Possible Questions and Likely Answers:
Q: Wait, Alan Clark joins the British Social Democratic Party (SDP)?
A: No, although that would be very fun (if very highly implausible) and I would want someone to write that timeline. In this timeline Alan Clark causes several PODs and butterflies impacting SDP.
Q: So this is an SDP story, with special guest appearances by Alan Clark?
A: No, it is an SDP story, with Mr. Clark being very much a feature player.
Q: I'm an American and although I like reading British political AH every once in a while, it is a bit weird. How confused will I be when trying to read this timeline?
A: Not very confused at all. For starters, I'm an American and I know what it is like to pick up a British AH story and go, "Who the Hell is Jo Grimond and why is it important he went right of 'centre' instead of left as the POD?" I have included an informal intro to summarize the world in which the story is set and tried to outline most of the key players involved.
Q: Haven't there been a bunch of SDP timelines already?
A: Yes, and there should be a lot more. SDP is very fertile ground for "What Ifs." Think on it for a moment or two. 23 Members of Parliament (MPs) quit their Party and form their own Party within our lifetime (well, most of our lifetimes). There is no guesswork as to their motives or any inability to find primary evidence, since the creation of their Party is well covered by the press and academics and all of the principal actors in the drama wrote books about their decision. There is a wealth of information for any budding AH writer. As an added benefit, the opinion polls for most of '81 suggested the 23 MPs could morph into a political force capable of electing 300 MPs by the time of the next general election and form a government. These were heady times. I want more people to write about SDP, not less.
Q: All right. Have to ask: will Tony Blair be in this? *Takes a shot*
A: Yes.
Q: Aww crap. *Takes another shot*
A: Now hang on, Tony Blair was very much a contemporary of SDP and leaving him out would have been odder than leaving him in, right?
Q: I suppose, but still... *Takes another shot*
A: I don't have a political ax to grind, I promise. I am not here to score any points off Mr. Blair.
Q: Last question, are you going to go through with this, or cut and run after two or three posts, the way you did in your last timeline?
A: Ouch. I intend to see this through and will not cut and run.
Also, in my defense, I did not finish my last timeline because my PC died and more importantly, writing about a world where the South won the American Civil War was difficult enough when I set the story in the North (that timeline was completed, see my signature *thumbs up* cheap pop), but writing about such a world in a story set in the South was draining. I might or might not return to that timeline, as I have written out an outline of that story's beginning, middle and end, but it's just that writing about what it is like to be a biracial woman in modern day Confederate States of America was rather difficult and not entirely emotionally pleasant.
Now unto our story, which is a bit more fun.