Yeah, it struck me later on (heh, struck) that you probably meant the bit with the three-day week and all that. Which yes, I did pilfer - I think the strikes of the 70s would've been far more extensive if we'd had the UK's approach to labour relations, which allowed me to do some useful parallels.
TLIAW: För Storbritannien i Tiden
- Thread starter Utgard96
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Yeah, it struck me later on (heh, struck) that you probably meant the bit with the three-day week and all that. Which yes, I did pilfer - I think the strikes of the 70s would've been far more extensive if we'd had the UK's approach to labour relations, which allowed me to do some useful parallels.
Do note how kept my reply vague enough so that in the possibility that there was a Huge Important Thing In Modern History That I Totally Have Missed, it wouldn't show.
Do note how kept my reply vague enough so that in the possibility that there was a Huge Important Thing In Modern History That I Totally Have Missed, it wouldn't show.
What did you think of Keith Joseph as Bohman, BTW? Their backgrounds and personalities struck me as similar, and Joseph did have a fairly major role in articulating what would later become Thatcherism.
I should have seen that one coming, actually, I had got it in my head that if it wasn't Enoch it had to be Airey Neave. Yes, I can certainly see Keith Joseph as a good Bohman analogue, a good choice.
I am still trying to figure out who you're going to have as Göran Persson. An annoying (from my point of view), fat, bullying Labour politician of the right age in the 90s of a modest background and-... Oooooooooooh. Of course!
Somewhat annoyingly, based on those criteria, I do believe you've clinched it. Feel free to PM me your guess if you don't want it out in the open.
I can tell you that has both some striking similarities and some prominent differences to where I'm taking this.
Alan Beith (1981)
Alan Beith (Liberal)
1981
The Strange Undeath of Liberal England
When Alan Beith first entered Parliament in a by-election in 1973, it heralded the dawn of a new age for the Liberal Party. In 1979, a year after entering government, Jeremy Thorpe was forced out of the leadership due to a legal scandal surrounding the death of his former close friend Norman Scott, and the reins fell to Beith as Deputy Leader – he managed to defeat David Steel for the leadership in a 27-24 vote of the Liberal Parliamentary Party. Beith became Deputy Prime Minister in addition to his previous role as President of the Board of Trade, and remained in this position until Plumb's ignominious downfall.
With the Centre Party withdrawing from government, a precarious situation arose. Keith Joseph still was not going to be Prime Minister, even Keith Joseph himself knew that, and Labour couldn't return to power without parliamentary support from the Liberals, which they were unwilling to give. In the end, it was decided that as the Liberals were already in government, they should form a small caretaker government that could sit until elections could be held. Beith was invited to the Palace on March the 19th, and became the first Liberal Prime Minister since Lloyd George. He formed a cabinet consisting entirely of his fellow Liberals, which led to some slightly malicious jokes that the entire Liberal Parliamentary Party now had a ministry each. This wasn't quite true, but very nearly – a full quarter of the party was in Cabinet, and another forty percent or so were junior ministers and PPSs.
As one might expect, the Beith ministry was largely ineffective. It proposed a single budget, which contained no significant policy points and passed the Commons easily with cross-party support. It then sat around twiddling its thumbs for much of the summer recess, before dropping the writ in late July for an election to be held on 13 August. This 1981 general election saw the Liberals fall back significantly compared to 1978, but it was outweighed by the surprise surge for the Nationals – Keith Joseph being one of few frontline politicians not to have lost much face during this whole ordeal. Labour ended up short of a majority again, and the right once again formed the government.
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Alan Beith? An excellent choice!
This is looking very good and reveals quite some research has gone into this.
Anyway, I am now much looking forward to the inevitable Ashdown Effect!
This is looking very good and reveals quite some research has gone into this.
Anyway, I am now much looking forward to the inevitable Ashdown Effect!
Henry Plumb (1981-1982)
Henry Plumb (Centre-Liberal coalition)
1981-1982
The Insider
Henry Plumb entered government a second time after the 1981 elections, as a similar situation found itself with a similar solution. The nuclear disagreement, which had killed the first Plumb ministry, was settled according to Plumb's original proposal, and a referendum scheduled for May of 1982. Campaigning for the referendum ended up taking most of the attention away from the government, and as the Nationals agreed to quietly support the government agenda in the House, the government remained surprisingly stable for its first few months in office. The budget for 1982 included significant austerity measures intended to cope with the growing economic crisis, which made the government lose much of that stability. Further strikes over the course of the winter reduced its favourability ratings yet further – by March of 1982, polls showed an eight-percent lead for Labour over the combined opposition.
The industrial disputes faded over the spring, however, as media attention focused on the nuclear power referendum. The two governing parties supported Option C, which recommended the closure of all nuclear reactors within a decade and the refocusing of attention toward renewable energy sources. They were joined in this, somewhat surprisingly, by the Communists. The Nationals for their part supported Option A, which was perhaps the most pro-nuclear alternative – it called for the continued expansion of reactor volumes according to extant plans, after which expansion would be curtailed. Labour, for their part, backed Option B, which was fundamentally the same as Option A except that it included a footnote about public ownership – cynics argued that the two were kept separate simply because Benn and Joseph couldn't be seen to share a platform. The existence of three distinct options rather than a simple Yes/No proved somewhat confusing, with large numbers of “don't knows” featuring in all polls conducted in the run-up to the referendum.
When Britain went to the polls, the results were... shall we say, less than clear. Option A received 19 percent, Option B 41 percent, and Option C 39 percent. While no one option received a majority, and indeed there was great confusion over what to do, it was at least clear that the proposal backed by the Prime Minister and much of the Cabinet had been defeated. A no-confidence motion was launched in the House of Commons not long after, and with the Nationals joining Labour in voting for it, the government fell. A general election was called soon after, the second in a year – this saw the governing parties defeated, with both the pro-nuclear parties gaining significant votes. Labour was back.
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(the above is where the physical timeline links up with the OTL Swedish one, hence why Plumb's second term is so much shorter - IOTL Fälldin sat as Prime Minister for three years before the regular general elections)
ITTL the Centre Party consists largely of rural Tories, who for historical reasons mostly align with the High Tory tradition - hence why they're less intransigent than the Nationals, who are the Thatcherites and younger neoliberals.
ITTL the Centre Party consists largely of rural Tories, who for historical reasons mostly align with the High Tory tradition - hence why they're less intransigent than the Nationals, who are the Thatcherites and younger neoliberals.
That makes sense, as I was trying to figure out who the Tories were in TTL.
Poor, poor Henry Plumb. Still, he broke the hegemony and made his part towards making Britain a normal functioning democracy where governments change from time to time again! May he never be forgotten.
I do wonder who you have in mind as Karin Söder. Surely it cannot be Thatcher, can it?
I do wonder who you have in mind as Karin Söder. Surely it cannot be Thatcher, can it?