Strange Bedfellows: British Politics in the 1970's

Denis Healey "The Time Of My Life" 1990

"I walked into the cabinet room and Jim was sitting alone at the table looking glum and tense.

Sitting down in my usual position across from Jim I took a deep breath and said:

"Prime Minister, you know my view on the matter, however whatever happens and whatever you decide I'll support you to the hilt"

"Thank You Denis, I really appreciate that" replied Jim. I knew that when Jim Callaghan said 'thank you" he meant it unlike Benn and Wilson.

"However I must insist that economic policy be solely in my hands. I can't trust him"

Jim sighed and said:

"They won't like it"

"I don't give a damn what they like or don't like. I don't want the last 2 years work to be for nothing and I know full well you don't either"

There was a silence which lasted for a few seconds but seemed to last an eternity.

"Very Well" Jim replied. "i'll shunt him into something where he can't do any harm"

"Thank You Jim"

There was a knock on the door, a Downing Street employee entered.

"Excuse me Chancellor, Prime Minister, your car is waiting"


As I walked through the connecting door between 10 and 11 Downing Street I knew that we were in for one hell of a ride.



EBC News at 6.00

"Good evening,

Mr Callaghan has been re-appointed as Prime Minister. He will lead a coalition government of his Social Democratic Party and the Socialist People's Party.

A partial list of the cabinet has been released:

James Callaghan as Prime Minister
Tony Benn as Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Assembly


Denis Healey as Chancellor
Michael Foot as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and a new position as International Financial Liaison Minister.
 
Looks interesting, not sure what's the POD.

POD:

In 1964 the SDP leader Hugh Gaitskell became Prime Minister of the Republic of England.

He was regarded at the time as a very controversial Prime Minister and proved to be the most divisive leader of the party.

Two major issues dominated his period as Premier

Firstly the economic crisis that afflicted the UK. Trade union power was at its height and was against the moderate tone of the government.

The inevitable devaluing of the pound in 1966 led to national humiliation and calls for Gaitskell to go.

But it was the British entry into Vietnam in 1968 that was the final straw.

Within 6 months 1,500 English troops had been killed.

Widespread revulsion in the country led to 30 SDP MP's resigning the whip and forming the Socialist Party led by Tony Benn.

Gaitskell called a General Election in June 1969 which was won by the Tories and Edward Heath became Prime Minister.

Gaitskell resigned after the election and died in march 1971.

The Tories governed the republic from 1969 to 1976 (winning an election in 1973 after the vote to enter the EEC).

However the economy continued to wreak havoc. The miners were a perpetual bugbear and had called 3 strikes leading to 3 states of emergency.

By 1976 Heath had enough. He called a snap election in March saying "Who governs this nation?"

The results were inconclusive. Of the 516 English seats the breakdown was as follows:

Conservatives 191
SDP 250
Socialists 75

Jim Callaghan who became SDP leader in 1973 at first refused to form a coalition government with the Socialists (he thought they were traitors for splitting from the SDP in 1969)

Callaghan led a minority government from March 1973 to October 1975 during which time he and his Chancellor Denis Healey managed to create a undertaking that the unions would refrain from strikes while at the same time securing a loan from the IMF.

However it was apparent that Callaghan could not go on. The October 75 election led to a largely similar result.

Benn who was still Socialist leader said after his re-election:

"I say now to Jim Callaghan....don't be stupid and selfish. Work with us"

Callaghan really had no choice.
 
Well the UK is apparently a Republic but the Vietnam War is still happening in the late 60's? You must have one hell of a butterfly net to achieve that.
 
I do like how Gaitskell apparently waited until joining in the Vietnam War offered the least possible benefit and the most problems and pre-hard left turn Tony Benn somehow became leader of the hard left splinter party over others on the Left such as Barbara Castle or Michael Foot.
 
POD, Point of Divergence, at what point did the TL diverge from OTL?

OTL

Gaitskell died in 1963, Wilson became Leader and PM in 1964

ATL

Gaitskell led labour into the 1964 election and won.

England became a republic after the execution on Charles I. The title of Lord Protector became more ceremonial over the centuries and now the post is elected
 
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OTL

Gaitskell died in 1963, Wilson became Leader and PM in 1964

ATL

Gaitskell led labour into the 1964 election and won.

England became a republic after the execution on Charles I. The title of Lord Protector became more ceremonial over the centuries and now the post is elected

That is one hell of a butterfly net you are talking about. Does this same Vietnam involve America? Is there even a America?
 
OTL

Gaitskell died in 1963, Wilson became Leader and PM in 1964

ATL

Gaitskell led labour into the 1964 election and won.

England became a republic after the execution on Charles I. The title of Lord Protector became more ceremonial over the centuries and now the post is elected

Pretty massive butterflies stem from that - a lot of our political entanglements at home and abroad since the death of Charles I came from us having a monarchy. An obvious example would be the American Revolutionary War, which while not entirely to do with George III obviously happened to some extent in the way it did because he existed. You've changed 400 years of British history here, Gaitskell would never be born.

And Benn wasn't hard left until the 1970s, so he wouldn't become leader of the lefties - indeed he was a loyal Gaitskellite in the late 1950s and I don't see why that would change if Hugh lived. But, as I say above, that's the least of your worries if you've got 400 years of a Commonwealth of England!
 
Pretty massive butterflies stem from that - a lot of our political entanglements at home and abroad since the death of Charles I came from us having a monarchy. An obvious example would be the American Revolutionary War, which while not entirely to do with George III obviously happened to some extent in the way it did because he existed. You've changed 400 years of British history here, Gaitskell would never be born.

And Benn wasn't hard left until the 1970s, so he wouldn't become leader of the lefties - indeed he was a loyal Gaitskellite in the late 1950s and I don't see why that would change if Hugh lived. But, as I say above, that's the least of your worries if you've got 400 years of a Commonwealth of England!

Gaitskell and Benn could have been born. That is the least of my worries.

Just if Vietnam involves America as well, with secret bombings of Cambodia as well. That is where my worries lay.
 
Meadow, I would argue of Benn being a soggy centrist during the 50s, moving to the soft left for the 60s after feeling abandoned by Gaitskell and Brown over the issue of his attempt to renounce his peerage, just look at how he describes Gaitskell after being invited to the Cabinet by Wilson, and then going hard left in the 70s.

I would elaborate but my internet has gone weird due to interference from the mountains of butterflies in a net.
 
Gaitskell and Benn could have been born. That is the least of my worries.

Just if Vietnam involves America as well, with secret bombings of Cambodia as well. That is where my worries lay.

That's nice, but 'your worries' don't define the boundaries of AH discussion here. With a POD in 1649, nobody as we know them is going to be born in the 20th century.

BMK2 - makes sense. I'm more knowledgeable about his 70s movements, for obvious reasons, than about the making of 'Benn the Man' in the 1950s and 1960s.
 
That's nice, but 'your worries' don't define the boundaries of AH discussion here. With a POD in 1649, nobody as we know them is going to be born in the 20th century.

BMK2 - makes sense. I'm more knowledgeable about his 70s movements, for obvious reasons, than about the making of 'Benn the Man' in the 1950s and 1960s.

My TL gives Benn an earlier conversion to left wing politics. Its also an alternative extrapolation of the internecine battles that Labour endured in the 50's and 80's.
 
What you're missing here is the sheer amount of butterflies that have occurred if the POD was 400 years before. If you said that the monarchy was abolished in say 1935 - 1936 during the monarchy crisis then it could make sense.
 
OTL

Gaitskell died in 1963, Wilson became Leader and PM in 1964

ATL

Gaitskell led labour into the 1964 election and won.

England became a republic after the execution on Charles I. The title of Lord Protector became more ceremonial over the centuries and now the post is elected

I dont get it, Nezza
What happen to Queen and the Royal family ?
are they killed by IRA bomb or commando raid ?
or play the planed military putsch of 1968 a role in this ?

do you mean with Charles I, Prince of wales Charles
he choose to reign as George VII, in respect of his grandfather.
also because the other royal Charles were not so lucky
like the Stuart king Charles I, who was beheaded...
 
What you're missing here is the sheer amount of butterflies that have occurred if the POD was 400 years before. If you said that the monarchy was abolished in say 1935 - 1936 during the monarchy crisis then it could make sense.

OK I'll go along with that. The monarchy was restored after Richard Cromwell died and re-abolished in 1936 with the the title of Lord protector re-established.
 
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