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alternatehistory.com
Prologue:
From 1965 to 1975 Harold Wilson and Ted Heath were at the forefront of British Politics, each of them leading their respective parties in an unyielding rivalry that recalled the days of Gladstone and Disraeli. Both men represented modernization and meritocracy at the wake of their tenures, and succeeded each other on and on again on Downing Street in a duel that involved four different general elections, countless rounds of PMQ’s and a never ending set of events that put one man ahead only to be overcome by the other.
Wilson, for example, bested Heath in three out of four elections (although Heath won the popular vote in one of those), was Prime Minister for almost eight years and led the Labour Party for thirteen. The pragmatic one of the duet, Wilson succeeded in keeping the Labour Party together through turbulent times, although his legacy as Prime Minister isn’t quite as good as he might have expected. Indeed, it would seem a lot of attention has been drawn towards spies, plots… and a particular Viceroy.
Heath, on the other hand, seems forgotten or at times even reviled. Despite being Prime Minister for three years, leading the Conservatives for a decade, unexpectedly winning the 1970 Election and being the Prime Minister that took the United Kingdom into Europe, he is more remembered for his decades-long sulk against Margaret Thatcher, his biggest accomplishment seemingly undone by Brexit. Even his personal integrity has been brought into question nowadays in a very dark way.
Their duel lasted long, both men leaving their key roles in a rapid succession. Heath was unexpectedly (at the time) ousted by own party and shockingly replaced with Margaret Thatcher in 1975. Wilson surprised the country by resigning on 1976, two years into his second term as Prime Minister. In politics a week can be eternity. As current and previous events show, the smallest of changes can lead to wildly different outcomes with unsuspected consequences. Indeed, the sequence of events that begins in the aftermath of the October 1974 General Election and leads into the final defeat of the Callaghan government is a dramatic one, but one that could have turned differently.
But what if… the duel between Harold Wilson and Edward Heath had actually gone on for an even longer period?