with a POD no earlier than 1935 make all universities in the UK have a consituency which delivers MPs to the house of commons
labour abolished university consituenciesIt was Labour after 1945 which abolished university constituencies I believe?
Also (correct me if I'm wrong), I am aware that it was not until the Wilson era in the 60's that university students and academics became seen as an overwhelmingly left-leaning group?
A POD be to have universities seen as overwhelming left-wing (and not just a few socialists as in OTL but as a description of the general students population) earlier and Labour may not be willing to so readily abolish these.
It was Labour after 1945 which abolished university constituencies I believe?
Also (correct me if I'm wrong), I am aware that it was not until the Wilson era in the 60's that university students and academics became seen as an overwhelmingly left-leaning group?
Yep.
Kinda. Univiersity constituencies were already returning pretty independent minded types in the immediate years before they were abolished. (This lady who some of you may have heard of, was a university constituency MP) I think even before that, the members from them had a spirit of independence. Indeed, that's often been suggested as being one of the reasons why they were abolished. (Although they were undoubtedly a pretty undemocratic concept - please remember how insignificant the number of university graudates as a percentage of the population was in this period) So even if Labour hadn't abolished them, then the Tories probably would have at some point.
I think the only way you could make this work is if Britain went ultra-corporatist. Otherwise it's probably ASB.
The average university has 5-10,000 students, the average constituency 70,000 electors, having 80 university constituencies would not just be an anomaly but a massive, ASB level, distortion.
Ay-yup.
I mean a system in which it would be normal for professional bodies, industry and similar institutions to be a part of government/representation. University constituencies would fit in well in that kind of approach. We've never really had it full-on in the UK.
Actually I've been thinking about doing a thread similar to this about whether the UK could have developed into a corporatist nation in the 1970's and onwards.
Also (correct me if I'm wrong), I am aware that it was not until the Wilson era in the 60's that university students and academics became seen as an overwhelmingly left-leaning group?
se.
In all fairness, (IIRC) pre-abolition, the universities in England (save for Oxford and Cambridge) were combined as one 'seat'. I think there was only about six or seven seats in total at the time they were abolished.
Edit: Sorry, I didn't realise you were replying to the OP. Yes, that is ASB.
The 1970's is probably the very worst time you could pick as your POD; a lot of what was being discredited at that time was seen as being vaguely corporatist in nature. (Principally the 'beer and sandwiches' approach to the Trades Unions) Although if Labour somehow miraculously wings it, you could get some kind of corporatist structure. Unlikely though I think.
I think if you're going to do a corporatist UK, then you ideally need a POD which is pre-war. (EdT did a convincingly corporatist Britain under Mosley in 'a Greater Britain'.)