TLIAWK - Grave Matters ?

My turn to do this because everyone does it.

Everyone does what - this absurd internal dialogue.

Yep and because this is a Stodge TL it's a good honest British political ATL. That'll please everyone ?

No it won't, the American won't understand it.

The colonials will be fine as will everyone else.

What does TLIAWK mean ?

Tineline In A Who Knows Because I've no idea how long I will spend on it.

No, it's a Doctor Who TL based on politicians playing the Doctor. Brilliant - Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Michael Heseltine, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Jeremy Corbyn as Capaldi. I like this a lot...

Er, no. I live Doctor Who TLs to others. This is a political TL.

Oh Dear, the Doctor Who one was better.

Maybe and I've not given up on my earlier Liberal revival one - the 1974 election is going to be a real rout for the Tories.

Spoilers - is this another bad TL for the Conservatives ? You have a bit of a reputation.

Yes and No. Read on...

England 2015:


That they still come, in ones and twos, nearly a decade later, is illuminating. To put flowers or little tributes on the grave of the man widely considered to be not only the greatest Prime Minister since the War but also the father of modern Europe, speaks volumes.

The grave has also been the subject of political vandalism from the British Independence Party (though the Party denied any involvement) and from individuals angered by the direction the country took under his leadership.

The irony is this coolest and indeed most personally remote of men, in stark contrast to the current incumbent, should inspire such respect and indeed adulation is something with which those who knew him struggle. Indeed, some of the sharpest barbs have come from those who knew him best.

There are those in what was the Conservative Party who can never forget or forgive and indeed yearn to replay the past and the opportunity to remove him when he was at his weakest.

For Labour and above all Alliance politicians, he remains a figure of awe and mystery. That he shaped the Britain, Europe and indeed the world of the 21st Century is undeniable. That he gave them the 21st Century as some see it is perhaps more debatable – perhaps the 21st Century was always going to be the “progressive century”.

The curiosity is how he bridged nations and ideologies and inspired respect – Americans and Chinese, basking in the warmth of the Sino-American Alliance, trace that Alliance’s origins to this one man and in China in particular, he is afforded almost “hero” status. Even in America, the respect is there though more equivocal and tainted with the bi-partisanship that colours so much of the American political scene.

There were rumours Gorbachev himself has visited the grave on more than one occasion. Oddly enough, their friendship, perhaps the ultimate curio, will turn out to be as significant as that between Churchill and Stalin. Time, as always, will tell.

So they come, old and not-so-old, to this small grave behind Salisbury Cathedral, to pay their respects to the man some call giant and others call Judas but that is, many would argue, the fate of great men and women, to inspire respect and contempt in equal measure.

That Edward Heath does so is tribute enough.
 
Heath’s “time of trial” as he would later term it began with the February 1974 election which he would later describe as “his greatest mistake”. The failure of the post-election talks with Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe led to Harold Wilson forming a minority Labour Government.

The inevitable later election was a further disappointment with Labour gaining a wafer-thin overall majority of just 3. Keith Joseph had been due to speak to the Child Poverty Action Group on October 19th but had to cry off with a family emergency.

Nonetheless, the Conservative Parliamentary Party was in fractious mood and many wanted a leadership election. The problem was there was no provision for one within the existing rules so Heath made the unilateral decision to resign on October 31st and force a contest. He would later describe it as “my biggest gamble”. Inevitably Joseph rose to the challenge and challenged Heath.

The election took place on November 12th and it soon became clear Heath faced a real challenge. Shadow Cabinet members Thatcher and Neave resigned to join Joseph’s team but Heath was bolstered by the support of Whitelaw, Carr and Howe among others. Hugh Fraser had threatened to stand as a third candidate but had been persuaded otherwise.

Heath later revealed that if he had not received a clear mandate he would have resigned immediately but in the end he defeated Joseph by 155 votes to 110 securing the 15% majority required under the rules created by Berkeley in the mid-1960s.

Heath spoke later of his “intense relief and gratitude” at having survived the internal challenge. For the challengers, defeat would mean oblivion. Neither Joseph nor Thatcher ever received advancement and the latter would in particular attack her leader through the 1980s.

By then, the political climate had completely changed. Heath had returned to public and political pre-eminence with his leading role in the “YES” campaign in the 1975 Referendum. The famous figure of him, Roy Jenkins and Jo Grimond being pelted by flour and eggs at East Ham Town Hall and his infamous and allegedly off-the-cuff remark – “I like pancakes but I don’t want to wear them” endeared him to many.

The Wilson/Callaghan Government staggered toward its denouement as polls in the autumn of 1978 gave Heath and the Conservatives a decisive lead and the Government’s fall in a vote of No Confidence in March 1979 had an air of inevitability.

The following election would be Heath’s greatest triumph as he secured a majority of 82 over Labour and his memoirs speak of his vindication and sense of triumph. The new Government wasted little time taking on the Unions and settling the scores of February 1974 especially with the National Union of Mineworkers.
 
Heath's critics have always argued his greatest flaw (among many) was his undiluted fixation with all things European.

Perhaps but Heath was a bon viveur par excellence and his love of European culture and art was unparalleled.

In Giscard D'Estaing and later Mitterrand Heath found kindred spirits - fellow Europeans who walked the path of Monnet and Schumann and saw the eventual unification of the European peoples as a guarantee of unending peace and security. All had fought too hard and risked too much to believe otherwise.

Helmut Schmidt was a different kind of European, a disciple of Brandt and realpolitik and of détente with Moscow. The Heath-Schmidt relationship started poorly but improved thanks to one man, Roy Jenkins.

Jenkins had been a contemporary of Heath at Oxford but the two had come from very different backgrounds and had never been close until the coming of Europe. Heath had been impressed with Jenkins as President of the European Commission and Jenkins, through his socialist links with Mitterrand and his personal links with Schmidt, had become the glue which held the new Franco-British-German Axis together.

All agreed on Jenkins serving a second term as Commission President in 1981 despite Jenkins wanting to return to British domestic politics. The second Jenkins term saw serious progress on European integration with the evolution of proposals for a Single Market and Currency Union by 1990.

Heath's Chancellor, Carr, was less certain about fiscal union and the economy at home struggled with high interest rates demanded by membership of the ERM and later the EMS. It did quell inflation aided by the anti-union measures which broke a series of strikes in 1980 and 1981 including those by miners and railway workers.

The real test of Heath's Government would prove to be the Argentinean invasion of the Falkland Islands in April 1982. It cost Geoffrey Rippon and his deputy, Lord Carrington, their jobs. 3 Royal Marines were killed in the defence of the Governor's residence at Stanley and the site of the Argentine flag flying and the Union Jack being torn down enraged many in Britain. Heath's problem, as quickly outlined by the Chief of Defence Staff, was logistics. Spending cuts made a military option all but impossible so Heath was forced to turn to Washington for help.

The Reagan-Heath relationship had never been easy or cordial but on this occasion, with the not inconsiderable help of Vice President George HW Bush, Washington prevailed upon Buenos Aires to accept a peace plan together by the UN and Bolivia. Behind the scenes and not widely known for many years was the Washington pledge of support to Chile to begin military action in the Beagle Strait if the generals didn't back down.

Like most compromises, the La Paz Declaration satisfied no one. A condominium or leaseback arrangement was agreed which effectively guaranteed British rule for 99 years and then a 10 year transition to Argentine sovereignty. The junta hailed it a victory and their troops returned in triumph but it would prove to be a short-lived success and within 12 months General Galtieri would be swinging from the end of a rope. As for Heath, he enjoyed a brief burst of popularity but the recognition of Britain's diminished status would have a longer term impact.

In October 1983, Heath won a second term but with his majority reduced from 82 to 30 (the same as he had inherited in 1970). The Alliance won 57 seats and called for Proportional Representation but no one cared. The election diminished the Prime Minister who was now approaching 70 and questions about his tenure began to be raised though Heath would point out both Reagan and the Soviet leader were older. That changed dramatically with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev to lead the Politburo in February 1984. Gorbachev came to London that summer and Heath declared "He is a man with whom Europe can do business".

It's now clear Heath's Pan-Europeanism had a significant impact on Gorbachev who saw a reformed Russia as a leading player in a united Europe. Though initially uncertain, even new German Chancellor Helmut Kohl came to see Gorbachev as something new. Heath, though, wanted more and saw a new détente process as possible even with the original Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan. Heath organised the famous London Summit in June 1985 which brought both Reagan and Gorbachev to London and feted them with racing at Ascot, tennis at Wimbledon and a concert of the Royal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Heath himself.

It would prove to be Heath's diplomatic zenith in terms of power and influence - the missile treaties which followed would take years of painstaking negotiation and would lead to the Soviet military withdrawal from Eastern Europe as part of the Berlin Accord in 1988. By then Bush was in the White House and the world was a very different place.

Jenkins returned from Europe in 1985 and immediately joined the Alliance which had remained at around 30% in the polls. They were further boosted by the defections of Cabinet members Ian Gilmour and Jim Prior in early 1987 who claimed Heath was "dictatorial". In truth, for all his international and diplomatic successes, the Heath second term had been a disappointment. ERM membership kept interest rates artificially high and many ordinary families struggled. The emergence of a British Independence Party (BIP) in the mid 1980s, funded by James Goldsmith and campaigning for a referendum on British membership of the EEC, further weakened the Conservatives.

The 1987 financial crisis was the final straw - a clumsy attempt by Carr to reflate the weak economy backfired and with living standards stagnating, Carr resigned as the stock market crashed. Heath was forced to limp into a fifth and final year with his majority shredded by defections and by-elections.

Now looking old and out of touch as McMillan before him and brutally satirised on Spitting Image every Sunday evening, Heath decided to gamble on a fourth election success to surpass his old rival Harold Wilson but it wasn't to be. The BIP and the Alliance tore lumps out of the Conservative vote and with Labour reviving under Neil Kinnock, the May 1988 election was never really in doubt. It would be the worst result for the Conservatives since 1832 as they were caught in a three-way pincer movement. Heath himself seemed almost not to comprehend what was happening as the Alliance army under David Owen swept up seats in the south and south west reducing the Tories to a few rural heartlands and the stockbroker belt.

For Heath it was the end politically - he resigned as Conservative leader the day after the election but remained an MP.
 
Quite the tour de force. Heath in the 80s is fascinating but I wonder if he Alliance would necessarily have come about in the same way as otl with the obvious absence of Thatcher
 
It's not often realised that Heath's 1970 election manifesto was more radical than Thatcher's in 1979.

Heath would have more of a personal desire to break the Unions because of what they had done to him in February 1974. With the backdrop of the Winter of Discontent, he would have had an ideal opportunity to emasculate the Union movement.

He was also an early proponent of privatisation - again, back to the 1970 Manifesto but in terms of rolling back the State in a number of key areas.

I think it's plausible to argue he would have been as much the radical as Thatcher in terms of harsh public expenditure cuts in his first term and unlike Thatcher he would have had more willing allies in Cabinet. The problem, as happened with Thatcher, is he would have gone too far and come to alienate his staunchest supporters.

I've gone for a little artistic licence but he was no "One Nation" Conservative - Heath was Thatcherite before Thatcher so to speak.
 
The loss of office in 1988 didn't mean the end of Edward Heath as a political figure.

Though scorned and vilified at home, he remained a figure of great influence in Europe and beyond. Mikhail Gorbachev remained a friend to the very end and Heath was present at the founding ceremony for the Union of Sovereign States, the successor state to the USSR, on January 1st 1990. Indeed, Heath was one of those who advocated strongly the USS joining the European Union for which they were finally granted associate status in 2001.

In Europe, Mitterrand and Chirac called him friend as did Genscher and eventually Angela Merkel, who some in Germany called "Heath's daughter" though the analogy was badly flawed. They all saw the necessity to move toward a deepening political, economic and social union of the European nations - the creation of the Florin and its inception as a common European currency in France, Germany, Britain and a host of other countries in 1998 was in no small measure down to Heath's influence but he came to see the rigidity of German fiscal policy which would cause Italy and then Spain to crash out of the Florin in the 2008 financial crisis.

Across the Atlantic, George HW Bush had long been an ally and friend and ironically that friendship extended to President Bill Clinton after his two terms ended in 2000.

Perhaps most remarkably, Heath maintained close relations with China long after he departed the British political stage. Successive Chinese Presidents feted him and he conducted the orchestras in Beijing and Shanghai on a regular basis and he was an honoured guest as Hong Kong passed to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

In Britain, his political legacy was somewhat more mixed - a generation of Trades Unionists came to loath Heath and everything he stood for and it would take the election of a Labour majority Government under Ken Livingstone in 2004 to begin to see two decades of anti-Union laws reversed but membership had declined significantly and the Unions never regained the influence they had held in the 60s and 70s.

Within the Conservative Party, the 1988 defeat signalled a break with Heath and all his works - the rump chose Geoffrey Howe to lead them but he was no match for the Alliance-Labour Coalition which would enjoy 15 years of Government before splitting apart over the American intervention in Iraq. By then the Conservatives had become a staunchly anti-European political party in an electoral pact with the BIP and demanding Britain return to sterling and ditch the florin.

Heath attended the funeral of his old friend and sparring partner Sir Roy Jenkins in early 2003 but many commented the former Prime Minister looked frail and his last public engagement was alongside Mikhail Gorbachev, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and Hua Guofeng at a UN symposium on international co-operation in the autumn of 2004. By then, with Iraq in flames and the tide of anti-federalism growing in Europe, Heath might have felt the world had moved on from him. Gorbachev made one final visit to his old friend in the spring of 2005 and Heath died on July 17th of that year at his house in the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral.

Political leaders, past and present, gathered to pay their respects but for many the symbol of Heath was a man who fought for a better yesterday and that past looked more attractive still as the shadows of war lengthened over Asia and the Middle East.
 
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