The following is my third attempt at this timeline. I have changed the name as the more I thought about it, the wider the scope I wanted to give to it. In reality, the October 1974 election was won by Labour with a majority of three votes. In this timeline, that majority vanishes as the SNP make five more gains, which was seriously possible given the amount of seats the parties were level pegging on, following a poorer campaign by Labour in Scotland as the SNP pounce on a string of gaffes by Labour Mps opposed to devolution. This is pounced upon giving the nationalists 16 seats in Westminster.
Matters get worse as during the winter of 1974-75, Wilson is pushed by the Nationalists to put forward his devolution bill forward as a token of their support for the government. As in reality, the opening bill is forced down after the government attempt to push it through in a guillotine motion,. The following day, the McCrone report on the effects of oil on an independent Scotland is leaked to the SNP, who promptly release it to the Scottish media, announcing that the very fact it was marked down as secret and that an attempt was made to hide it for twenty-five years as happened in reality, combined with devolution being voted down, meant that they felt the government was not acting in the interests of Scotland.
This led to them calling on a vote of confidence in the Labour government in April 1975, which is won by the Labour, who won in England, but with the SNP winning a majority of the Scottish seats(38) and 44% of the Scottish vote. As a result, Wilson accepts that Scotland voted nationalist and calls for a referendum in Scotland on the subject of Scottish independence. Parliament backs it, upon the proviso that it would only be held after negotiations between a team picked by Wilson and a team picked by the nationalists. This gives a timescale on negotiations of between June-October.
The negotiations are far from smooth, but by September, a raft of measures have been put in place for the end of the Anglo-Scottish union. On November 18th 1976, Scotland votes by a margin of 60%-40% to leave the United Kingdom. The date of independence is set for May 1st.
Amidst all the issues regarding the union between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, there is another periodic outbreak of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. This causes Wilson to put into effect the Doomsday plan, which was hatched in reality by Wilson, but never enacted. Scottish independence gives him the chance to act upon it. In this plan, Northern Ireland would be turned into an independent Dominion.
This is controversially pushed through Parliament with a three-line whip on a guillotine motion. It carries by a majority of one(the SNP and Plaid Cymru do not vote). The government position it as a way of Northern Ireland being able to deal with its own affairs. As a result Northern Ireland is to also leave the union on May 1st. Calls grow in Wales for Welsh devolution or independence, but they are, for the time being ignored.
What began as the timeline Flower of Scotland, which was going to be a timeline directly dealing with an independent Scotland is now going to be something much more ambitious. Although, due to my interest in Scottish politics more than anything else, it will mainly concentrate on an independent Scotland, it is going to deal with all of the Isles during a time of great upheaval. It will be a tale of post-Imperial Britain.
Thus the title.
The Isles.
First chapter coming soon.
I hope you enjoy.
Doomsday Plan.
McCrone Report.