Time to Speak, Time to be Silent...

I was there that afternoon, all those years ago, in the audience and I remember the cut and thrust of the debate - from Meadowcroft to Hughes, they had their say and the audience hung on every word.

The final speaker in the debate was the Party President, David Penhaligon. Apparently he had considered staying out of the debate but was persuaded by David Steel to intervene at the last minute.

Brilliant Cornish oratory which turned the mood but not by much. The Meadowcroft amendment fell by 642 votes to 635 after four recounts of delegates. The unamended motion passed comfortably.

Some would never forgive Penhaligon for his actions - one local activist would call him at all hours and one such call delayed him on the morning of 22nd December when he should have been on his way to the Truro sorting office to thank the postal workers there for their efforts in the pre-Christmas period.

He was further delayed when reaching the scene of an accident near Probus when a van had skidded on the icy road and hit a tree seriously injuring the driver. The policeman waved him through reminding him of the need to wear a seat belt.

Saturday January 31st 1987:

David Penhaligon sat proudly in the hall in London. The introduction by Bamber Gascoigne had given no indication of the bombshell about to be dropped. He and others had meticulously planned this and had even had doubts up to the last minute.

To say the unveiling of the SDP's two newest members brought the house down would be an understatement. When Roy Jenkins came forward to enthusiastically shake the hand of his former Oxford contemporary, the picture went round the nation and the world while the third figure on the stage stood in the background.

The defections of former Prime Minister Edward Heath and Esher MP Ian Taylor would electrify politics with an election seemingly only a few weeks away.
 
22nd December when he should have been on his way to the Truro sorting office to thank the postal workers there for their efforts in the pre-Christmas period.
He was further delayed when reaching the scene of an accident near Probus when a van had skidded on the icy road and hit a tree seriously injuring the driver. The policeman waved him through reminding him of the need to wear a seat belt.

Saturday January 31st 1987:

David Penhaligon sat proudly in the hall in London. The introduction by Bamber Gascoigne had given no indication of the bombshell about to be dropped. He and others had meticulously planned this and had even had doubts up to the last minute.

To say the unveiling of the SDP's two newest members brought the house down would be an understatement. When Roy Jenkins came forward to enthusiastically shake the hand of his former Oxford contemporary, the picture went round the nation and the world while the third figure on the stage stood in the background.

The defections of former Prime Minister Edward Heath and Esher MP Ian Taylor would electrify politics with an election seemingly only a few weeks away.


How does David Penhaligon surviving his terrible and untimely death, cause former Prime Miniser Edward Heath to defect to SDP?
The only link to the liberals is that Edward Heath tried to make a deal with them to keep himself in power.
Plus Old Bexley and Sidcup is a heavy conservative area. If the conservatives place a strong candidate in the constituency then Heath could lose his seat, rather then being a back bencher until 2001
 


How does David Penhaligon surviving his terrible and untimely death, cause former Prime Miniser Edward Heath to defect to SDP?
The only link to the liberals is that Edward Heath tried to make a deal with them to keep himself in power.
Plus Old Bexley and Sidcup is a heavy conservative area. If the conservatives place a strong candidate in the constituency then Heath could lose his seat, rather then being a back bencher until 2001

Of course it doesn't in and of itself. The main POD is not Penhaligon surviving but the Liberal Assembly vote at Eastbourne in which Penhaligon wanted to speak in support of the motion and against the Meadowcroft amendment and regretted not doing so.

In the ATL, he speaks, the amendment is lost and the Alliance emerges from the 1986 Conference season in much better shape than in OTL. Heath was a contemporary of Jenkins at Oxford in 1939-40 and I've simply used a few butterflies - a conversation here, an anti-Europe speech there and Heath is persuaded the custodians of his European vision are now the Social Democrats under Jenkins and Owen.

The rally actually happened in OTL - I was there - but there were no bombshell defections and indeed the whole thing had the taste of a relaunch after the bad autumn.

There's no Truro by-election of course but the Greenwich by-election still occurs as in OTL with the same result.
 
Of Marches and Meetings...

Excerpt from "The Fall of the Blue House" by Gavin Tremayne, published London, 1992

There was a crisis meeting at CCHQ the Sunday after the Greenwich by-election. It had been a disaster - we had finished a bad third behind some local housewife who had come from nowhere.

Once it had become clear only the Barnes woman could defeat that dreadful Labour harridan, our vote disintegrated and we finished up with 8%. Norman was furious as was Tim but poor John couldn't do anything about it. They would vote for us at the General Election but we had to stop Labour was the message we heard time and again.

In the end, we actually wanted Labour to win to keep the SDP down. Penhaligon and his cronies were all over the media and the two Davids were grinning like Cheshire cats and the upshot came with the Sunday Marplan which showed them leading with 35% with us on 30% and Kinnock's mob on 28%.

Norman knew the Budget was the only chance to turn the tide but Nigel had been unconvinced and wouldn't offer any more in the way of tax cuts as the economy was already overheating.

No one wanted an autumn election but Norman had to admit the prospects for June didn't look good and he would recommend to Margaret that we wait until October. It would give time for Nigel's Budget to bed in and for the constituencies to fight back against the Alliance.


Excerpt from "Death of the Rose - The Story of the Fall of Labour" by Michael Richardson, published London 1989

The Sunday after Greenwich and the newspaper headlines were horrendous. Many of us weren't too bothered Deidre had lost but the size and manner of Barnes's win had stunned us all.

It coincided with reports from constituencies our vote was soft and the Alliance vote was firming up. We realised we couldn't challenge the Tories if we were worrying about the Alliance threat.

Peter argued we needed to get the Alliance more into our corner and even suggested we court them as a potential government partners. Not many on the Labour frontbench were keen to have anything to do with Owen though feelings toward Steel, Penhaligon and the Liberals were generally fairly warm.

We thought the Tories would wait until the autumn after the polls and the by-election but didn't approach the election with any confidence. Well, none of us except Peter, who smiled throughout and said everything was going according to plan, whatever that meant.
 
The main POD is not Penhaligon surviving but the Liberal Assembly vote at Eastbourne in which Penhaligon wanted to speak in support of the motion and against the Meadowcroft amendment and regretted not doing so.

Fair enough, I look forward to the upcoming general election. Will Roy Jenkins keep his seat in Glasgow Hillhead?
 
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