Hi guys
I'm considering doing a fairly short TL about the 2005-2010 Parliament, in which the POD is the Tories doing rather better in the General Election of 2005. Not anywhere near well enough to come close to returning to Government, mind you, but still, enough to cause some significant changes. I had in mind seat totals of roughly this following the election...
Labour Party: 343 seats (OTL 355). Net loss of 60 seats
Conservative Party: 214 seats (OTL 198). Net gain of 49 seats
Liberal Democrat Party: 62 seats. (OTL 62). Net gain of 11 seats.
Scottish National Party: 9 seats
Democratic Unionist Party: 6 seats
Plaid Cymru: 3 seats
Sinn Fein: 5 seats
Ulster Unionist Party: 1 seat
Independents: 2 seats
Speaker of the House: 1 seat
TOTAL: 646 seats
Here, the Lib Dem number hasn't changed because while their "decapitation strategy" only cost the Tories one seat ITTL (as opposed to three IOTL), they managed to capture a couple of extra Labour seats.
So I'm opening this thread to ask a few questions:
- Firstly, what would be happening with the smaller parties in such a scenario? With the Labour vote being more squeezed than it was in OTL, and the Conservatives doing slightly better, will the SNP or PC lose any seats to the Tories or Lib Dems? Will anything change in Ulster, or does this require additional PODs? I'd like to keep the Ulster Unionists going as a force, if possible.
- Secondly, how is only holding a majority of 40 seats going to impact upon Government policy making over the next five years? I can see the result of losing so many seats reflecting very badly on Blair himself, and think he might be forced out a little earlier than OTL, so how will Brown cope?
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.
I'm considering doing a fairly short TL about the 2005-2010 Parliament, in which the POD is the Tories doing rather better in the General Election of 2005. Not anywhere near well enough to come close to returning to Government, mind you, but still, enough to cause some significant changes. I had in mind seat totals of roughly this following the election...
Labour Party: 343 seats (OTL 355). Net loss of 60 seats
Conservative Party: 214 seats (OTL 198). Net gain of 49 seats
Liberal Democrat Party: 62 seats. (OTL 62). Net gain of 11 seats.
Scottish National Party: 9 seats
Democratic Unionist Party: 6 seats
Plaid Cymru: 3 seats
Sinn Fein: 5 seats
Ulster Unionist Party: 1 seat
Independents: 2 seats
Speaker of the House: 1 seat
TOTAL: 646 seats
Here, the Lib Dem number hasn't changed because while their "decapitation strategy" only cost the Tories one seat ITTL (as opposed to three IOTL), they managed to capture a couple of extra Labour seats.
So I'm opening this thread to ask a few questions:
- Firstly, what would be happening with the smaller parties in such a scenario? With the Labour vote being more squeezed than it was in OTL, and the Conservatives doing slightly better, will the SNP or PC lose any seats to the Tories or Lib Dems? Will anything change in Ulster, or does this require additional PODs? I'd like to keep the Ulster Unionists going as a force, if possible.
- Secondly, how is only holding a majority of 40 seats going to impact upon Government policy making over the next five years? I can see the result of losing so many seats reflecting very badly on Blair himself, and think he might be forced out a little earlier than OTL, so how will Brown cope?
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.