Neil Kinnock
Labour Premiership, 1986-1991, won election 1986
Kinnock oversaw the end of the hereditary House of Lords, only to see himself enter the chamber as Lord Kinnock due to his service as Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister.
The Kinnock Premiership is notable for overseeing much of the end of the Cold War at the close of the 1980s, and also for returning one of the younger Prime Ministers to work in the UK - seen as a turn away from the more right-wing, deregulatory and privatising Thatcher towards a new generation of leader. Kinnock saw the reunification of Germany, with the former East Germany being subsumed in to (West) Germany, agreeing not to oppose it as long as Germany remained within the European Community and NATO. This agreement thereby precluded any serious chance of a military or economic conflict, whilst also seemingly being relaxed to the potential expansion of the European Community to eastern Europe. This was also Labour's first time to shine since the economic woes of the mid-1970s as Britain underwent a transformation, and attempted to rehabilitate the north of England. This followed the closure of the remaining coal mines as uncompetitive and many factories over the last few decades, causing unemployment in the area using the rapidly growing economy following European accession, but would now see several coal power stations converted for gas to avoid coal imports given the apparent abundance of North Sea gas.
With a large United Kingdom, spread across the globe, Kinnock appointed another Royal Commission on the future of the United Kingdom system. The Commission visited Canada and Australia in particular, both countries under a monarchy, operating a Westminster style of politics, and functioning as a federation, but also visited West Germany (as it was at the time) to study how German federalism functioned. The Commission looked at the division of powers, how the federation functioned, and the causes of tension - taking note in particular of Quebec in Canada which had a referendum on independence in the 1980s. It's report, however, would be released after Labour had lost power again in 1992 with many of it's suggestions dropped; the main parts which were enacted were those laying out the principles of the division of powers between Westminster and the Home Nation assemblies. It made substantial reference to the Canadian doctrine of "pith and substance", allowing for the House of Lords Judicial Committee to rule on the aims of a law and the de facto results of a law to judge whether laws were valid in both the Westminster and devolved legal realms.
Of more visible impact to much of the general population was the reform of the House of Lords, covered in part by the earlier Royal Commission. The existing hereditary heirs were to lose their right to sit in the House of Lords, with the numbers decreasing year-by-year, and they would be replaced by a set of appointed peers, with the same powers as the existing House of Lords (as it was to continue unelected). This was an elaborate compromise, with Parliament split between those who favoured the leaving the system alone (more on the Conservative benches), those who favoured tweaking the system and those who wanted wholesale reform of the upper chamber - with either abolition or fully elected both being suggested. The middle option, of appointing the House of Lords was a middle road, with the more radical options failing to attract enough support due to questions over either an unchecked monopoly on power by the Commons (if the Lords were abolished), or a rival elected chamber stymieing the Commons (if the Lords were fully elected). In this case, each year a set of people would be honoured as a life peer and allowed to sit in the House of Lords for 12 years, after which they could be re-appointed if so wished, with the allotment of places mostly decided on the suggestion of the UK Government - but with some places reserved for politicians who had held high office (today, usually regarded as the British Prime Minister, Chancellor, Home Office Minister, Foreign Office Minister, Leader of the Opposition, and Premiers of the devolved administrations for at least 4 years in total). For the first time, the devolved administrations would have a quasi-voice in Westminster legislation, the ability to influence, even if their numbers in the House of Lords and power of the chamber were limited (*1).
Being a committed unionist as well as Labour Prime Minister, changes showed up elsewhere. The rollout of universal healthcare to the overseas regions was complete, but work to link up the systems with a globally unique patient identifier was needed in order to allow patients to move and transfer around the system. The Royal Mail expanded it's coverage to a fully integrated UK-wide system, with postal codes allocated to the various islands. Telecommunications were modernised with "British Telecommunications" being split off from the Post Office organisation, and investing in a new core fibre-optic network which would stretch across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, also linking to Gibraltar and Malta in order to provide core services. A British-French joint venture was formed to collaboratively do the same across the Atlantic, linking Great Britain & France to Guadeloupe and Barbados - a further West Indies network would then link Barbados to the other islands. This was utilised by the BBC, and thereafter the other terrestrial radio & television networks to broadcast equally in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and all overseas regions; this also meant the TV license was expanded to those regions too, although it was to be incrementally increased from a half of the standard GB price to equal with GB price over 15 years. This also saw the standardisation of all parts of the UK under the British telecoms system and within the +44 international dialling code, although designed in such a way that calls in the Americas to and from the British Caribbean would avoid being routed back and forth across the Atlantic, and would therefore see most of the West Indies moving away from the unified North American Numbering Plan for the British Numbering Plan (*3) - "integration means integration" as one minister put it.
As such, Kinnock's Premiership - in hindsight - is looked upon as the period of time where the UK overseas regions became socially and culturally integrated in to the UK, instead of just legally (and partially economically). Emerging technologies allowed better simultaneous experiences across the entire United Kingdom, with the BBC expanding it's remit, whilst the Wisden Trophy took on a new meaning. The Wisden Trophy, a cricket trophy between England (technically including Wales) and the West Indies islands, now became a largely domestic "bragging rights" match - although several non-UK players from other islands such as Jamaica still competed for the West Indies. The "Protected Sports Coverage" list was passed in to law by Kinnock's government, providing a list of events which had to be shown on TV - events being categorised firstly as either "full free-to-air live coverage" or "free-to-air highlights coverage", and then whether the event was "UK-wide" or just in the "Home Nation". Events such as the football, cricket and rugby World Cups, Five Nations rugby, Summer & Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon (tennis) all gained full coverage on a UK-wide scale, giving the entire United Kingdom unifying shared moments.
The opening of Terminal D at Heathrow proved to be another turning point for the overseas regions' integration, as it offered a far quicker and more pleasant experience for all destined on domestic flights; the terminal lacked formal immigration or customs checks save for police positioning which also allowed, from an airline point of view, cheaper flights from Heathrow airport to the rest of the United Kingdom. Opening in the late 1980s, this proved to be just in time for the deregulated domestic aviation market boom, as low cost airlines sprung up, and existing companies were forced to operate on a more competitive market basis. Although full deregulation had not yet entered in to the European Community, the coverage of the UK (and equivalent legislation in the Republic of Ireland) allowed operators to act with freedom anywhere between Great Britain and Ireland, as well as Malta, Gibraltar and the West Indies - indeed anywhere which was part of the United Kingdom. The new terminal, now hosting all domestic flights, also freed up capacity at the other remaining Terminals (1,2 and 3), increasing capacity for growing air links with the rest of the European Community.
Looking overseas, with Guatemala seemingly tacitly accepting the existence of British Honduras, the nation eventually gained independence as "Belize" in 1991, as did Brunei at the same time. The Trucial States also ended their protectorate status, gaining independence, as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, given the less irredentist Saudi Arabia to their south as they engaged in a new economic "Great Game" between the Arab powers. Kinnock tried to draw the UK, Jordan, Oman and the former Trucial States in to a more modern close alliance, but was rebuffed especially by the former Trucial States, retaining only really close relations with Jordan and Oman - something pounced upon by his Parliamentary opposition. Kinnock was quickly entangled by military action overseas though; not normally a forte of Labour governments. Significant action in the Gulf War in 1990 saw Iraq invading Kuwait, perceiving the UK to be largely in retreat from the Iranian Gulf. This would turn out to be the final wake-up call to the United Kingdom, still (to a certain extent) recovering from World War II. In a principally tripartite collaboration with the United States and France, the United Kingdom and a wide range of associated nations invaded and liberated Kuwait. The move brought Kinnock allies in the US, something which would allow Britain to play a larger role together with Jordan to negotiate a lasting peace agreement with Israel, a key regional US ally (*4).
Further action in collaboration with the East Africans saw intervention in the Rwandan Civil War, once news of an ongoing genocide leaked out, with British air power deployed via the Seychelles at Assumption Island base. The British played an important, but largely supporting role with East Africa leading the way in restoring law and order in Rwanda and then Burundi; the two nations were later amalgamated once again as "Buranda" and acceded to the East African Federation as state, popularly supported as the least worst way of preventing one ethnic group gaining supremacy over the other in Rwanda & Burundi, as well as bringing a chance at some economic recovery.
There were consequences to this expansion though; the Sino-British declaration of 1988 announced that Britain would cede Hong Kong back to China (People's Republic) at the end of the lease, building on the previous negotiations by Thatcher. An expanded visa scheme, jointly held by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom allowed many of those Hong Kongers who feared being ceded to China to leave with families and assets to one of the countries, which would see an exodus of a few hundred thousand Hong Kongers over the following 9 years prior to cessation. Following from this, in 1991 Kinnock closed down much of the remaining Singapore Royal Navy base, bring an end to just over 50 years of HMS Sembawang as Britain largely withdrew from the South China Sea. A new defence agreement providing for the relationship between the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, with Australia and New Zealand also participating, but largely allowed the reduction of British forces in Singapore to a bare minimum. This decision, brought significant debate within the House of Commons, as "reducing Britain's global influence and power", but justified by the Government on economic measures, and the lack of need in UK strategy for a base in Singapore.
By the turn of the 1990s, the situation in Northern Ireland had improved substantially enough for face to face negotiations to restart over the future of Northern Ireland. Although at times peaceful - helped in no end by the British Army's decision to frequently use troops from other areas of the United Kingdom to avoid English troops enflaming tensions (especially Maltese given their frequent dual nature as both British and Catholic, and also some Seychellois for the same reason) - not infrequent spurts of violence between paramilitary factions flared up. Kinnock's 5 years in power saw an agreement brokered by his government, with most paramilitaries agreeing to a ceasefire, and both Kinnock and the Irish Republic's Prime Minister declaring that the future of Northern Ireland should be decided by those in Northern Ireland through peaceful and democratic means. Whilst it by no means provided a final answer for all the political questions of Northern Ireland, it did at least begin to provide a more peaceful forum in which to begin discussing those more difficult questions.
The 1991 election was initially seen as a easy election for Labour, but towards the end of the 5 years became increasingly uncertain. Welsh nationalists objected to the lack of devolution in Wales - despite having a Welsh Prime Minister, whilst the Conservatives attempted to exploit what they saw as weaknesses in the defence & foreign policy areas with the quasi-withdrawal from the Asia-Pacific region. This culminated in the 1991 election, which saw Kinnock narrowly defeated, and the end of the Labour Government.
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(*1) I'd imagine something along the lines of 45 Lords being appointed per year or so (with a 12 year mandate, so 540 Lords, plus a few Lords Spiritual), with most appointed by the PM, and a few automatic appointments for holders of great office as mentioned.
(*3) Along with the telecoms reforms at the time, I'd imagine 01xx area codes being Great Britain geographic phone numbers and 02xx being "Northern Ireland & Overseas Regions".
(*4) Having not embarrassed itself in the Middle East with the Suez Crisis, Britain is a more trusted partner in the area.
