolt.
An odd little wargame based on the premise of a BCW after Edward refused to abdicate.I'm unfamiliar, what is it?
Meh, personally I don't think Moseley had the imagination, courage or initiative to start things on his own; he'd need prodding (or manipulationI've been thinking on a General Strike getting nasty, yeah. It's at least somewhat more plausible over a Mosley coup d'etat. Though an abdication crisis gives me an idea...
I like it! Mosley as a socialist hero. Maybe he dies as a socialist martyr...Wasn't Mosely circa 1927 still Socialist as opposed to Fascist? (just checked - he was) Have the Strike turn nasty (a second Peterloo and all that) and Sir Oswald rises to the top to take advantage of the public outrage.
Formation of the New Party has a different turn.
That's very like the background for 1938 - A Very British Civil War.AFAIK Churchill was sounded out (some sources say interested, others that he was merely asked about it) about leading a "Royalist Party" if Edward VIII decided to stay on the Throne. With Churchill as Prime Minister in 1937, there is every chance an "establishment reaction" spirals into Civil War with the Military split along pro- and anti- Edward lines (remember, if he doesn't abdicate, the Military is still technically loyal to the Monarch).
This has definite possibilities, and I've used some of it. If WW1 ends after (probably) 1916 without a definite victory for the Entente powers, whether it's a CP victory or a stalemate/armistice, I'd expect major civil unrest. France wouldn't have had it's revenge for 1871 and Britain would have expended a lot of blood and treasure for, well what exactly?The simplest way to do this would be to have the UK lose World War I or at least be on the losing end.
Of the three large countries on the losing end of World War I IOTL (and I'm not counting Bulgaria), one broke up and one had a civil war and broke up. Germany was not free from outbreaks of political violence either. One big country in the winning coalition had a civil war and partially broke up. Even the UK -on the winning side- had to let go of most of Ireland. So I'm not sure how this works out exactly, but doing badly in World War I equals civil war/ break up/ regime change pretty neatly.
Once Labour organized as a real independent party with a socialist platform in 1918, though this was partially a consequence of World War I, there was a lot of concern in the British establishment about the prospect of them getting into power and interest in finding ways to prevent this. In the event, the Liberals agreed to support a minority Labour government in 1924, and George V agreed to appoint one, and while it didn't exactly work out great it worked out well enough to alleviate most of the concern about Labour taking power. If the establishment locks shields to an extent they didn't IOTL, then this would also eventually lead to revolution and civil war. It would be the one way to knock the UK out of World War II, if that wasn't butterflied away, because you would have a situation where the working class refused to fight and elements of the upper classes would be looking to cut a deal with the Nazis.
I agree with the importance of the first "Lib-Lab" government under Ramsay MacDonald in reassuring the country (and especially the middle/upper classes) that Labour wasn't planning a revolution but was part of the process of parliamentary democracy and would "play the game".
That has distinct possibilities. Maybe a more radicalised/embittered/desperate populace votes Labour on a larger scale in (say) 1918. This assumes that the war dragged on until then, technically after the 1911 act an election was due in 1915.So a "pure" Labour government on the back of a lost/not as clear cut WWI would be seen as 'radical' by the upper classes and therefore would need to be stopped... by means fair or foul?
A few points/ideas.
1. What happens in Ireland? Independence as per the 1914 Act before a post-war election gives Sinn Fein their mandate for a UDI? Violence worse than historical? Did the 1915 Rising happen and was it as per OTL (there are several ways to make it far worse for the UK).
2. A interesting possibility is the failure of the 1918 RofPA which would leave the voting base quite small (<8 million men) and annoying an awful lot of soldiers.
3. What's going on in Europe? Is a victorious Germany consolidating it's gains? Meddling with it's neighbours? Who's in power? Has the trend towards a constitutional monarchy and social democrat government continued?
4. What's going on in Russia? No second revolution would probably reduce the level of panic in the UK with a more moderate social democrat government in place so let the Reds win. Is the Civil War happening, and how bad is it?
1. Maybe the 'radical' Labour government pledges Home Rule for a United Ireland and ignores the Unionist protests, pushing ahead with plans to "set the Irish free"? This would annoy a great many of the (previously?) ruling elites and the military.
3. A stalemate could end in a situation more or less OTL but without, or British support for, Versailles. A feeling of a wasted opportunity - leaving Germany with its colonies for instance - builds resentment in the military/upper classes but 'the people', sick of war, support.
4. A Soviet Russia would be necessary to make the Labour government seem more threatening, would it not? Something along the lines of a genuine Zinoviev Letter ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinoviev_letter ) or even a trade deal between Labour Britain and Soviet Russia (favourable terms in an ATL version of the 1921(?) trade deal signed by Lloyd George, for example). That would 'persuade the Upper Classes that Labour was dangerous to Britain's interests. Maybe the Labour government cuts British intervention in the RCW and a feeling that it's their fault that the soviets have survived?
In the EDC the Summer War as it became known fizzled out in 1915 after a little over a year of fighting. This led to a distinct split in opinion on the war; initially and into the 1920s a belief that the war was a far worse disaster just avoided prevailed and led to a significant degree of rapprochement, especially between France and Germany when the social democrats were in power in both countries. Later, in the 1930s after the Big Slump and the Okie flu arrived Britain lurched to the authoritarian and the mood changed to one of "we could have beaten them" and unfriendly relations with Germany (and France who were portrayed as treacherous). The possibility of encirclement by fascist regimes was a major worry to the socialist powers in Europe in the late '30s (which would begin the process of creating what would become by the 1970s the European Federation) with Italy (split), Spain (defeated) and Russia (nutty mixture of nationalism, monarchism and, anti-Semitism) going fascist or seeing coup attempts.
One question (I'm probably being thick and missing the obvious) what's "the EDC"?
Other than that, with a POD of post-WWI, the figure of Churchill does loom large over any ATL BCW, doesn't it?
As the Diary puts it, "every villain needs transport, a good weapon, a trusty multi-tool and minions". Well in his first incarnation the Time Lord who called himself the Doctor has maybe two of those...
His stolen TARDIS, once a sturdy, if utterly obsolete, Type 40, had suffered badly breaking through the Transduction Barrier around Gallifrey; the navigation sub-system was shot, the internal defenses mostly gone too and the feedback through the telepathic interface had left him dazed. Even the chameleon circuit looked likely to fail at any second.
Luckily the course was engaged before the navigation system was fried. Lucky too that his escape would have caused such a feedback wave through the Vortex that the Time Lords wouldn't be able to track him, assuming they really wanted to. He was gone now, him and his "grand-daughter".
He looked over at Lara, the name assigned to her before the House Matriarch had discovered the modifications he'd incorporated into her looming. Before those idiots back home had dubbed her an 'Abomination' and sentenced her to destruction.He gripped the old-fashioned hexagonal console as a wave of pain rolled across his brain.
He'd show them...
Anyway they'd be landing soon, time to rest, let his mind recover from the feedback and repair the TARDIS. He'd chosen London on Earth in the late 1990s as they measured time there; about twenty years after the Revolution. It was a chaotic, cosmopolitan time with plenty happening as the first generation to grow up free reached adulthood and pushed the boundaries their parents had barely touched.
Plenty of intrigue too as the first generation of new politicians and bureaucrats tasted power...
Ah, they'd landed.
Without bothering to check the display or operate the scanner he opened the doors and went outside. He got three paces before stopping in shock. This was wrong.
It was supposed to be late August, but it felt colder. At first he tried to convince himself that he'd just missed his destination by a few months. But the air was wrong too, with a smoky, almost gritty, character to it. He turned around to look at the TARDIS and the shape the external shell had taken confirmed his worst suspicions.
It was a police box, in the red livery of the National Constabulary. On top was the housing for a television surveillance camera, on the front a warning about curfew violations, and their associated penalties, and on the sides were propaganda posters; Service to the State and Unity is Strength were the slogans.
He'd arrived decades early, under the fascist British Republic. Oh dear, this was bad.
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