Indeed. Domestic hatred (right wing or EAP
) is a much more likely reason for the assassination, that or a case of mistaken identity.TLIAW: För Storbritannien i Tiden
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Indeed. Domestic hatred (right wing or EAP
) is a much more likely reason for the assassination, that or a case of mistaken identity.
Indeed. Domestic hatred (right wing or EAP
I WILL NOT HAVE LYNDON LAROUCHE DISPARAGED IN MY OWN THREAD
(seriously though, the EAP were/are terrible and you're probably right)
Indeed. Domestic hatred (right wing or EAP
Okay, out of all the conspiracy theories about the murder of Olof Palme I have ever heard, the supposition that there's a Lyndon LaRouche-connection is within doubt the most far out one.
Frank Dobson (1986-1991)
Frank Dobson (Labour)
1986-1991
The Surprise King
By the rules of the Labour Party, if the Leader resigns with immediate effect or is somehow incapacitated, the reins fall to the Deputy Leader until such time as a proper leadership contest can be held. In 1986, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party was Frank Dobson, a York-born economist and staunch ally of Benn's who had few ties to either the left or the right of the party. This proved an asset in the years to come, as the so-called “Wars of the Roses” consumed Britain's natural governing party. The unions found him a man of principle who could be bargained with, and David Owen saw him as an ally in the economic field (which he may or may not have been – in any case, Owen's policies were continued under his reign). The leadership contest saw no other candidates stand against him, and he was acclaimed as leader by a unanimous PLP.
Dobson's course was not significantly different from Benn's, except insofar as his was a slightly more hands-off style – cynics, especially left-leaning ones, would claim that David Owen was the actual Prime Minister for most of this period. The experiments with third-way politics continued, as the market was further liberalised and several state-owned industries shut their doors or were privatised. There were those who grumbled, to be sure, but on the whole the rising economic well-being of the country meant that the reforms were greeted warmly – Britain was being brought into step with the times, so the most common narrative went. The nation was transformed from the ground up, as the industrial sector grew smaller and the service and financial sectors grew larger by the day. Suddenly it seemed everyone (at least everyone in London) was either a City stockbroker or wanted to be one – finance was chic for the first time in a very long time. Money was cool, and the dominant cultural voices preached self-actualisation in place of the emphasis placed on solidarity during the 70s.
Not everyone would have this, however. Jimmy Reid and the TUC continued to take potshots at Chancellor Owen for his “betrayal” of the party, and Owen would respond that the union officials needed to get in step with the times. The mudslinging contest grew worse and worse over 1987 and 1988, with a Daily Express journalist dubbing it “the Wars of the Roses” inspired by Labour's newly-adopted symbol. Ultimately, however, it was scarcely a conflict – in terms of government influence, Owen and his faction retained primacy throughout. By 1989, an increasingly deregulated economy began to reach stagnation, with the state actually running a surplus as a result of the still strongly progressive tax structure. Inflation began to become a problem, and it was clear that if no major action was taken, a recession would hit within a year or two.
So the government called the TUC and CBI to a meeting to discuss potential remedies. The main proposals were for a two-year wage freeze for workers alongside a freeze on stock market dividends, in order to keep inflation from spiralling out of control. The TUC was initially hesitant toward the proposals, but after some negotiation agreed to back them publicly. Dobson and Owen staked their credibility on the proposals, labelling the bill that entered the House of Commons a confidence matter – however, they had not counted on the rebellion of a number of left-wing Labour backbenchers, which caused the bill to be narrowly defeated. Dobson saw no choice but to tender his resignation, which was granted by the Queen. But no alternate government could be found – Paddy Ashdown and Norman Tebbit saw eye to eye on precious few matters, and even if they might've been able to patch a government together, it wouldn't have been able to gain the confidence of the House with a majority against it. Speculation had it that an early election would be called, but for whatever reason this did not occur.
So it was that mere days after resigning as Prime Minister, Frank Dobson returned to Number 10 at the head of a reformed Labour Government – however, this time David Owen was not part of it. It has been disputed whether he retired of his own free will or was forced out as part of an agreement with the Communists to back the new government, but whatever was true, the bogeyman of the Labour left was now gone. This is not to say that the new government would be a particularly socialist-minded one – rather than deal with the left of his own party, Dobson struck a budget deal with the Liberals that preserved much of the content of the original agreement, leading to the resignation of a number of left-leaning cabinet ministers – however, the government would remain until the elections, which were to be held on schedule in February of 1991.
The 1991 general election campaign proved an eventful one, and was marked by the emergence of a number of new political forces. Firstly, the Liberals and Nationals had agreed to a united front in the election campaign, with the tacit understanding that they'd form a government together should Labour be defeated. The Centre announced their willingness to cooperate with both parties, and so it was that a unified alternative could be presented to the voters for the first time since 1955. And the left was less united than it'd ever been since the 1930s, as a group of left-wing Labourites launched a new party, the Worker's Alternative, which petered out before the election but still took a significant amount of momentum away from the Labour campaign. And then there was James Goldsmith, who announced in mid-1990 the launch of New Democracy, a right-wing populist party that promised massive tax cuts and reductions in bureaucracy, along with a tough stance on crime and immigration.
These forces combined to ensure that Labour would get its worst result in memory, as the party's voteshare dropped below 40% for the first time since the war. The change of government was a good deal cleaner than in 1978, as the anti-socialist parties had an agreed joint programme and Prime Minister-designate. Dobson left Number 10, but not the party leadership, as Labour entered opposition once more.
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Well, they produced most of the anti-Palme propaganda and hated his guts to an almost impossible to understand level. Mostly because he was "against" nuclear power.
(and more or less the devil himself) However the inability of EAP to really do something speak against that theory. Tebbit as Carl Bildt? Well I'll be darned. Isn't he a little old, though? Hence why I went with Portillo. I remember reading an article by Portillo back in 2011 in which he stated that he thought that the Tories and the LibDems should fight the next election on a united ticket, so he sort of struck me as the kind of person who could both be said to be a Thatcherite while also someone willing to cooperate with the Liberals.
Ah, so there's out Ian Wachtmeister! Brilliant!
But who is our man who coined the term knowledge racist?
Ah! Then who is Carl Bildt?
I was thinking of John Major, but then I realized how poor that analogy is. They may both be skinny, awkward and wearing glasses, but other than that, John Major came from a working class family in Brixton and he never got a university education. Carl Bildt comes from a long line of Swedish noblemen dating back at least to the 18th century. His great-grandfather had actually been Prime Minister of Sweden in the 19th century. So, who could it be?
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, perhaps?
Or I suppose you could be going for Carl Bildt's very pro-EU agenda, in which case you'd have Michael Heseltine.
If it is Heseltine, could we have a repeat of that mace-swinging incident? Granted, it would be a couple of decades later than OTL, but still - it's one of those things you can't make up.
1945-1950: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1945: Winston Churchill (Conservative), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal)
1950: Winston Churchill (Conservative), Clement Davies (Liberal)
1950-1971: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1955: Harold Macmillan (Conservative), Clement Davies (Liberal)
1960: Harold Macmillan (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1965: Reginald Maudling (Anti-Pension Conservative), Derick Heathcoat-Amory (Pro-Pension Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1970: Derick Heathcoat-Amory (Centre), Arthur Seldon (National), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1971-1978: Anthony Wedgwood-Benn (Labour)
1975: Henry Plumb (Centre), Keith Joseph (National), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1978-1981: Henry Plumb (Centre-Liberal Coalition)
1978: Anthony Wedgwood-Benn (Labour), Keith Joseph (National), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1981: Alan Beith (Liberal)
1981-1982: Henry Plumb (Centre-Liberal Coalition)
1981: Anthony Wedgwood-Benn (Labour), Keith Joseph (National), Alan Beith (Liberal)
1982-1986: Anthony Wedgwood-Benn (Labour)
1982: Keith Joseph (National), Henry Plumb (Centre) Alan Beith (Liberal)
1986: Norman Tebbit (National), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal), Henry Plumb (Centre)
1986-: Frank Dobson (Labour)
Next update probably won't come until tomorrow, as I have things I need to do tonight. Apologies.
That's OK - take your time. We're not pressuring you or anything like that. Trust me: I've worked with people who work under pressure with TL projects, and once in a while it helps to take a break.
(Meanwhile, as it's noon where I am, I've a few things to do myself.)
Michael Portillo (1991-1994)
Michael Portillo (National-Centre-Liberal coalition)
1991-1994
The End of History
When the 1991 General Election was over, it was clear that neither Labour nor the three traditional right-wing parties would have a Parliamentary majority – the balance of power would be held by New Democracy. However, Paddy Ashdown was adamant that any government the Liberals would take part in should not be dependent on Goldsmith's insurgent group, and so the broadest possible coalition should be formed. All three parties ended up being included directly in the governing coalition, which was only 11 seats short of a majority, and the tacit blessing of the Ulster Unionist Party gave it the working majority in confidence and supply matters that it needed. Michael Portillo, the National leader since Tebbit's resignation in 1989, became Prime Minister.
The new government had its work cut out for it. The country was going through its worst recession since the war, with the massive bubble that had been formed by the shock deregulation of the credit market in 1985 now bursting. Millions of pounds of debt was created as a result, and by 1990 the situation was so bad that the Labour Government had been forced to nationalise the Midland Bank in order to keep it from collapsing entirely. The crisis still deepened, however, and Chancellor Virginia Bottomley found herself having to introduce uncomfortably hard budgets for 1992 and 1993. An unpaid day of sick leave was mandated, excise taxes on petrol, alcohol and tobacco were hiked, domestic rates and capital gains tax were kept high in spite of election promises to cut them, and most embarrassingly, the Workers' Dividend funds, which the Nationals had promised to return to the companies from whom they were originally levied, were instead diverted into state pension funds.
One promise the government did fulfil was privatisation – and boy, did it privatise. Steel, coal (what remained of it), shipbuilding, British Leyland, several power stations, and a number of other state enterprises were sold off with the blessing of the Ulster Unionists. The railways, however, were not privatised – a bill to that effect was tabled in early 1993, but Labour managed to turn the Unionists and a few Centrist backbenchers over to their side by pointing to the cutting of rural rail services under private operation in other countries. It also helped even the balance of trade figures slightly when it took the pound out of its peg to the US dollar, ending the last vestige of the Bretton Woods system and establishing its own floating currency value – the pound did drop in value as a result, but when it stabilised it was significantly more competitive than it had been.
The main achievement of the Portillo government, it must be said, was taking Britain into Europe. EEC membership had been considered by Harold Wilson; however, Charles de Gaulle consistently blocked British accession, and with Benn a soft eurosceptic and the Plumb government heavily disunited on the matter, the issue was passed over. Portillo, however, was adamant that membership was right, and that with the Iron Curtain gone and the Maastricht Treaty worked out, continued non-membership would be an economic disaster. He was able to secure a deal whereby Britain would join in 1995, alongside Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the Irish Republic, pending referenda in each of those countries. The British referendum was scheduled for August of 1994, and campaigning began that spring. Throughout the campaign, the Nationals and Liberals were solidly for; the Centre Party and the Communists were just as solidly against. Labour, for their part, were divided, but eventually worked the issue out by allowing its members to campaign on either side – separate “Labour for Yes” and “Labour for No” campaigns were set up as a result. The campaign divided Britain as few events have before or since, and polls were unanimous insofar as the result was going to be close. August came, and with it, the result – by a 52 to 48 margin, Britain had said yes to Europe. Portillo's ambition realised, he expected the polls to turn in his favour as 1995 rolled on – however, events would overtake him.
The accession to the European Union meant improved transport links were in Britain's interest, and negotiations with the French government for the Channel Tunnel had been underway for almost as long as the accession negotiations themselves. By September of 1994, the details were worked out, and the Channel Tunnel Bill put before the House of Commons. The Centre Party, who had made their opposition to the Tunnel known, voted against, and while Labour's backing meant it passed easily, the government's position was made slightly uncomfortable. Frank Dobson seized the moment, calling a no confidence vote – which to everyone's surprise, passed. Early general elections were called for the 3rd of November, and the short campaign proved devastating for the government – Labour ran rings around them by pointing to their economic record, and the fact that for all the bluster about Europe, an unprecedented number of British subjects were still unemployed. On the promise of hard measures to turn the economy around, Labour were elected, and Portillo left Number 10 about as abruptly as he had entered it. New Democracy collapsed in the elections, the result of their internal bickering following Goldsmith's departure, and were never heard from again.
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Uhura's Mazda
Banned
This is still very entertaining.
One thing: my understanding of economics is negligible but surely the fact that the pound was pegged to the dollar doesn't tally with Benn following Owen's "monetary policies" in the 1980s? Or are they different matters altogether?
One thing: my understanding of economics is negligible but surely the fact that the pound was pegged to the dollar doesn't tally with Benn following Owen's "monetary policies" in the 1980s? Or are they different matters altogether?
Palme followed Feldt's monetary policies in the 1980s with the crown pegged to the dollar.
Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the width of the term, but I'm using it to mean the non-budgetary aspect of financial policy - things like bank regulations and such in addition to direct currency valuation. (carries on, desperately trying to hide the fact that no, he doesn't know more about this than you do)
Great minds think alike!
I retrospect though, I've come to regret my choice of Michael Portillo as Carl Bildt. Michael Portillo is one of those Tories I really like and that I think would have made an excellent Prime Minister. Carl Bildt, on the other hand, well...
Also, that you didn't include a scene with Michael Portillo and some Liberal minister in a townhall in Brixton trying to sing We Shall Overcome... How could you miss that opportunity, mate?
I retrospect though, I've come to regret my choice of Michael Portillo as Carl Bildt. Michael Portillo is one of those Tories I really like and that I think would have made an excellent Prime Minister. Carl Bildt, on the other hand, well...
Also, that you didn't include a scene with Michael Portillo and some Liberal minister in a townhall in Brixton trying to sing We Shall Overcome... How could you miss that opportunity, mate?