Thomas1195
Banned
IOTL, the radical Joseph Chamberlain joined Liberal Unionists because he opposed Irish Home Rule.
But what if he decided to form a Radical Party and attack Gladstone from the left?
How would British political landscape differ from IOTL? Would Gladstone's party collapse faster and sooner?
I could imagine that many prominent radicals would flock to his party: John Stuart Mills, Keir Hardie, David Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden, George Lansbury, Henry Campbell Bannerman, Arthur Dykes Acland, John Burns, Sidney Webb...or even Asquith (he was a radical when he was young) and Haldane. Labour could be butterflied away. Besides, as Chamberlain himself was a prominent industrialist, he could attract a whooping number of manufacturers to his party. There were some potential industrialists who could join him: Seebohm Rowntree, Anthony Mundella, John Brunner...
The Liberal Party would be crushed the very next day after universal male suffrage was enacted even without something big like OTL World War 1 and the 10-year Asquith-Lloyd George split.
But what if he decided to form a Radical Party and attack Gladstone from the left?
How would British political landscape differ from IOTL? Would Gladstone's party collapse faster and sooner?
I could imagine that many prominent radicals would flock to his party: John Stuart Mills, Keir Hardie, David Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden, George Lansbury, Henry Campbell Bannerman, Arthur Dykes Acland, John Burns, Sidney Webb...or even Asquith (he was a radical when he was young) and Haldane. Labour could be butterflied away. Besides, as Chamberlain himself was a prominent industrialist, he could attract a whooping number of manufacturers to his party. There were some potential industrialists who could join him: Seebohm Rowntree, Anthony Mundella, John Brunner...
The Liberal Party would be crushed the very next day after universal male suffrage was enacted even without something big like OTL World War 1 and the 10-year Asquith-Lloyd George split.