TLIAW: The British General Election 84

I must be honest, I expected the SDP to gain Carmarthen given the gains they had elsewhere. Could you give the result for that seat if it's not too much bother?

Anyway, impressive work and I look forward to that 50s TL you were talking about.
 
That was excellent - particularly liked Steel making reference to his 'go back' speech - not knowing how it plays out is almost infuriating but thats part of the fun.

I thought the detail would put me off but it sucked me in, just like real election coverage. Very believable.

A 1950s vintage is something I'm really looking forward to.
 
As others have said, a triumph and I genuinely can't wait for the new fifties project.

People keep calling the ending ambiguous but obviously we're going to see Prime Minister Wedgy in the near future and after Militant get a few cabinet posts we'll be assured a truly revolutionary government ready to realise that Trotskyism is still unelectable and as such will move to Marxism-Leninism to assure victory at the next election, by which time the Soviet Union will have successfully invaded Western Europe and the fascist regime in Argentina will hand back the Falklands out of fear of the Workers Bomb.
 
I must be honest, I expected the SDP to gain Carmarthen given the gains they had elsewhere. Could you give the result for that seat if it's not too much bother?

Anyway, impressive work and I look forward to that 50s TL you were talking about.

Carmarthen Turnout 83%

PC Gain from Lab.

Plaid 18,044 (34%), Lab 17,606 (33%), SDP 9,581 (18%), Con 6252 (12%), Oth 1,277 (2%)

Remember, 83 Carmarthen was one of the worst SDP results in the country.
 
Excellent stuff, Iain. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I've learned more about the political scene and workings of government in the early 80s from this and Azure than from anywhere else!

Coming originally from Cumbria, a constituency that stands out for me is Michael Jopling taking Westmorland and Lonsdale seat.
 
As others have said, a triumph and I genuinely can't wait for the new fifties project.

People keep calling the ending ambiguous but obviously we're going to see Prime Minister Wedgy in the near future and after Militant get a few cabinet posts we'll be assured a truly revolutionary government ready to realise that Trotskyism is still unelectable and as such will move to Marxism-Leninism to assure victory at the next election, by which time the Soviet Union will have successfully invaded Western Europe and the fascist regime in Argentina will hand back the Falklands out of fear of the Workers Bomb.

Democratic control of the means of destruction!

Anyway, Iain: a triumph, as has been said. John Cole is another 'character' you successfully brought in, and the constitutional decision at the end seems entirely plausible. I like how you addressed the 'Labour technically have the most seats' issue earlier in the night, and how once again the British constitution prevailed - 'if what should theoretically happen makes no sense, we shall do something that makes sense but on paper seems ridiculous'.

Thank you for a wonderful Christmas-and-new-year gift. Well, well done.
 
Thank you

Yes, as others have said, excellent characterisation and an impressive command of detail. I am delighted to see that Albert Booth held Barrow and Furness. He would have been a stalwart part of Shadow Cabinet. I don't think that Kinnock would have won the leadership. This election put Labour much closer to power than OTL. They would have elected an old stalwart like Healey, Benn or Shore rather than an untried neophyte. My money would be on Healey/Benn or Healey/Shore though I'd rather see it the other way around.
 

Sulemain

Banned
The OTL Alliance Manifesto of '83 talks about nuclear fusion of all things. In 1983!?

The Manifesto itself is actually pretty radical, but not in a socialist sort of way.
 
I have some quibbles about SDP gains from Labor, but I'd continue as follows:

The Alliance runs into immediate problems. There are only so many government posts to hand out, and members of both halves feel disgruntled. Meanwhile, Labour ditch Foot pretty sharpish and a Kinnock/Hattersley team begins to rein in the left. After Militant are purged from the Party, some miffed SDP MPs discuss returning to Labour. Matters come to a head when the budget for the military is considered to high by the Liberals and a Commons motion on the matter is only won by the government with Labour backing. This rehabilitates the "patriotic Labour" voters who voted SDP last time, and when a number of SDP MPs do defect to Labour, resulting in a virtually hung parliament, a General Election is called in November 1985.

The result is a Labour majority and government. The Liberals hold most of their seats but the SDP become the official opposition, and under Owen's leadership break any links with the Libs and start to be seen not as an alternative to Labour but as the inheritors of the Tories. A few Tory MPs also defect to the SDP, sealing the deal.

Slowly, the Conservatives become a social set, with their local associations getting more and more separated from actual politics. The "bright young men" that commentators noted were going straight from University to the Tories in OTL are going to the SDP. The 1989 election is run on the economy, the second recession being blamed on Labour ineptitude, but with Liberals standing as a separate party the slogan "you can't trust the SDP" becomes the ultimate factor. Labour fail to win an outright majority but form a government with Liberal support. The rest, well, the rest isn't history.

owen only became leader because Jenkins was percieved to have failed badly in OTL. It seems unlikely that owen would be able to elbow aside the majority in the SDP who did not back him as leader in a timeline where jenkins' whole strategy has triumphed. owen was a poor minister (in most opinions) wheras Woy was and is still seen as one of the UK's best in the jobs he held.
Without owen as leader alliance defence policy would be manageable. Even with him he had to work very hard to cause the splits he did.
In the case of an actual split caused by owen Roy and his his wing of the SDP would be more likely to stick with the Liberals, than go off to become a new Tory Party under owen.
The SDP tick remmant of the party consisting of owenites (although hopefully not Rosie f..... Barnes who makes Nadine Dorries look like Hilary Clinton), and fellow travellers such as Sue Slipman and Polly (anna) Toynbee who was an owenite for a while would not be enough to make for a viable official opposistion by themselves.
It is very unlikely that the carreerist wing of the SDP tick who used it to get jobs in Tory central office. Hello Danny Finklestein would abandon a government for a speculative punt at opposistion.
 
From an American POV, the funniest thing I noticed is that despite cratering nationwide, the Conservatives still hold more seats in Scotland than they do in OTL.

I wonder if in this TL, a Conservative version of Tony Blair will emerge to rebuild and reform it. If he can find a way back into Parliament, Chris Patten comes to mind as a possibility.
 
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