As visitors to my Wiki page know, my next TL will be Civvus Romanus Sum. Is it possible for the UK Conservative Party to elect a Catholic as leader and Prime Minister by 1961? I'm thinking of the Magic Circle in particular as potential obstacles.
It would be possible. Being from an aristocratic background would help as it would cancel out the disadvantage of being Catholic
One possible person would be Lord Edmund Talbot (1855-1947): http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34017 . He was MP for Chichester from 1894 to 1921 when he became Viceroy of Ireland. He was Conservative Chief Whip from 1913 to 1921. Of course he would need a different career path to reach the Conservative leadership and Prime Minister.
To bump the thread, I'm thinking of neoliberalism twenty years earlier in the Tory Party. This can be done by the principal character's defacto alliance with Jo Grimond's Liberals, who were small-government and libertarian during this period. So a minority government propped up by the Liberals for a couple of years, then... wait and see.