So with a PoD of let’s say 1957 (Eden resignation) in what way could you have a British May 68’ style protests, strikes, university and workplace occupations and demonstrations occur?
Now whilst Northern Ireland had Civil Rights protests and demonstrations, for the most part, apart from a couple of universities having demonstrations there wasn’t the style of protests that occurred in places like France, Italy, Germany etc.
So in what way could you breed the type of discontent and feeing that could lead to such an event occuring?
What if Gaitskell had not died and so he became Prime Minister in 1964? He was more conservative than Wilson and was much more the cold warrior. Britain had contributed troops to the Korean War initially under Attlee's Labour Government. Remember also, Kennedy the Democrat effectively positioned the USA to get into Vietnam and Johnson also a Democrat, escalated and persisted US involvement.
Prime Minister Gaitskell, would certainly would not want to be seen as soft on international Communism. With 3 years of casualties by 1968, we could imagine that the peace movement would have grown far stronger in Britain. This would have especially been the case if the dropping of National Service had been postponed from 1963 so that National Service draftees would fear being sent to Vietnam, even if, for the moment the British relied on regulars; with Gurkhas among those most likely to be sent.
A Gaitskell Labour Government may have faced stronger opposition from the left the way the SPD did in West Germany and while there would not have been the Gramd Coalition as seen in West Germany 1966-69, there might have been resentment on the left of the Labour Party at Gaitskell's approach. This could have fuelled 1968 protests and/or added to the numbers of more radical left-wingers and simply disgruntled young people involved.
One important difference between Britain and continental Europe was that rather than an unreformed university sector, the mid-1960s had seen a rapid expansion of very modern British universities so opening up opportunities that the more conservative French and West German systems were not doing. The old fashioned approaches of the French and West German universities were at the heart of a lot of the student protests in 1968 in those countries. No such university expansion or its delay, in Britain, may have led to a similar response as seen across the Channel.
Remember
Great Britain only covers England, Wales and Scotland. The United Kingdom is the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. You may have noticed this distinction coming out recently with radio adverts about road regulations.