Same Deck, Different Design. a TLIASL

Clement Atlee
National Government
1945-1950

The removal of Winston Churchill by King George was a shock to Britain. Churchill had faced a vote of no confidence in parliament and when he had hesitated over resignation the king intervened. The King then asked Clement Atlee his deputy Prime Minister and leader of Labour in the national government to be Prime Minister. This caused a rift in the national government with several Tories moving to opposition over this and events that followed

The first thing he did in the role was seek peace with the Soviet Union. The terms offered by the USSR and its new European puppets were punishing. Trade with the continent was heavily limited as the Soviet Union limited trade between communist and "Imperialist" Nations. Any support from the United States was not forthcoming as Harry Truman continued the USA's isolationist stance, focusing their energy inward as the New Deal project continued apace, implementing the Second Bill of rights.

The end of the long, bloody war in Ireland was one of the few positives of the Atlee government although republican violence would continue. Atlee signed the revised Anglo-Irish agreement with Michael Collins in May 1946 and while some troops remained as peacekeepers in the Free State and Ulster, many could now return home to take the place of the annihilated European BEF.

As Britain suffered under the peace agreement with the Soviet Union, paying reperations of both gold and industrial resources, violence in the streets continued. A campaign grew calling for the return of Churchill and to fight the USSR. These protests and riots gained some legitimacy when in spring 1947 Churchill held a series of rallies criticising the National Government for surrenderng to the USSR. These grew huge crowds who often turned violent against the police and several protestors were killed. Many troops returning from Ireland (and the trickle of POWs returned by the USSR) found themselves agreeing with Churchill, having spilt blood only to surrender, in their eyes. The chant of "No Surrender! No surrender! No surrender to the USSR" became a popular cry for anti-communists in pubs and streets across the country

This violence built and built until running battles between Government troops and pro-Churchill militias. The final push into outright civil war was the Duke of Windsor, the abdicated Edward VIII. He gave a speech pledging his support to Churchill and his sentiments. With apparent Royal ascent the movement built. With entire cities being captured by the "Edwardian" forces, as they had dubbed themselves. The country tore itself apart. Communist sympathisers, percieved or real were dragged into the street. National government MPs were arrested by Edwardian police. Noted casualties in this time were the Labour MP Aneurin Bevan, "New Labour" MP and leader of the opposition, Oswald Mosley and the Economist John Keynes.

Finally, by 1950, Liverpool the final major holdout of government forces fell and Atlee's government surrendered with opposition Tories returning to government. Many members of the Atlee government once again took their place on the government benches with Churchill back in power. There would be no surrender to the Soviet Union.
 
Winston Churchill
1950-1955
National Emergency Government

Winston Churchills Revoking of the 1945 Anglo-Soviet Peace Treaty could have been the end of the United Kingdom. Many, particularly Clement Atlee, who was under house arrest at this time, thought it would lead to a Soviet invasion. However the landing craft never came. Maybe it was the war over China with the Empire of Japan (which would carry on until the late 1950s) or keeping peace in their newly taken territories but the troops never set foot on British soil. Once again, Edward was king, George abdicating over his support for the Atlee government. Of course Edward was always seen in public alone. There was never any mention of the Duchess of Windsor on the BBC.

However pressure was put on the USSR and their allies in new powers such as the German Worker's Republic as well as pro-soviet powers such as the French Fourth Republic and the Scandanavian Nations (in fact, several ports in the Faroe Islands were leased to the USSR in 1950). With the advancement of rocketry, first by the Kaiserreich and now by the GWR and USSR, Comet and Meteor rockets were soon raining down on the south coast of the UK. Dorniers and Meschershmitts flew alongside Petlyakovs in bombing runs on Britain. Britain was a nation under siege, with strict rationing, air raid blackouts and mass evacuations to areas north of the Bombing range.

In 1953, it was also announced that Edward VIII had named his brother Henry as his heir following his death. A huge boon to Churchill came with the coup in the United States. After nineteen years of the "New deal Coalition" and accusations of corruption, overspending and rigged elections, Harry Truman was removed from power by a group lead by General Dwight Eisenhower, who held what were called "Open and fair elections" with the General being elected President in November 1952. (although his official term began the previous July). Eisenhower was strongly anti-communist and found an ally in The United Kingdom. The United Kingdom (and the wider British Empire) would be a primary recipient of American support. There was some controversy in that the USA supported undemocratic nations such as Franco's Spain, the Portuguese Estada Novo and Fascist Italy (who at the time were appointing a new Duce after Mussolini's passing). This term included the United Kingdom as Britain remained in a state of emergency with no intention of holding elections. Even when MPs died, a new replacement was picked from the party of the former MP with no by election. Strict curfews and heavy punishments for misuse of resources were in place. Churchill's statements of "military first" and "Britain prevails" and american resources, Britain became a fortress with nearly every adult capable of taking arms in one form or another. Still American support remained. The priority was that they were anti-communist nations and that was definitely true.

The USA walked a very fine line of neutrality with the Soviet Union. Resources were airlifted and, (when the US Merchant Navy was feeling daring) by sea. All troops stationed in Britain were, quite curiously "Volunteers" (the accuracy of this statement has been a matter of contention for over half a century now) who willingly joined the "Anglo-British Defence Forces," these included soldiers from across the British Empire who were looking for a way past the soviet's blockade. . Eisenhower stopped short of sending the USAF to Britain nor did he ever deploy the nuclear bomb following its first test in the Nevada desert in 1955. The United States was fairly sure the Soviet Union had developed atomic weapons following the capture of the fledgling Kaiserreich atomic weapons project. He knew that Britain and other anti communist nations would be the center point and without them there would be no chance of ever retaking Europe.

With American support Britain's lot improved. Aircraft curiously similar to those made by Lockheed and McDonnell flew up to defend against the LSK and VVS and air defenses were bolstered by men from Minnesota and Mumbai, Calgary and Canberra. In turn they were facing soldiers from Leningrad and Leipzig, and volunteers from across friendly nations By the time of Churchill's retirement in 1955 the Soviet siege effort had dropped to an almost token effort, with the south coast still battered but perhaps the threat of invasion had passed for now. So, with his health ailing, Churchill retired but still the emergency government remained and his designated successor went through rocket battered, abandoned streets to meet with King Edward.
 
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I think its a legal requirement Edward end up a fascist in one way or another. He can never be a moderate force :p
Does he have any kids?

Cause succession is going to be a mess if he didn't. I don't know if George VI's abdication included his kids, but if it did that leaves...Henry, Duke of Gloucester kind.
 
Does he have any kids?

Cause succession is going to be a mess if he didn't. I don't know if George VI's abdication included his kids, but if it did that leaves...Henry, Duke of Gloucester kind.

Knowing royalty, Elizabeth and Margaret may even be options. and yes, Henry and his children are possibilities.

I don't think he'd pass the crown to any children he'd have with Simpson
 
Anthony Eden
National Government (Conservative)
1955-1957


Anthony Eden’s reasoning behind ending the emergency government has generally been seen as being backed by nuclear weapons. By 1955 the US had stationed several nuclear bomber wings in the United Kingdom and while a state of peace between the UK and the Soviet Union wasn’t declared for quite some time the threat of active war was diminishing. The shift towards elections was a slow one with a lot of Churchillite elements still remaining within both the Conservative party and the wider national government. Eventually an agreement was ironed out between Eden and Hugh Dalton, the leader of the National Labour group that elections would be held in 1958 but that neither man would remain as leader until then. So in autumn 1957 Eden announced his resignation as conservative leader in favour of the man chosen in advance to be the next leader of the Conservative party. Likewise Gaitskell resigned and sought a reunion with the anti-war Labour opposition, which was successful (save for Mosley and a few minor rebels leaving to form the short lived “New Labour”. Despite his involvement in the wartime government he is generally seen as a "Man of Peace" and ending the emergency government on "a stronger footing than Atlee had” as John Powell put it, meant he was seen favourably by his own party.

In line with the winding down of the emergency government there were further relaxation of policing laws and rationing, the Atlantic was once again open and resources flowed into the UK. American investment was heavy and Britain was rebuilt in America’s image. The railways were modernised and electrified as nuclear power stations were planned across the country. One notable construction was the permanent replacement to the Palace of Westminster, which had been severely damaged by fighting in the late 40s and later by soviet bombing and by 1960 parliament moved there from the University of London. The new building was slightly up the Thames from the old palace, which was later reopened as a museum.
 
Harold MacMillan
Conservative
1957-1963


Despite the Tories facing some criticism for their involvement in the coup of 1950 it seemed Britain wasn’t quite ready for a left wing government and Tony Crossland and Labour remained on the opposition benches. In 1958 MacMillan became Britain’s first elected Prime Minister since Chaimberlain with a slight majority. MacMillan continued on from Eden with reconstruction making up a lot of his early ministry. British businesses saw a revival but the country also saw a lot of investment from American businesses such as Chrysler and IBM. MacMillan’s reputation was one of two dramatic halves. He Internationally took a bit of a blow when in 1959 the British Petroleum Company, damaged by the nationalisation of its assets in 1952 by the Iranian government, was purchased by Standard Oil. He also had to deal with the Empire of a Britain that had been mostly cut off from the rest of it, in terms of power if not politically. The soviet conquest had lead to a variety of situations. Where colonial governments had been cut off from their mother nations, the colonial powers had often re-established their nations (such as Kaiser Friedrich IV’s German African Empire) or lost to independence movements such as the Belgian Congo. The latter also occurred in large parts of French Africa where independence was reluctantly granted by Paris, with the exception of Algeria which became home to a large number of political refugees from the Fourth Republic, leading to the hybrid country that modern Algeria has become. In Asia, Malaysia declared independence in 1959, later joining the East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and India exploded into civil war in 1961 as efforts to set up a degree of home rule in India were fell apart. The two main sides in the conflict the moderate Indian National Congress (who had been cooperating with British elements to some degree and the Azad Hind movement under Subas Chandra Bose who wanted an entirely independent India. MacMillan knew Britain was losing control of the empire and so a program of “controlled retreat” from colonies in Africa began with varying success. Some went well, such as Nigeria and Tanzania but others didn’t fare so well. Colonial forces in Kenya had long been fighting against the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army and some elements refused to withdraw when MacMillan suggested in 1960 and while government transitioned to the Kenyan people many formerly British elements continued to fight. Something that would come to bite the Tories later on. The one international positive was the end of the Chinese Civil war in 1959 and the Treaty of Melbourne dividing up China between the Soviet backed north and the smaller but more populous Japanese backed South.

Domestically and economically MacMillan was quite moderate. He was influenced both by Rab Butler, his Chancellor but also the centre-left views of Hugh Gaitskell. Seeing demand for a left wing government but not ready to give Labour any traction, especially after John Freeman replace Crossland as party leader, MacMillan adopted a moderately Keynesian approach (something some have argued was inevitable given the rebuilding of British infrastructure needed following the long war with the Soviet Union).

Despite the problems abroad MacMillan was doing favourably at home and was reelected with a slightly decreased majority in 1963 exactly a month before he was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and he resigned shortly after. Some have argued, given what would come, that MacMillan was jumping before he was pushed or even jumping before the plane exploded.
 

Alec Douglas-Home
Conservative
1963-1964


MacMillan’s sudden retirement left the Tories with little time to find a successor. Eventually settling on Alec Douglas-Home, who had been a minor minister in the Emergency government before and was seen as a compromise candidate at a time of national crisis. The Indian Civil war continued to worsen with tacit spport for the Azad hind coming from the Empire of Japan and there being significant opposition in parliament to supporting the INC who while Moderate, were still pro independence. However the government were more reluctant to lose India as an ally than as a colony to either Japan and Bose or the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of India.

Two events lead to the vote of no confidence in Alec Douglas-Home. The first was the outbreak of the East African war. The Protectorate of Rhodesia had split in 1962, leading to the declaration of the Republic of Zambia and when the southern Rhodesia authorities had refused to allow representative decolonisation, the Republic of Rhodesia. This in turn lead to tension between Zambia (and Malawi, another post-colonial state), South Africa and Rhodesia, which broke out into open conflict in 1964 and spread to other colonies such as Botswana, Kenya and the Congo along broadly colonial and anticolonial lines. This was complicated for Britain by their previous support for decolonisation but potential for anticolonial forces to be supported by the Soviet Union. The USA (already busy with the fallout from President Kennedy and Vice President Symington’s impeachment in 1963) was generally opposed to colonisation but didn’t want to side with the USSR on issues. Meanwhile the Empire of Japan made some advances in supporting colonial forces (especially in South Africa) as they were stuck in a battle of words, ideals and influence with both the USSR and USA. Douglas-Home was hesitant in getting involved, initially supporting certain elements on the anticolonial side (similar to what they were doing in India) but Britain’s forces (being that of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) were spread thin. Especially with Australia and New Zealand already concerned about Japanese expansion in South East Asia.


Since the European War Japan had been both covertly and overtly supporting coups and changes of government in South East Asia to ones favourable to themselves such as in the former French Indo-China and former Dutch East Indies. For some time they’d been covertly supporting pro-independence forces in Malaya. With Britain marginally supporting decolonisation it would suggest they would support independence for Malaya and surrounding colonies however with strong hints that Japan was supporting Independence they were hesitant to do so. However between Africa and India. Douglas-Home hesitated. Some were suggesting he call upon President Johnson (who had been in power since the impeachments in 1963) to deploy nuclear weapons to Singapore to dissuade Japanese expansion. In response Japan deployed its own nuclear weaponry to the region pre-emptively. Japan then said they would only withdraw nuclear weapons if Britain granted Malaya its independence. This was supported by many in Australia and New Zealand, who were with range of Japanese nuclear weaponry. After several days of face off between the Royal Navy, RAN and RNZN and the Japanese Imperial Navy. Eventually Douglas-Home ordered a British withdrawal from Malaya.


Douglas-Home’s order lead to a vote of no-confidence, which passed by two votes following the rebellion of several Tory back benchers (many of whom had been dissatisfied with his performance internationally) and Britain went to the polls.
 
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