Wi Harrold Wilson resigns after 1970 defeat?

Hi all,
The 1970 UK General Election produced a surprise win for the Conservatives under Edward Heath, over the encumbent labour government, lead by Harrold Wilson.

My question is, what would have happened had Wilson decided that instead of fighting another election (as he did in OTL), he decides to resign?

Who succeeds Wilson as labour leader? How does this affect the next 4 years? Do labour still come out on top in the election of 74? Finally, how do things pan out after the 1974 election, assuming the butterflies don't make Heath call it earlier or later than he did in OTL?
 
Hi all,
The 1970 UK General Election produced a surprise win for the Conservatives under Edward Heath, over the encumbent labour government, lead by Harrold Wilson.

My question is, what would have happened had Wilson decided that instead of fighting another election (as he did in OTL), he decides to resign?

Who succeeds Wilson as labour leader? How does this affect the next 4 years? Do labour still come out on top in the election of 74? Finally, how do things pan out after the 1974 election, assuming the butterflies don't make Heath call it earlier or later than he did in OTL?

If Wilson steps down the heir apparent was Roy Jenkins but it depends on how the party feels in late 1970. The left wing challenge was still in it's early stages but the unions were angry about 'In place of strife' so this means Barbara Castle is out. Roy Jenkins had been Chancellor and was highly regarded but I'm not sure about his position within the party.

Callaghan had been damaged by devaluation but had backed the unions against Castle. I suppose you would have a Jenkins v Callaghan run off and Callaghan would scrape through.
 
Interesting-I did think that Callaghan was most likely the man to beat. So does 'Sunny Jim' lead Labour to victory in 1974? And what does he do with an additional 2 years in office?
 
If Wilson steps down the heir apparent was Roy Jenkins but it depends on how the party feels in late 1970.

So British Labour (possibly) gets its Trudeau/Whitlam/McGovern analogue middle-class social progressive leader of the seventies.

In the shape of one of the people most despised by UK Leftwingers today.

This is why I like counterfactual speculation.
 
Interesting-I did think that Callaghan was most likely the man to beat. So does 'Sunny Jim' lead Labour to victory in 1974? And what does he do with an additional 2 years in office?

I don't think he would do much that didn't happen anyway.

It's often forgotten how serious the political and economic problems were after Ted Heath. Democracy itself was in crisis with a 3 day week, terrorist attacks daily, strikes everywhere, rampant inflation and rising unemployment. The country was going down the toilet fast.

The first 2 years was crisis management just to save the country from bankruptcy and maybe even a state of emergency.

People go on about how Thatcher turned things round after 1979 but the country was in much better shape in 1979 than in 1974.

Perhaps with more time in power Callaghan would have felt more relaxed about calling a 1978 election which he would have won. Thatcher would then be stabbed in the back in the good old Conservative Party style and the future would be very different. Whether for better or worse dependes on your politics.
 

abc123

Banned
May I ask similar question: If something happend to Harold Wilson in say 1963 or 1964, while he still was in opposition, who would suceed him as Leader of Labour Party?
 
May I ask similar question: If something happend to Harold Wilson in say 1963 or 1964, while he still was in opposition, who would suceed him as Leader of Labour Party?

George Brown or Callaghan would eventually emerge. If George Brown's drunkenss becomes too obvious then Callaghan gets it.
 

abc123

Banned
George Brown or Callaghan would eventually emerge. If George Brown's drunkenss becomes too obvious then Callaghan gets it.

Well I presume that Callaghan will make sure that rumours about Brown's problems with alcohol became well known...

What is your opinion about Callaghan?
 
Well I presume that Callaghan will make sure that rumours about Brown's problems with alcohol became well known...

What is your opinion about Callaghan?

Could have been the best PM of the 20th century. The job came to him too late.
 
Thatcher would then be stabbed in the back in the good old Conservative Party style and the future would be very different. Whether for better or worse dependes on your politics.



While I'm not saying they wouldn't get rid of her I think "good old Conservative Party style" might be pushing it. Churchill got came back after one defeat as did Bonar Law, Heath was allowed to lose two as was Baldwin
 
I think the big handicap with Jenkins is that he was an extreme Europhile in a party that at the time regarded the Common Market as a tool of capitalism. I think that it would have been like Michael Heseltine of Ken Clarke trying to lead the Tories post 1992, the party would have been riven with disputes and a possible split but of the Far Left.
 
I don't think he would do much that didn't happen anyway.

It's often forgotten how serious the political and economic problems were after Ted Heath. Democracy itself was in crisis with a 3 day week, terrorist attacks daily, strikes everywhere, rampant inflation and rising unemployment. The country was going down the toilet fast.

The first 2 years was crisis management just to save the country from bankruptcy and maybe even a state of emergency.

People go on about how Thatcher turned things round after 1979 but the country was in much better shape in 1979 than in 1974.

Perhaps with more time in power Callaghan would have felt more relaxed about calling a 1978 election which he would have won. Thatcher would then be stabbed in the back in the good old Conservative Party style and the future would be very different. Whether for better or worse dependes on your politics.

The Reagan/Thatcher right had a powerful asset at its disposal regardless of who was in charge: its tremendous ideological cohesion as a group, developed over decades as a splinter group sniping from the margins.

That said, I think recollections of Thatcher's political skills are dominated by her later years in office when she traded mostly on her reputation. Her campaigning skills had been stronger in the early years and she was much more in touch with voters' concerns. The loss of Thatcher would have been a blow but not a fatal one I think.

A 78 election with a Callaghan win is a fascinating thought, however probable it might have been. A leftist assault on the unions would have had a different tone and rationale from a rightist one. The emergence of German-style collective bargaining would have been a possibility which could have led to a dramatically different political culture.
 
I think the big handicap with Jenkins is that he was an extreme Europhile in a party that at the time regarded the Common Market as a tool of capitalism. I think that it would have been like Michael Heseltine of Ken Clarke trying to lead the Tories post 1992, the party would have been riven with disputes and a possible split but of the Far Left.

Also, he'd done an awful lot already. Obama 2008 illustrates the attractions of a blank slate onto which voters can project any fantasies they desire.
 
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