Brilliant. Brown for all his problems with charisma, could when on a roll be a powerful figure, but that line and that banana. Ouch.
TLIAW: For Want Of A Paragraph
- Thread starter Meadow
- Start date
Great update - that early line about Brown's cumbersome but powerful blow sums him up perfectly and foreshadows his speech. I'd actually forgotten about the chameleon. That and 'the incredible shrinking man' make me believe there's someone in Labour's media department who thinks he's a lot funnier than he is.
Those final moments, of Miliband's phone buzzing with supporters dropping out and Nick Robinson cornering him would make for an excellent end to this tale, as the viciousness of modern media and PR has played so heavily into the story.
However I have no doubt the next update will remove such feelings from my mind.
Again, lovely jubbly.
Those final moments, of Miliband's phone buzzing with supporters dropping out and Nick Robinson cornering him would make for an excellent end to this tale, as the viciousness of modern media and PR has played so heavily into the story.
However I have no doubt the next update will remove such feelings from my mind.
Again, lovely jubbly.
Brilliant. Brown couldn't have murdered Miliband more thoroughly if he'd descended into the crowd and punched him in the face.
I'd actually forgotten about the "this is no time for a novice" speech until now, and it brought back fond memories of what was arguably his finest hour. With the added buzz of victory over The Last Of The Blairites, I wonder if Miliband's challenge will end up paradoxically strengthening Brown ITTL compared to OTL? It might make a difference of a half-dozen parliamentary seats in the end, but that last defining image would be well worth it.
I'd actually forgotten about the "this is no time for a novice" speech until now, and it brought back fond memories of what was arguably his finest hour. With the added buzz of victory over The Last Of The Blairites, I wonder if Miliband's challenge will end up paradoxically strengthening Brown ITTL compared to OTL? It might make a difference of a half-dozen parliamentary seats in the end, but that last defining image would be well worth it.
Thank you all for such wonderful comments - this was actually the hardest update to write, and I really wasn't sure it was any good. The positive feedback is therefore most welcome. I really wanted to work the banana in somewhere - I like the idea of the fixed point - and I'm glad some of you noticed how much of this is based on OTL. In such a short period of months, one has to keep a close eye on butterflies but one must also keep in mind that some actions, phrases etc would still emerge as they did IOTL.
There is one more update to come, plus a little something extra (not an ASB ending, but something I haven't tried before). It should allow me to address some of the comments I've kept schtum about until the story was told.
There is one more update to come, plus a little something extra (not an ASB ending, but something I haven't tried before). It should allow me to address some of the comments I've kept schtum about until the story was told.
"No time for a novice" was a brilliant line in OTL, and here as well. It is so good I used it a couple of times in my thread, and as Gordon Brown does not exist in that Universe, it's ok
.
Fixed points in time are very interesting, something that Doctor Who has brought up a few times.
.Fixed points in time are very interesting, something that Doctor Who has brought up a few times.
With a series of soft thudding sounds, David Miliband's MacBook keyboard began turning his thoughts into angry, flowing words for the Guardian. The article, due out tomorrow, was being trailed as 'a frank look' at the post-May political landscape, the Coalition, and the economy. Right now, it was two paragraphs and a list of names, accompanied by a series of crude sexual swear words.
David sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It just wasn't coming to him. The fire, dwindling since That Fucking Banana, appeared to have finally gone out.
The private sector wasn't so bad. The after dinner circuit had proved lucrative within a month of the election, and his diplomatic experience had given him a disproportionate amount of weight to throw around on the advisory board at Macro. Oxford Analytica was the most fun, and he'd been able to sink his teeth into some reports on Greece with some relish over the last few months. He'd felt proud of his work for the first time in eighteen months when presenting that one to the team. But the rest of his placements were juicy paychecks with several side orders of mind-numbing boredom - and etiquette insisted he clear his plate every time.
But whatever else it was, it was better than spending every moment of every slow news day being followed by a gaggle of reporters asking if he would challenge Brown again, and then, as time went on, if he would be standing after the (presumed) Labour defeat. David's eventual meltdown, caught on six different cameras and an iPhone, would have killed his chances of being a serious candidate in 2010 even if he hadn't been explicitly screaming down the lens about how he would rather eat his own legs. He'd made that decision very soon after the '08 conference, really - he just thought he might change his mind. It turned out he didn't.
And the board memberships were a bed of roses compared to that draughty, musty church hall in South Shields where he'd had to sit through problem after mind-numbing problem, brought to him by people with accents he could barely understand. In his time at the FCO, he had improved his French, grasped German, and taken a decent stab at Arabic. Geordie, however, would always be beyond him.
David had spent the aftermath of the election wondering if he'd done the right thing. He'd even felt a twinge of anxiety when it had looked - for five minutes - like he would have been drafted into Downing Street as part of a Lab-Lib-EveryoneElse Coalition deal when Clegg declared Brown a 'red line issue'. If only he'd still been in the Commons, et cetera, et cetera.
Of course, as he was now typing in his article, it had all been so much smoke. The Nick'n'Dave show had been a winner from the get-go, and now the UK was three months into its first coalition government since the War.
And Gordon Brown was no longer leader of the Labour Party. That, to David, had been the greater sea-change, even the greater surprise. Even when the dismal results were rolling in, the man's stoicism and 'concrete Brown' reputation had made it seem plausible that he might remain leader out of sheer stubbornness and inertia. But then, almost out of the blue, he resigned as party leader, and the short age of Harman began.
Would it the Personocracy continue? Harriet had thrown her hat into the ring shortly after Johnson had, doing so from the privileged position of incumbent leader (not 'acting leader', she always insisted - no such position apparently existed within the Labour rulebook, and David had no interest in looking at that document ever again). But she was not the favourite - the Postman had that accolade.
Balls, the Continuity Brownite candidate, was doing well with the unions but had underperformed in PLP nominations. No surprises there, considering the legacy he had inherited. David had been astonished to hear there had been a movement within the Brown camp to go with 'the other Ed'-
David took a deep breath.
It still hurt. Relations with his brother had deteriorated rapidly after the '08 conference, and Ed's repeated attempts to 'run into' him in the Commons or elsewhere only made things worse. That Christmas had seen Mum force them to spend time in the same room, but David and family had headed for Louise's parents' house early on Boxing Day, and that had been it. The only contact he had with Ed now was to swap diaries about visiting Mum, so he would avoid running into him. An attempt by Justine to reach out through Louise had been an error on Ed's part, the tactical shit. It was, admittedly, delicious that the ambitious little toe-rag had been sunk by his own treachery against David: the Westminster consensus, backed up by leakers in high places, was that the Miliband name was too toxic when associated with the word 'leader', so it would be best if Ed stepped back from the whole process. To think he might've been Chancellor by now in David's dynamic, re-elected government...
"Anyway," murmured David softly as he began a new paragraph. McDonnell was making his usual noises but was looking awfully tired. Cruddas had disappointed everyone at Grauniad HQ when he'd declined to stand, but the idea that he would have a chance had always been somewhat laughable. Hilariously, Cruddas had announced his intention to focus on preparing a motion to modify the Labour rulebook, specifically "provisions regarding the leadership".
"Good luck to him," muttered David, typing a note expressing similar sentiments.
Yes, Johnson was the best of a bad bunch, though with Balls doing well in the unions and many affiliates coming out for Harriet, Mrs Harperson might well pip him to the post. In many ways, he wrote with a burst of activity, the empty suits jostling for the crown were indicative of the wider state of the Labour Party now.
What was the state of the Labour Party now? It certainly wasn't one he recognised, or was particularly comfortable with. He'd remarked to Louisa while cooking the broad beans two nights ago that he was probably going to allow his membership to lapse.
It wasn't just the scale of the defeat. Eighty-odd MPs gone in one night meant there were fewer faces he recognised, and the young bucks were walking around with confused looks on their faces. Chuka in particular gave off the air of a man aching to be informed he was not, in fact, the MP for Streatham, but the subject of an elaborate practical joke.
No, the smaller, lighter PLP wasn't the only change. James had gone long before the election, forcing a by-election in his seat in early 2009 before you could say 'screw you guys, I'm going home'. They still texted occasionally, but that dinner they had been planning for the last year had never quite materialised.
Other plotters had fared better. But, as Cameron had put it in the third debate, "He lost half his cabinet, and only a few came crawling back." Beginning to jot down some thoughts about the debates, David remembered how the remark had quickly turned from a zinger to a gaffe - Gordon had had one of those rare moments of sympathetic humility, and muttered "I think we should keep this about issues relating to governing the country." Cameron's "this is about governing the country, and about how you can't do it" had been misjudged, but while Dimbleby's intervention - telling him the debate was "not about party machinations" - attracted record numbers of complaints to the Beeb, it hit home. Brown finished higher in polls taken after the third debate than those after the first two.
But had the debates mattered? The government had been staggering this way and that since the September '08 conference and the end of the week-long 'no time for a novice' bounce. By Christmas, normal service had resumed. When the expenses scandal broke, there were a few whispers of a leadership challenge - but, utterly predictably, they had come to nothing at all. The botch of the Speaker election, and The Resistable Rise of Sir George Young, had been the closest Gordon had come to another leadership crisis, but Hoon's stupid attempts to force him to resign had failed when the PLP, the media and anyone with basic literacy told him It's Not Fucking Possible.
The Brown government had been slicing itself into pieces just fine on its own without Nick Fucking Clegg looking down the camera lens and saying it was time for a fresh start. Toynbee had tried to shoot him down by saying "he's not the British Obama, but the David Miliband of 2010". David hadn't even been offended, he was past caring by that point. But Toynbee could still come in for a pasting in his article...
"Daddy..."
David turned sharply. His son was staring at him.
"What is it, Isaac?"
"Will you come and push me on the swing?"
"Daddy is just in the middle of something now," said David, turning back to the keyboard, "can Mummy not play with you?"
"She's with Jacob," said the four-year-old, not masking his distaste for that fact. David stopped typing midway through a sentence that was trying to link Alan Johnson's lack of charisma and lack of backbone through a weak joke about some kind of ugly invertebrate. He turned to his son.
"Oh. Well, I am doing this, so..."
"Is it important?"
David looked into his son's pleading eyes. He looked at the screen, then back at Isaac. He could hear the birds singing outside. The sun was streaming in through the window. A few streets away, an ice cream van began chiming.
"No," he said simply, holding out his hand.
Upstairs, Louise gazed at her two-year old with affection as Jacob finally settled for his nap. From the garden, she heard laughter.
That was a good way to end it. The melodrama of it all comes through quite well, particularly in the bit at the very end - his decision to leave the article unfinished and go play with his son instead serves excellently to show how he's giving up politics, realising perhaps that both party and country would be better off this way. And while a successful leadership challenge might perhaps have been interesting in its own right, I do think this way is the more realistic way.
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I do like that ending. I think DM will be happier out of politics than he was in. He grossly overestimates his chance of winning the election, but that's no surprise.
It makes sense that EM is out as a result of the challenge. He might have been loyal, but he's still a Miliband. And David's anger seems more reasonable to me TTL than OTL. I'm not sure Ed ever promised him support though. It may have just been assumed.
Enjoy your time away from politics, Mr Miliband. And I enjoyed this.
It makes sense that EM is out as a result of the challenge. He might have been loyal, but he's still a Miliband. And David's anger seems more reasonable to me TTL than OTL. I'm not sure Ed ever promised him support though. It may have just been assumed.
Enjoy your time away from politics, Mr Miliband. And I enjoyed this.
Thande
Donor
Fine TLIAW, Meadow.
(Also I should point out that given the very large number of retirements in 2010--though less from Labour than other parties as a proportion I believe--there are other reasons beside losses that David wouldn't recognise as many faces).
Anyway, good work overall and I look forward to your next project.
I enjoyed this bit
"Eighty-odd" implies Labour did slightly better than OTL, though overall this feels very much like an 'in spite of a nail' setup where the challenge had little longterm consequences. As indeed it might have done. Your response to those 'David Miliband could've become PM easily if he hadn't bottled it' musings from the media?
(Also I should point out that given the very large number of retirements in 2010--though less from Labour than other parties as a proportion I believe--there are other reasons beside losses that David wouldn't recognise as many faces).
Anyway, good work overall and I look forward to your next project.
Excellent work as ever, Tom.
Like Thande said - I really do like the fact that Gordon emerged from the election with a slightly improved reputation and Labour performed a little better than OTL. I want to say that I called it, but I actually cannot remember if I did, actually.
The personal note at the end was a delightful touch, and a welcome reminder that - at the end of the day, politicians are real people. A lot of timelines, even the narrative ones, tend to forget this, and it was great to see that you went again it.
The sibling rivalry seems somewhat worse than our history as well - and as I am sure you know - there's still not much love lost between the Brother Miliband. I like the fact that David actually knackered his brother's chances of becoming leader as well. I presume Ed is probably going to end up as Johnson's Shadow Chancellor and hopefully will escape the Curse of the Shagging Policeman.
All in all - a really lovely piece of work. Are you still planning on having the 'Something Different' coda that you alluded to earlier?
Do another one.
Do another one.
Do another one about Patricia Hewitt.
Like Thande said - I really do like the fact that Gordon emerged from the election with a slightly improved reputation and Labour performed a little better than OTL. I want to say that I called it, but I actually cannot remember if I did, actually.
The personal note at the end was a delightful touch, and a welcome reminder that - at the end of the day, politicians are real people. A lot of timelines, even the narrative ones, tend to forget this, and it was great to see that you went again it.
The sibling rivalry seems somewhat worse than our history as well - and as I am sure you know - there's still not much love lost between the Brother Miliband. I like the fact that David actually knackered his brother's chances of becoming leader as well. I presume Ed is probably going to end up as Johnson's Shadow Chancellor and hopefully will escape the Curse of the Shagging Policeman.
All in all - a really lovely piece of work. Are you still planning on having the 'Something Different' coda that you alluded to earlier?
Do another one.
Do another one.
Do another one about Patricia Hewitt.
Deleted member 9259
Thanks for this timeline, I really enjoyed reading it.
It has left me with a couple of questions, though:
1) Why is the field for Labour candidates post-2010 so different ITTL? I understand why both Milibands are out,* but IOTL there was a clear sense of generational change, with Balls, Burnham and the brothers all 45 and under. So why are Johnson and Harman running this time? I get that in the absence of D. Miliband as the Blairite candidate there's more pressure on everyone's favourite former postman to run, but why Harman? Is she the 'Brownite who isn't Balls' candidate?
* Incidentally, I was always annoyed by the whole 'Ed should wait his turn' narrative, as if Labour was going to vote for another Miliband if one failed, or choose Ed to succeed his brother's government ahead of a new generation. So I'm pleased you exposed the fallacy by showing how linked the brothers' fortunes are.
2) WI Miliband had waited until the 2009 European and local Election results to resign?
It has left me with a couple of questions, though:
1) Why is the field for Labour candidates post-2010 so different ITTL? I understand why both Milibands are out,* but IOTL there was a clear sense of generational change, with Balls, Burnham and the brothers all 45 and under. So why are Johnson and Harman running this time? I get that in the absence of D. Miliband as the Blairite candidate there's more pressure on everyone's favourite former postman to run, but why Harman? Is she the 'Brownite who isn't Balls' candidate?
* Incidentally, I was always annoyed by the whole 'Ed should wait his turn' narrative, as if Labour was going to vote for another Miliband if one failed, or choose Ed to succeed his brother's government ahead of a new generation. So I'm pleased you exposed the fallacy by showing how linked the brothers' fortunes are.
2) WI Miliband had waited until the 2009 European and local Election results to resign?
Nice 'week', dickhead.
It turns out it was closer to a month, yes. Almost exactly, in fact.
Yeah. Well, you got there.
I did.
So what was the point of this one in the end?
After Zonen, I wanted to play with a constantly-talked about POD and show how the received wisdom/exciting assumption about it was not always accurate. As I hope the TL showed, the Labour Party rules of OTL 2008 (and indeed today) make such a challenge virtually impossible.
So you were trolling the audience?
A bit, though I didn't get the reaction I had expected. I had hoped for lots of people to run away with the idea in the first few updates, and start discussing how well the Miliband government would do in 2010. But that didn't happen. Maybe I telegraphed 'if he can do it' a bit too hard at the start.
Do you think David would have won if a leadership challenge had somehow been forced?
Yes, I think so.
But you didn't want to explore that?
Not particularly. I could've used handwavium and got him into Number 10, but the research I had to do for three months in 2008 was enough work to keep me busy over Christmas. I didn't want to do the same for two years' worth of Milibandism.
Looks like things were a bit Zonen in the end - not much is different.
Yeah, not hugely. Though there are a couple of significant butterflies.
No Ed.
Quite. And no Bercow. And no Burnham in the 2010 contest.
Principsbullet thought that was odd. Why did Hattie and AJ run for it?
Well, losing Abbott was easy as she only got it because McDonnell withdrew. ITTL he sticks around and she gains less ground because Harman is running so she's not the only woman.
But why Harman?
I remember the run-up to 2010 differently to Principsbullet. In the event, we got a 'generational shift' leadership election, he's right. But all the expectations were in fact of a big beast-dominated contest. Harman, Johnson, Balls, Mili-D, maybe even Darling. Burnham was discussed generally as a joke candidate until he actually stood - he did so to boost his profile, and he did so very successfully. There's also the fact that David's 'teenage SpAd' image that will have been far more roundly mocked over the last two years will have made younger candidates less feasible for Labour.
But why does Harman run?
I believe she would have wanted it in the right circumstances, and the two years between the last two updates are vague but bruising for the Labour Party. Brown was more secure but more bullying as a result, and things didn't really improve. Harriet and AJ's motivations not to stand in 2010 were a bit flaky, and I think butterfliable. ITTL, they're the two frontrunners - just like in the Deputy Leadership contest in 2007.
That makes some sense.
I hope so, but you would say that - I'll be interested in whether Principsbullet thinks so.
Thande spotted that you changed 2010.
Only slightly. I knew he would, actually - I was genuinely thinking of him when I chose the phrase 'losing eighty-odd' as a way of indicating Labour didn't lose ninety-odd MPs as per OTL 2010. The Coalition is still pretty stable, and the campaign and negotiations will have been broadly the same - though yes, Brown had a better last debate and Bigotgate probably got butterflied completely. Overall, it's not because Brown was more popular, it's just that he wasn't seeing knives behind every gesture within the party, and this gave him a generally calmer attitude that meant he appeared slightly more competent and - even - likeable. But not by much.
Jack thought you might have Brown keep power somehow.
That would have been a bridge too far, but in Jack's defence he was thinking outside the box there. He was indeed correct that his softer prediction - that Brown did A Bit Better - turned out to be right.
You went personal a bit towards the end of the story.
Yes, it got a little bit soap opera at times. Ed and Dave, then David and his son. I wanted, as Jack says, to remind us all that politicians are real people, with real lives. You don't always need a geopolitical POD to motivate someone to do something - and David Miliband's departure from UK politics IOTL was a personal one. So yes, after making him a rather unsympathetic anti-hero throughout, I gave him the dignity of a human exit. He leaves it all behind because he just doesn't care anymore. He's got two sons to raise and plenty of other ways to make his mark on the world.
Is LancyIain right that Ed never actually promised to support David?
Indeed he is. And I'm sure ITTL's Ed tells himself that a lot. Ed's support was assumed, and in fact the story has lots of characters assume it - because you would, wouldn't you? - early on. I am glad no-one picked up that I was doing that. I think Jack texted me to guess that Ed was going to shaft David somehow.
People were surprised by how much the brothers' relationship broke down.
Indeed, and I was actually surprised by that - it's largely based on their difficulties IOTL. I did some research now, and kept an eye on it at the time. I believe they are now talking to each other again, but there was a period where David refused to even spend Christmas with his mum if Ed was to be there. Of course, it's hard to totally verify things like that, but certainly until about 2 years ago Ed himself was prepared to say 'it's been hard, yeah' to questions about his brother.
So, have you achieved what you wanted to here?
I think so, yes. It's odd, as I can't really explain why, but the TL feels different to what I had pictured before I started it. I think the updates are longer and more theatrical than I had anticipated. The Ed rejection was only actually developed after I started it, funnily enough.
It does get a bit theatrical, yes.
Yeah, I wanted to write a narrative TL that maintained rigorous AH standards of realism, but I freely admit that getting David up to 70 and his brother refusing to be the seventy-first was Rule of Cool in action. But I hope it didn't detract from the general 'real' vibe: we had trains, conference centres and power breakfasts with the Tories. The less glamorous side of politics, but where so much of it is done. I could write a whole TL told in the form of text messages between key players...
Don't.
Yeah.
What is next, then?
I'm honestly not sure. I have been planning a 'what if we got the big beast leadership election we expected' TL for a few years, but this kind of crossed into that territory and I don't know that I have the interest to make it a reality. I might try it as a one-shot at some point.
Anything else in the pipeline?
I have another TL, about another Miliband (no, not Ralph), and it's told in Zonen style. But that too is a bit too similar to what I've just done. I feel like spreading my wings a bit.
You could finish The People's Flag.
Okay, okay. Seriously though, you could reboot I Can't Become Prime Minister, The Title Of This TL Is Far Too Long.
I could, couldn't I?
Well, it's been great to talk to you, thanks for coming on. Meadow's latest TL, For Want Of A Paragraph, has just been completed in After 1900. I really enjoyed it, I think you will too. That's all from us, so it's goodbye from Meadow -
Goodbye.
And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye!
It turns out it was closer to a month, yes. Almost exactly, in fact.
Yeah. Well, you got there.
I did.
So what was the point of this one in the end?
After Zonen, I wanted to play with a constantly-talked about POD and show how the received wisdom/exciting assumption about it was not always accurate. As I hope the TL showed, the Labour Party rules of OTL 2008 (and indeed today) make such a challenge virtually impossible.
So you were trolling the audience?
A bit, though I didn't get the reaction I had expected. I had hoped for lots of people to run away with the idea in the first few updates, and start discussing how well the Miliband government would do in 2010. But that didn't happen. Maybe I telegraphed 'if he can do it' a bit too hard at the start.
Do you think David would have won if a leadership challenge had somehow been forced?
Yes, I think so.
But you didn't want to explore that?
Not particularly. I could've used handwavium and got him into Number 10, but the research I had to do for three months in 2008 was enough work to keep me busy over Christmas. I didn't want to do the same for two years' worth of Milibandism.
Looks like things were a bit Zonen in the end - not much is different.
Yeah, not hugely. Though there are a couple of significant butterflies.
No Ed.
Quite. And no Bercow. And no Burnham in the 2010 contest.
Principsbullet thought that was odd. Why did Hattie and AJ run for it?
Well, losing Abbott was easy as she only got it because McDonnell withdrew. ITTL he sticks around and she gains less ground because Harman is running so she's not the only woman.
But why Harman?
I remember the run-up to 2010 differently to Principsbullet. In the event, we got a 'generational shift' leadership election, he's right. But all the expectations were in fact of a big beast-dominated contest. Harman, Johnson, Balls, Mili-D, maybe even Darling. Burnham was discussed generally as a joke candidate until he actually stood - he did so to boost his profile, and he did so very successfully. There's also the fact that David's 'teenage SpAd' image that will have been far more roundly mocked over the last two years will have made younger candidates less feasible for Labour.
But why does Harman run?
I believe she would have wanted it in the right circumstances, and the two years between the last two updates are vague but bruising for the Labour Party. Brown was more secure but more bullying as a result, and things didn't really improve. Harriet and AJ's motivations not to stand in 2010 were a bit flaky, and I think butterfliable. ITTL, they're the two frontrunners - just like in the Deputy Leadership contest in 2007.
That makes some sense.
I hope so, but you would say that - I'll be interested in whether Principsbullet thinks so.
Thande spotted that you changed 2010.
Only slightly. I knew he would, actually - I was genuinely thinking of him when I chose the phrase 'losing eighty-odd' as a way of indicating Labour didn't lose ninety-odd MPs as per OTL 2010. The Coalition is still pretty stable, and the campaign and negotiations will have been broadly the same - though yes, Brown had a better last debate and Bigotgate probably got butterflied completely. Overall, it's not because Brown was more popular, it's just that he wasn't seeing knives behind every gesture within the party, and this gave him a generally calmer attitude that meant he appeared slightly more competent and - even - likeable. But not by much.
Jack thought you might have Brown keep power somehow.
That would have been a bridge too far, but in Jack's defence he was thinking outside the box there. He was indeed correct that his softer prediction - that Brown did A Bit Better - turned out to be right.
You went personal a bit towards the end of the story.
Yes, it got a little bit soap opera at times. Ed and Dave, then David and his son. I wanted, as Jack says, to remind us all that politicians are real people, with real lives. You don't always need a geopolitical POD to motivate someone to do something - and David Miliband's departure from UK politics IOTL was a personal one. So yes, after making him a rather unsympathetic anti-hero throughout, I gave him the dignity of a human exit. He leaves it all behind because he just doesn't care anymore. He's got two sons to raise and plenty of other ways to make his mark on the world.
Is LancyIain right that Ed never actually promised to support David?
Indeed he is. And I'm sure ITTL's Ed tells himself that a lot. Ed's support was assumed, and in fact the story has lots of characters assume it - because you would, wouldn't you? - early on. I am glad no-one picked up that I was doing that. I think Jack texted me to guess that Ed was going to shaft David somehow.
People were surprised by how much the brothers' relationship broke down.
Indeed, and I was actually surprised by that - it's largely based on their difficulties IOTL. I did some research now, and kept an eye on it at the time. I believe they are now talking to each other again, but there was a period where David refused to even spend Christmas with his mum if Ed was to be there. Of course, it's hard to totally verify things like that, but certainly until about 2 years ago Ed himself was prepared to say 'it's been hard, yeah' to questions about his brother.
So, have you achieved what you wanted to here?
I think so, yes. It's odd, as I can't really explain why, but the TL feels different to what I had pictured before I started it. I think the updates are longer and more theatrical than I had anticipated. The Ed rejection was only actually developed after I started it, funnily enough.
It does get a bit theatrical, yes.
Yeah, I wanted to write a narrative TL that maintained rigorous AH standards of realism, but I freely admit that getting David up to 70 and his brother refusing to be the seventy-first was Rule of Cool in action. But I hope it didn't detract from the general 'real' vibe: we had trains, conference centres and power breakfasts with the Tories. The less glamorous side of politics, but where so much of it is done. I could write a whole TL told in the form of text messages between key players...
Don't.
Yeah.
What is next, then?
I'm honestly not sure. I have been planning a 'what if we got the big beast leadership election we expected' TL for a few years, but this kind of crossed into that territory and I don't know that I have the interest to make it a reality. I might try it as a one-shot at some point.
Anything else in the pipeline?
I have another TL, about another Miliband (no, not Ralph), and it's told in Zonen style. But that too is a bit too similar to what I've just done. I feel like spreading my wings a bit.
You could finish The People's Flag.
Okay, okay. Seriously though, you could reboot I Can't Become Prime Minister, The Title Of This TL Is Far Too Long.
I could, couldn't I?
Well, it's been great to talk to you, thanks for coming on. Meadow's latest TL, For Want Of A Paragraph, has just been completed in After 1900. I really enjoyed it, I think you will too. That's all from us, so it's goodbye from Meadow -
Goodbye.
And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye!
I can only echo the praise of the others for this. I've not commented as regularly as I should've, partly because I think I've blotted out most of the specifics of the Brown era in an effort to stop myself dying of apathy (or worse, voting Conservative) and thus can't comment on the veracity of the details - but the overall feel of the piece is true to my recollections of the time. It's also shot through with the typical Black wit and some lovely turns of phrase, and the Guardian-style graphics work really well.
One tiny criticism I have is that the final update feels more like an epilogue than part of the TL proper; which I suppose is what you were going for, and it's fine as a piece of writing. I just think the end of the conference update, of him standing there fuming and clutching a banana, is a more fitting ending. But then, I don't really like David Miliband.
ETA: And your last post explained a decent amount of why that last update was what it was. I really need to start posting faster. But yeah, niggle aside I enjoyed this. Thank you.
Please finish 'The Accidental Prime Minister' please please pretty please
One tiny criticism I have is that the final update feels more like an epilogue than part of the TL proper; which I suppose is what you were going for, and it's fine as a piece of writing. I just think the end of the conference update, of him standing there fuming and clutching a banana, is a more fitting ending. But then, I don't really like David Miliband.
ETA: And your last post explained a decent amount of why that last update was what it was. I really need to start posting faster. But yeah, niggle aside I enjoyed this. Thank you.
Please finish 'The Accidental Prime Minister' please please pretty please
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Thanks, Ed. I take the point about the epilogue - that's really exactly what it is. I always wanted to bring it up to 2010, as otherwise the TL isn't really a TL - it's a short story set in 2008. Without finding out what the consequences are, it wouldn't be a satisfying work of AH.
If you like, imagine the credits rolled as he clutched the banana. Then, for people who stayed in the cinema, they got a quick recap of what happened next.
I am also flattered by 'the typical Black wit'. Very generous.
I haven't commented much yet but I have been following and enjoying this TL as with all of yours. To be honest although its fairly recent I couldn't remember that much about the period.
I would like to applaud you for creating a TL where the changes a subtle and minor but still there. It just goes to show that AH can be about subtle changes.
Thank you
I would like to applaud you for creating a TL where the changes a subtle and minor but still there. It just goes to show that AH can be about subtle changes.
Thank you
Deleted member 9259
I remember in 2010 Nick Robinson (I think) joking that Labour's new leader would be Andy Miliballs. Certainly the perception was that the former SpAds were all the same, so I can see David's failure meaning they all take an image hit.
My memory of the expectations pre-contest were that it would basically be David Miliband against Ed Balls, with anyone else just making up the numbers. Some people were already pushing Ed Miliband to run but it wasn't clear if he would be prepared to stand against his brother. I don't remember Darling or Harman being mentioned as serious candidates (the closest was Warren Mitchell saying he wanted Harman to be leader in a Daily Politics Interview). I also think Johnson, while talked about as a unity candidate both in 2009 and during coalition negotiations, was not seen as the man to take Labour forward. All this is only from memory, which is inevitably very partial and prone to inaccuracy.
Yes, I think it makes some sense. Harman has never struck me as leadership material, but as a party hack (she has never held a senior cabinet position and was demoted out of cabinet between 1998 and 2007). However, I agree with you about running in the right circumstances - I think most politicians have enough of an ego to want to be leader. Without an obvious frontrunner candidate, she might well have had that incentive.
Johnson, I'm less sure about because he seems to lack that ego. As I said previously, I am sure that he would be the Blairites' choice and would face a lot of pressure to stand, but I am not convinced he would go for it, given he has not shown any leadership ambitions IOTL.
Broadly speaking though, I accept the effect of the butterflies - I like that the biggest change ITTL is who becomes leader after 2010 - my money's on Johnson.