WI: Churchill's peacetime Cabinet implements ROBOT?

See here for the brief details of the scheme. I'm not an economicsy kinda guy, but I think that the implementation of this scheme would have done quite a lot to lessen sterling's dependence on the dollar in the early 1950s, and thus make Britain more able to act independently of the USA. Could be wrong, though.

Anyway, how could ROBOT be passed, and what would the impact be on British domestic, Imperial, and world politics be?
 
See here for the brief details of the scheme. I'm not an economicsy kinda guy, but I think that the implementation of this scheme would have done quite a lot to lessen sterling's dependence on the dollar in the early 1950s, and thus make Britain more able to act independently of the USA. Could be wrong, though.

Anyway, how could ROBOT be passed, and what would the impact be on British domestic, Imperial, and world politics be?
above said:
Cherwell argued that unemployment would rise to one million and inflation could increase if the plan was implemented. He also argued that it would be political suicide, which would end in disaster.
I suspect that, in the short term, Cherwell was right. Would have been in the best interests of Britain in the long run? Quite possibly. Would have been political suicide for the party implementing it? Probably. You probably WOULD have a nasty wave of inflation and unemployment as the shock worked its way through the system.
 
I did some research for a possible TL on this idea, in it Britain implements ROBOT in the late 1940's among other economic reforms. It produces an export boom that over the coming years helps to fund the wholesale modernisation of British industry. On the downside it causes a break up of the Sterling Zone and leaves the Americans mad as hell, it also requires massive defence cuts to help control inflation and balance the budget. To regain international prestiege Britain decides to get involved with the foundation of the EEC as a way of creating a new sphere of influence. I gave up on it because I felt I couldn't make it plausible enough I also realised that Britain bailing out of Bretton-Woods would probably precipitate the break up of the entire system and that would completely alter the global economy during the 50's and 60's.
 

Thande

Donor
With hindsight we can say that Labour had sufficient problems with infighting in the 1950s that the Tories could probably have gotten away with implementing it despite the short-term negative fallout, just because Labour wasn't sufficiently electable at the tail-end of Attlee's leadership and during Gaitskell's. Of course, that's much less easy to see at the time.

To my mind the most interesting aspect is that it would polarise and divide British politics at a time when in OTL the parties had reached a consensus and there was little to divide them in terms of economic policy, basically turning the 50s into the 80s. That would definitely have long-term cultural effects, such as the music of the 50s and early 60s becoming as political as the music of the 70s and 80s in OTL, for instance.

Perhaps the fallout could be reduced by closely coordinating the programme with France and it could be folded into the EEC idea? (Remember, this is still under the Fourth Republic, so de Gaulle's opposition is not an issue).
 
With hindsight we can say that Labour had sufficient problems with infighting in the 1950s that the Tories could probably have gotten away with implementing it despite the short-term negative fallout, just because Labour wasn't sufficiently electable at the tail-end of Attlee's leadership and during Gaitskell's. Of course, that's much less easy to see at the time.

To my mind the most interesting aspect is that it would polarise and divide British politics at a time when in OTL the parties had reached a consensus and there was little to divide them in terms of economic policy, basically turning the 50s into the 80s. That would definitely have long-term cultural effects, such as the music of the 50s and early 60s becoming as political as the music of the 70s and 80s in OTL, for instance.

Perhaps the fallout could be reduced by closely coordinating the programme with France and it could be folded into the EEC idea? (Remember, this is still under the Fourth Republic, so de Gaulle's opposition is not an issue).
Fascinating. Thank you.
 
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