TLIAB: Ô Grande Bretagne

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
ogbl.png


+==+​

French Now?

Oh hello! Good to see you came back.

So this is the follow up to Großbritannien, something about... Canada?

Yes, I finally decided it was time to go through with my plan for Ô Grande Bretagne, the Canadian Großbritannien.

Okay. You aren't doing this because the format suddenly got popular, are you?

what no thats crazy

Erm, right then. So, TLIAB? I haven't heard that one before.

Timeline in a Bit. Because it'll take a bit. To get started as well, now I think about it.

And why's that?

Because it's the essay season.

So why start this?


Because why not? No time like the present, and all that.

And who will we start with?

Oh, I don't know. From the beginning-

Of course.

*Ahem*

From the beginning, with a Man from Putney...

+==+​

ogbl.png
 
Last edited:
I'm going to treat your pilfering of the "Timeline in a Vague Timeframe" term as fair returns for my pilfering of the remainder of the format, and call us even. :p

Anyway, my knowledge of Canada is spotty, but this should be interesting. Plus it gives the Canadians a natural place to discuss who would be the British Trudeau.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'

ogb1.png

Clement Attlee
July, 1945-June, 1957
Labour Majority
Uncle Clem


+==+​

"His name was Clement Attlee, and he was a modest man". These words, spoken at his funeral by his close comrade and eventual successor as Labour Prime Minister, are perhaps the best words that can describe such a momentous figure of British History. To understand Attlee is to understand a nation, one wrecked in the hurricane of war, pulling itself from the eye of the storm to bask in the sun, even if only for a brief moment. His term, whilst long and exhausting, is perhaps the most important in modern British history, even if it would be overshadowed by his successors, and to grasp why, it would be best to know where he started.

A Member of Parliament for Limehouse, Attlee would arrive somewhat quietly into the chaos of interwar British Politics. Cutting his teeth on the MacDonald leadership, Attlee would hold various minor positions under MacDonald, such as in the Simon Commission, eventually becoming the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster within the second Labour Government. Here, Attlee would also be made Postmaster-General during the 1931 crisis, and became well known when he took over as the temporary Leader of the Opposition whilst George Lansbury recovered from a leg injury. Attlee would himself become Leader of the Labour Party in 1935, and a fierce and vocal opponent of the Chamberlain led Conservative Government. Following the resignation of Chamberlain in the tumultuous weeks after Norway disaster, Attlee and Labour would enter a Coalition with Churchill. The Coalition would allow Attlee to take over domestic affairs, whilst Churchill and the Conservatives took over those of foreign concerns, which suited Attlee fine, and he used this as a chance to build his Parties base. As the War concluded, it was clear that the British people were seeking change- the Beveridge Report proved highly influential, and whilst all major parties adopted the report, with it clear to the electorate that Attlee and Labour would be the best to deliver.

Armed with a Party at the pinnacle of its strength and support, on the promise of a brighter future, Attlee and the Labour Party would swing into office on a landslide of which the likes of which had never been seen before, and never been seen since since. With this Majority, Attlee would go forth and rebuild Britain in the image of Labour- Aneurin Bevan's National Health Service, the Beveridging dream of the cradle-to-grave Welfare State, the advancement of workers rights, nationalization of key industries, improvements for those in agricultural sector and for families across the nation, energy reform to meet the needs of people, and the undertaking of a massive housing development (although this would suffer from a lack of material). Abroad, Attlee faced the opening maneuvers of the Cold War, facing off against Soviet Europe with Ernest Bevin, attempting to use Britain's position to drive a wedge and create a Third Power, although this would quickly fail as Anglo-Soviet Relations crumbled, and the British economy came to rely on America. The crumbling of Anglo-Soviet relations would have a wider impact on the Nation, with the 1949 Strikes put down with military force, both Attlee and Bevin concerned over the threat of Communism to National Security. Elsewhere, Attlee would oversee the opening of the long and arduous process of decolonization, beginning with India, which would be partitioned and granted Independence in 1947, Cyclone and Burma following in suite. Urgently, there was trouble in Palestine, which saw deployment into the Mandate to keep order during the Zionist uprisings. Eventually, in a popular move, Attlee would step back and relinquish control of the situation to the United Nations, although less popular would be the failures of 'New Colonialist' projects in Kenya.

An election would be called in 1950, and the results would be surprising- loss, whilst expected, was not expected to the extent that Attlee would suffer, and whilst Labour would remain in power, their Majority would be slim. It would be within this Second Term that things took a turn for the worst, as he proverbial old guard, such as Bevin and Attlee's long time friend Cripps, would begin to die off. To make things worse, Britain's entry into the Korea War was unpopular, and Bevan resigned in protest of what he saw the perversion of his NHS by Hugh Gaitskell, Bevan taking several key members of Labour out with him. With the Government on it's final legs, a runner having run to far too quickly, it was unfathomable that the situation could be turned around. However, in a perverse twist of fate, in 1952, the situation changed with the death of his Royal Highness, King George VI.

Following the Kings death, and the ascension of his daughter Elizabeth, Attlee called a Snap Election, and was able to swing a narrow victory from the Churchill led Conservatives. The reasons were threefold- the waves of grief at the death of the King was exploited, in a sense, by Labour (oft circulated was he now famous "The King and I" election poster, which depicted Attlee and the King standing together) and celebration for the new Monarch, the improvement of the economic situation, and the sudden rise of the Liberal Party, who ate away at Conservative Votes. Whilst Attlee was able to secure victory, it was slender, although not as narrow as the two years previous.

Despite victory, it was clear Attlee was exhausted, having completed to the best of his abilities what he had set out seven years earlier. It is unclear to history why Attlee continued as Labour Leader through to the 1957 General Election, although theories, ranging from his disgust for Herbert Morrison, a sense of duty, or simply he saw no other way out. But he continued, to the best of his abilities. In the extension of his second term, Attlee saw the further transformation of the Commonwealth into a multi-ethnic organisation, the continuing of major public works and development schemes, the 'end' of the Korean War. The Nationalization of the Suez Canal would prove a particularly striking moment in international affairs, and would be the end of Attlee. Following the unexpected nationalization of the Suez Canal by the Egyptian, when negotiations failed, it was decided among the Cabinet that action would have to be retaken immediately, as the actions of the Egyptians threatened British Shipping. Attlee, paranoid that Nassar was moving Egypt closer to the USSR, was however unwilling to commit militarily to actions that would topple Nassar. The failure to address this would carry through into 1957, when the crisis petered out, although left itself as a firm thought in the minds of the British Public. It was clear that Attlee was over- he would only go through the election in 1957 in hopes of securing another Government for his successor. However, it was over. Labour would loose in a landslide to the Conservatives, and Attlee retired, leaving leadership to Hugh Gaitskell.

Attlee would remain involved in politics until his death in 1960, although as a spectator instead of a competitor. Whilst he was elevated to peerage, the twelve long years had proved draining- both physically and mentally- with the exhausted Attlee passing away only three years after he left No. 10, survived by his Wife, Children, and their Children, remembered as a modest man who never asked for anything else then the means to make things right.​

+==+​

ogb1.png
 
Last edited:

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Like Attlee, I am exhausted, and will get around to editing this tomorrow if any issues do arise.

I'm going to treat your pilfering of the "Timeline in a Vague Timeframe" term as fair returns for my pilfering of the remainder of the format, and call us even. :p

Anyway, my knowledge of Canada is spotty, but this should be interesting. Plus it gives the Canadians a natural place to discuss who would be the British Trudeau.
I anticipate the discussion, although I have a fair few ideas on who could be the Trueau's.
For a second I imagined an Frenchized United Kingdom with Margaret DeGaulle running the bussiness....:D
L'horreur. The only reason it's in French is because I prefer this over the English version, which would be: O' Great Britain! Which is rather boring.
I wonder what a title for one of these based off the French national anthem would be. La Scouseraise, perhaps?
Something along the lines of Allons enfants de Grande-Bretagne.
 
I never thought Attlee could have worked as an analogue to Louis St.-Laurent. Now I'm just curious who you'd come up with for "Mike" Pearson - or, for that matter, Brian Mulroney or René Lévesque.
 
Will Scotland be the "Quebec" of the UK?

There's actually have several options in that case, not just Scotland. There's also Northern Ireland, which until the '70s had its own Home Rule Government (which was in many ways very ironic). I could even suggest having Wales thrown in for a bit (though in that case the status of Monmouthshire would be a big issue), but I don't know how that would work.

In effect, what one has to understand is that for a Canada analogue to work in the UK, one has to realize the regional dynamics in place in Canada at the time. Thus, before Mackenzie King, the power struggles were basically between the federal government in Ottawa, which wanted to realize a centralized quasi-federal unitary state, and the provinces, which not only defended whatever autonomy they had but wanted it deepened so as to make federalism meaningful. (Hence all those JCPC rulings which were very favourable to the provinces, which is why when Canada got an opportunity to have its own Supreme Court make all the decisions instead of the JCPC, they took it - of course, much to the protest of the provinces.) As such, the regional dynamics are more than just Québec vs. English Canada, for English Canada also has its fractures. There's the well-known "Western alienation" felt among the Prairie provinces, particularly Alberta, but you also have the North/South division in Ontario, the alienation felt in the Maritimes due to terminal economic decline and dependency on welfare (accentuated more in some areas than others, such as Cape Breton), and also the whole relationship not only between Canada and Newfoundland, but also the whole sectarianism thing in Newfoundland (indeed, until the 1990s Newfoundland had a very sectarian denominational school system, with separate schools for Catholics, mainstream Protestants (= Anglicans, Methodists, and members of the Moravian Church in Labrador), the Salvation Army, the Assemblies of God, and Seventh-day Adventists. Not even Northern Ireland's well-known sectarian school system did not get that specific.) which is accentuated by the fact that until the 20th century, many were aware of what was going on in the UK and many indeed were either immigrants from or descended from people who came from Ireland, Scotland, or southwest England; to this day, there's occasional rumbling about the return of Newfoundland independence due to a belief that Confederation has been a net detriment to "The Rock" (TM), but it's a distinct minority. So there's a host of regional dynamics to play with, and while the correspondences would not be absolutely perfect it would be interesting to see what the close approximations are in this case once certain things like the *National Energy Programme come into being.
 
Ah, finally a British TLIA... I'll understand. ;)

Looking forward to seeing how you twist and contort British history to fit into a Canadian narrative. Should be wild by the 80s!
 
Top