The eyes... don't look into the eyes...!

Seriously, great work as ever Shifty. Well done on this, even if it did go a little over time. ;) :p
 
Well, that was top work Shifty. A different but plausible world with a Lib Dem party that rises and falls a lot less dramatically than OTL, with OTL's shifting political winds appearing in the same way.

And the title cards of all the leaders made this even better; how isn't you make them?
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
The eyes... don't look into the eyes...!

Seriously, great work as ever Shifty. Well done on this, even if it did go a little over time. ;) :p

Well, that was top work Shifty. A different but plausible world with a Lib Dem party that rises and falls a lot less dramatically than OTL, with OTL's shifting political winds appearing in the same way.
Thank you both :)

I do feel there is a slight wobble around Laws, though, which I will go into with greater the afterwords.
And the title cards of all the leaders made this even better; how isn't you make them?
Photoshop and patience.
 
I hate to be a nitpicker, but I noticed this:

Tragedy would strike in September when Campbell was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form a blood cancer.

Should be "a form of blood cancer."

Enjoying the story so far. Will try and finished the rest of the updates today.
 
Excellent work as ever Shifty and as I said above the world you've created behind the scenes is equally fascinating. It seems without Ashdown the party is a little less driven and perhaps a little less ideological united.

So can I ask what the gimmick is now?
 
Afterwords

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Afterwords
So, Beneath an Amber Moon. Regrettably, it took a over a fortnight, but we got there in the end. Certinaly one of the more enjoyable projects I've worked on, and one I am happy to have finished. To answer a pressing question first, the gimmick of the TL is simply the premise- that this is a TLAI* where the focus is on the Leader of a third Party. That is underwhelming, I'll admit, but I felt adding something else to it- like a deck shuffling- would have been a bit needless.

This timeline was something of a passion project for me, and was something I had been wanting to do for a fairly long time. There were a variety of reasons I put off doing it until the end of the year; I wanted to do other things first, things that have mostly regrettably fizzled out (such as The Universal Prime Minister), however the initial idea stayed with me for a long time, though a blistering summer and into a rather bitter winter. There have been delays in beginning this, mainly stemming from reasons pertaining to my University courses and more personal matters, however with two weeks I felt I could get this done. Again, it took a few days over two weeks, but hey ho.

If you'll allow me to indulge for a moment, I'll share the metamorphose of the TL and certain things that were cut. This will probably be a bit rambley and unfocused, but I thought it might be interesting. The timeline first emerged around May of last year, shortly before I left University for the holidays. It was, in its initial form, 'what if Menzies got his seat early and ran in '88?', though by June or July had evolved into 'what if Ashdown had been killed'. In August, I would post a What If on the topic that got... some less than satisfactory replies. I did however make a list on the topic that got some encouraging responses, and leads us straight to the TL you've just read following four months of gestation and research.

Fundamentally it is a TL that is saving Menzies Campbell from the scrappy heap; a fairly underused figure, I felt that there should be at least one story on this site where he did well. Everything else after is the aftershocks of this- a later Kennedy, the right of the party having a different champion, that sort of stuff. I did plan on the TL going a certain way, and had my skills been up to scratch on the day I made his portrait, Alan Beith would have been an entry. Campbell himself was meant to go on until 2006- it was only after learning about his 2002 cancer diagnosis I decided to end him on a 'happy' juncture. Kennedy perhaps had the most changes from the initial plan, which prominently called on him to be sober and more religious (traces of this can still be found, of course). It was unrealistic, given the mans actual personality and problems, hence the more mixed figure we see here. A major change in the second half of Kennedy's part was the Great Recession. In a version of this where I wasn't anxious about time restraint, the Great Recession would have spiralled out of control with McCain denying a stimulus package, leading to unimaginable economic strife on levels greater than that of the Great Depression in 2011. I decided to cut this, as it was taking to long to explain and ultimately I felt it was gratuitous. The 2011 elections and 'last rights of New Labour' were lifted directly from a Wikibox based on that original list.

Beyond that, Laws and Featherstone were pretty much how they were planned. I have issues with Laws' update, as I feel there's a fair bit of 'in spite of a nail' regarding the scandals, and maybe killing Huhne was a bit too much. As noted in that list, Brake was meant to take Moore and Lamb's place, but when actually doing the final prep work, I decided to change it for reasons that I recall justifying to myself as 'yeah but they're more interesting'. The decision to end on Scotland leaving the Union was decided on a whim, admittedly, and inspired by the proverb 'For Want of a Nail' (and maybe a recent political thing you may have seen on the news).

So yes, Beneath an Amber Moon. I may come back to it, maybe play on 'full economic collapse' when I have the time, but for now I'm going to rest and look onwards to the next annual TLIA* and get around to updating my regular TL. An Israel in Scotland, PM Airey Neave, Fascist Supermac, perhaps even dip my toe into other countries politics and do something about Putin. Whatever comes next, I'm happy to have been able to do this, and happy that it's finished.

And most of all, I hope you enjoyed it.

-shiftygiant

=+=
 
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I really, really enjoyed this TLIA. Quite a lot of original choices (Moore I literally hadn't thought of), and I like that you put some focus on Chuckie's personal life. Also liked the background info, and the slightly longer survival of New Liebor.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
*screams forever*
*evil laughter*
I really, really enjoyed this TLIA. Quite a lot of original choices (Moore I literally hadn't thought of), and I like that you put some focus on Chuckie's personal life. Also liked the background info, and the slightly longer survival of New Liebor.
Thank you :)

Moore was interesting as he only really appeared to me right before I began writing, just as I was finishing the portraits. I was initially going to go Lamb after Featherstone, but I thought it'd be a bit too short and had a look around for anyone I could slot in between the two. Consequently, I found Moore, and he felt perfect for the role. This is also where the 'Scotland Leaves' stuff came in, because I felt that he would have to have an excuse to leave the party unless I was planning on writing up to 2025.
 

Sideways

Donor
This was a really well put together timeline. I just finished it.

I'm glad you avoided the gimmicks, and saw where interest helped the story and where butterflies might detract from the main thing you were doing.

This is something we need more of. A well put together timeline with a limited scope that does well within its remit. And your logos really help out along
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
This was a really well put together timeline. I just finished it.

I'm glad you avoided the gimmicks, and saw where interest helped the story and where butterflies might detract from the main thing you were doing.

This is something we need more of. A well put together timeline with a limited scope that does well within its remit. And your logos really help out along
It means a lot to read this, thank you.

As noted in the Afterwords, I had considered doing this with a proper gimmick, however I do feel that my actual output of Alternate History was lacking somewhat in actual Alternate History. ABT is fairly soft, all things considered, and I hadn't really worked directly from a PoD since my first TL, Watchman Waketh. This was certainly refreshing from a writing perspective, and the limited scope of it all gave me focus I wouldn't have had otherwise. I still feel that maybe some butterflies should have been explored further; perhaps when I get to putting this in Finished Timelines or something I'll do a bit more. Strangely, though, I do find myself curious about going the 'harder Recession' route, perhaps introducing a more populist element to it. I also feel Freud was a bit underused, given how much he came up.

On a different note, a personal reason for writing this was that I simply wanted to see more TLIA*'s, and I'm a firm believed in that if you want something there isn't much of, you should contribute however you can. Hopefully I've inspired people to do things like this, much like how Großbritannien Über Alles saw a brief wave of similarly themed TLIA*'s. Though perhaps on a somewhat different premise to keep things fresh. There is certainly a lot of room for the 'list' style to go beyond merely Prime Ministers and Presidents, and Party Leaders are really only scratching the surface of the styles potential.

Again, thank you for your response. I'm sorry that mine was so delayed.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Whilst I have bumped this, it would be remise of me to not also post some lists:
Leaders of the Liberal Democrats
1988-1995: Paddy Ashdown

1992: ↓20
1995-2003: Menzies Campbell
1997: ↑49, 2001: ↑56
2003-2012: Charles Kennedy
2006: ↑66, 2011 (Apr): ↓50, 2011 (Dec): ↓43
2012-2015: David Laws
2015-2016: Lynne Featherstone

2016: ↓24
2016-2017: Michael Moore
2017-20??: Norman Lamb


Leaders of the Conservative & Unionist Party
1990-1997: John Major

1992: ↓336, 1997: ↓157
1997-2001: William Hague
2001: ↓152
2001-2006: Tim Yeo
2006: ↑210
2006-2017: Tim Collins
2011 (Apr): 262, 2011 (Dec): 330, 2016: 299
2017-20??: John Bercow

Leaders of the Labour Party

1994-2004: Tony Blair

1997: ↑424, 2001: ↓421
2004-2009: Gordon Brown
2006: ↓339
2009-2012: David Miliband
2011 (Apr): ↓303, 2011 (Dec): ↓246
2012-20??: Jon Cruddas
2016: ↓242

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

1990-1997: John Major (Conservative)

def. 1992: Neil Kinnock (Labour), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal Democrats)
1997-2004: Tony Blair (Labour)
def. 1997: John Major (Conservative), Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrats)
def. 2001: William Hague (Conservative), Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrats)

2004-2009: Gordon Brown (Labour)
def. 2006: Tim Yeo (Conservative), Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats)
2009-2011: David Miliband (Labour)
def. 2011 Apr (Liberal Democrats Supply and Confidence): Tim Collins (Conservative), Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats), Robert Kilroy-Silk (UKIP)
2011-2017: Tim Collins (Conservative)
def. 2011 Dec: David Miliband (Labour), Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats), Robert Kilroy-Silk (UKIP)
def. 2016 (DUP Coalition): Jon Cruddas (Labour), Lynne Featherstone (Liberal Democrats), Angela Constance (SNP), Zac Goldsmith (London First!), Paul Nuttal (UKIP)

2017-20??: John Bercow (Conservative)

Presidents of the United States of America
1993-2001: Bill Clinton/Al Gore (Democratic)

def. 1992: George H.W. Bush/Dan Quayle (Republican), Ross Perot/John Stockdale (Independent)
def. 1996: Bob Dole/Caroll Campbell (Republican), Ross Perot/Richard Lamm (United We Stand)

2001-2001: Al Gore/Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
def. 2000: George W. Bush/Jon Danforth (Republican), Richard Lamm/Jesse Ventura (United We Stand)
2001-2005: Joe Lieberman/Zell Miller (Democratic)
2005-2009: John McCain/Rudy Giuliani (Republican)

def. 2004: Wesley Clark/Max Baucus (Democratic), Ron Paul/Various (United We Stand), Dennis Kucinich/Bernie Sanders (Peace)
2009-2017: Tom Daschle/Janet Napolitano (Democratic)
def. 2008: John McCain/Rudy Giuliani (Republican)
def. 2012: Mitt Romney/Marco Rubio (Republican)

2017-20??: Lindsey Graham/Charlie Baker (Republican)
def. 2016: Janet Napolitano/Chris Murphy (Democratic)
 
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