Alec Douglas-Home
Conservative Premiership, 1968-1973, won election 1968
Douglas-Home & Nixon relations were largely defined as "Friends can disagree with each other".
Douglas-Home, the accidental Prime Minister as some have labelled him, came to power as a compromise between candidates for the Conservative leadership, and wound up winning the 1968 election (*1). He assumed leadership over a rapidly transforming country - both from post war economic boom to economic malaise, as well as a social change from a stiff traditional structure to a modern reinvented Britain. A committed European, his attitude in many areas was the opposite of Gaitskell, but equally found common ground in many areas. On metrication in particular, despite calls from many to relax the commitment to switch systems, Douglas-Home let the programme rumble on regardless as it represented a key opportunity to standardise with the Europeans. Recognising he did not have a governing majority to back a full accession to the European Economic Community, Douglas-Home continued to pursue soft integration - standardising on things to simplify trade and encourage further links (*2).
Domestic actions were about to be sidelined by integration talks, however. The sovereignty dispute between the UK and Spain over Gibraltar had continued to rumble on, and gently escalate throughout the 1950s and 1960s with Spain continuing to make the the border difficult in a gradual tightening. This led to a counter-reaction from Gibraltarians, who despite UK politicians making clear that Malta was a sui generis case, saw a large upswing in support for UK integration on the so-called "Maltese Model", culminating in the 1967 referendum. The Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Robert Peliza, sought to emulate Malta and rapidly sought negotiations over integration of Gibraltar in to the United Kingdom on the back of the referendum result. In later years, Franco was said to have gone ballistic when he found out, but was unable to do much about it other then trigger a conflict with the UK - and then by extension with NATO, given Gibraltar's position in Europe, within NATO's geographical scope. Franco was left to diplomatically protest, fully closing the border between Spain and Gibraltar, as well as refuse air space permission for planes to/from Gibraltar airport - which simply redirected over Portugal or France instead en route to Great Britain, adding some time but eliminating any air space issues. The problem with this was that it merely hardened the attitude in Gibraltar towards British integration, seeing it as protection from Spain. Some Spaniards questioned the Treaty of Utrecht, which had granted Gibraltar to Britain, but it merely noted that Gibraltar was ceded by Spain "to the Crown of Great Britain" (preceding union between Great Britain and Ireland); Gibraltar would still be under the same crown, just in a different constitutional capacity.
The small population in Gibraltar - about 26,000 in 1965 - made negotiations between the United Kingdom and Gibraltar far easier then they had been with Malta, along with the important location guarding the entry to the Mediterranean. Despite all the legislation and statements of previous governmental statements about the uniqueness of a Maltese integration to the United Kingdom, the small and largely British-apparent population likely eased the political hurdles to integration of "the Rock", and full integration would be rapidly completed. This would introduce almost the smallest constituency to the British Parliament, a single Gibraltarian seat - the only smaller seat being what was then called the "Western Isles" (in Scotland).
The move, beyond that of the "unique position of Malta" began a series of dominoes, however, which would see major ramifications for the United Kingdom. Sir James Mancham in Seychelles, joined a constitutional conference over the future of the small islands in the Indian Ocean, with a desire for integration. In some ways, this freed up a quandary for the British military; ideas had been floated about creating a military base, in remote islands of the Mauritius as a stand in for RAF Gan given that Mauritius was chasing independence and Britain was more than happy to let the colony go. However, if the Seychelles were to become part of the United Kingdom, then the politics became far easier as the islands would be directly subordinate to Westminster law, whilst also providing a remote base for the far, far end of the Suez Canal to secure shipping routes and defend the new UK territory. Aldabra and/or Assumption Island were the targets, but environmental & political pressure led to plans to be scaled back to solely Assumption Island. The use of Assumption Island became included in the integration agreements for the Seychelles, and was duly voted through Mancham's Seychellois Government in 1971, and duly backed by the British government later in 1972. Despite the economic status of the Seychelles, Westminster voted to likewise accept the terms of integration, largely on the small population (circa 50,000 - again with only a single MP), defence policy requirements for an Indian Ocean base of operations and enthusiastic proposal from Sir James Mancham. The line of Gibraltar-Malta-Seychelles allowed a continued British presence and force projection right through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and Red Sea - and were coupled by remaining British military bases in Cyprus at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. This all helped enforce freedom of navigation for British merchant shipping through what was once called the Highway to India, as well as for defence reasons with the British-protected Trucial States also opting to continue with British protection (*3). The ability to act militarily was rapidly put to test with military confrontation in the Middle East between Arab states and Israel; British diplomacy helped minimise the conflict (*4), but the actions of the Egyptians largely put a rapid end to Suez shipping by scuttling ships in the canal and other blockages causing further issues in the British economy, which relied on the Suez Canal for over a quarter of it's oil imports (and approximately 40% of French oil imports).
Following the integration of Gibraltar and Seychelles - both of which were again allowed to continue printing local money, technically promissory notes, by their central banks as a "local" pound sterling, drew attention from Welsh nationalists as the only home nation outside England which did not have it's own issue of banknotes. A rudimentary attempt in 1969 was made by the "Chief Treasury of Wales", but with the Board of Trade unhappy about the use of the word "Treasury" (indicating an official governmental department backing), it did not last long. 1972 saw a second attempt, under a more clinical names of the "Bank of Wales" (or Banc Cymru in Welsh) (*5). However, the more integrated England-Wales economy, then between other Home Nations - and growing following the opening of the Severn Bridge in the mid-1960s, led to unease about allowing what were effectively promissory notes to be circulating in England where they had no legal status. The sterling tweak of 1972 was a half-way house - permitting the continued printing of pound sterling by regional banks, but backed by an equivalent amount of pound sterling banked at the Bank of England - the British central bank. Regional banks would be permitted to transform their banknotes from local "customary" promissory notes to full legal tender, valid across the UK, by adopting a common design taking up approximately a third of the end of the note, with a common size and shape. The rest of the note would be allowed for individual design. The banknote common design area featured the declarations of the note value, currency name, official phrasings and some anti-counterfeiting technology, whilst coins would be distributed only by the Bank of England nationwide across the entire United Kingdom (*6). The Bank of Wales immediately agreed to these conditions, as did almost all the remaining UK regional banks over the following years, allowing a large array of bank notes to circulate around entire United Kingdom as legal tender; British entities outside the United Kingdom such as the Crown Dependencies had to continue to maintain their peg to pound sterling at their own cost and risk however as a one-way currency union.
One of the Douglas-Home's later works at Prime Minister were the guidelines for any future territory seeking UK integration. Formed in the aftermath of a foreign policy speech regarding criticism of the UK integration of Malta and the Seychelles as "new colonialism", Douglas-Home refuted the accusation. "Colonies are subject to the exploitative rule of external nations. Malta is no colony, the Seychelles are no colony, just as Northern Ireland or Yorkshire are not colonies; all are full parts of the United Kingdom, and part of the democratic process. If Malta makes clear her desire for integration in to the UK with elections and a referendum, who is anyone to tell them they are democratically wrong and a colony once more?" On the back of this, Douglas-Home put forth that any future territories wishing for integration should not upset the demographics of the home islands, should be "culturally compatible" and should not be a significant financial burden. This was a balancing act; he knew that the United Kingdom wouldn't affect any massive changes to the electoral power of the home nations, whilst several overseas territories were complaining that the UK was "allowing the whiter colonies in, and ignoring the black colonies". In light of this, following the disintegration of the West Indies Federation, several eastern Caribbean islands formed the "West Indies Associated Islands", with an unofficial agreement to modernisation and desired eventual UK integration due to their tiny island populations.
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Notes:
Malta, Gibraltar and Seychelles have all integrated in to the UK. The UK has accepted all three due to a) smallish populations (Gibraltar and Seychelles especially), and b) defence policy. All three have had serious integration proposals in OTL around this time. The addition of these three territories means a) the UK military has a far wider scope to defend UK home territory, and so needs further investment, and b) the significant military installations at each serve as a significant economic subsidy to each of the regions. No Suez has meant that Britain didn't get the economic punch it got in OTL, and still sees itself as the powerful, liberal and democratic mother nation of the world; why couldn't you allow a few small territories to integrate to further the British interest?
(*1) The original version had something like18 years of continuous Labour rule from the early 1960s to mid 1970s - this is something which is incredibly unlikely in a period of economic stagnation. I think far more likely is a flipping from one party to the other as both sides struggle to deal with the sagging economy.
(*2) I don't think Douglas-Home, even in this TL, will have the Parliamentary numbers to seriously discuss with the EEC about accession. Alignment and soft integration will be as far as it gets.
(*3) Trucial States continuing as, well, Trucial States, the British Protectorates of the Persian Gulf.
(*4) European, or Franco-British, diplomacy here I would see as the French talking to the Israelis, and the British talking to the Arabs (considering they haven't discredited themselves completely with Suez). I'd like to think the biggest impact here would be the Brits managing to oil the wheels so that when Jordan shells Israel, Israel knows where they are shelling and keeps out of the way, so that Jordan isn't really participating. Impact here is that the West Bank and Jerusalem stays Jordanian, which opens a whole slew of consequences in the Middle East.
(*5) This roughly happened in OTL (see
here); the difference now is that the extra overseas UK regions, each printing their own money has led to a more concentrated approach to Welsh bank notes.
(*6) However, considering the mess that is OTL UK bank notes, and this being increased with yet more regional bank notes, I think some kind of standardisation from the OTL "it just works enough" system is inevitable. A common design on maybe the left third of the note, with some security features such as intricate UK coat of arms or something (I don't think the Queen would appear in this area due to NI sensitivities, although the BoE would almost certainly print the Queen on their individual design area).
