Spoil the Broth
Or: My take on @Bolt451's old "Clustershag to 10 Downing Street" that I merged with my "Three's A Crowd" American timeline because I like merging stuff so I can have one coherent universe
Chapter I: High Noon
William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal minority with support from Irish National Federation) 1892-1894
1892 (min.): def. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative), Justin McCarthy (Irish Nat. Fed.), Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist)
"People's William's Last Ride"
The famed "People's William"'s last ministry would be focused on Irish Home Rule. When it failed in the House of Lords, he floated the idea of calling a general election against the Lords, but was talked down by his cabinet. He would instead resign in early 1894, ostensibly for his health
William Harcourt (Liberal minority with support from Irish National Federation) 1894-1897
1895 (min.): def. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative), Justin McCarthy (Irish Nat. Fed.), Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist)
"Eternal Stumble"
Unlike the "People's William", Harcourt was seen as an intellectual detached from the populace. A good orator, that's for sure, but not one "of the people", so to speak. He regularly spoke using elevated language, making him sound "posh". The 1895 election was dominated by a growing divide between Salisbury and Chamberlain, when the latter grew to see the former as plotting "the absorption of the Liberal Unionists". This split enabled Harcourt to eke out a re-election for the shaky minority propped up by the INF
This minority would be dominated by one word - "collapse". Harcourt himself however, never really fell despite resignations of several top cabinet members and the INF threatening to withdraw support. With Salisbury and Chamberlain patching things up, the next election was seen as inevitably Unionist. But Harcourt shook his head - after all wasn't 1895 seen as that? He'll lead the party to a third term in government!
Then a bill that would have allowed parishes to vote on the closing of local pubs appeared and brought down the Harcourt government as the INF voted with the Unionists on it and withdrew support. The joke went "For the want of a pint, Bill Harcourt lost everything"
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative-Liberal Unionist coalition) 1897-1902
1897 (coal.): def. William Harcourt (Liberal), Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist), Justin McCarthy (Irish Nat. Fed.), John Redmond (Irish Nat. League), John Dillon (United Irish League), Keir Hardie (Independent Labour)
1901 (coal.): def. John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (Liberal), Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist), John Redmond (Irish Parl.)
"Strong and Stable?"
If people thought the Harcourt ministry was unstable, the Salisbury-Chamberlain "Unionist" government was worse. A coalition between a party led by a micromanager who desired full control over his government and desired a government that would hold back demagoguery, and one led by someone often characterised as arrogant and ruthless, and portrayed himself as a "champion of the common man", there were sure to be conflict
But the Unionist victory in 1897 was not the main story. One main story of 1897 was the fragmentation of the Irish nationalist force as the previously minor Irish National League, led by John Redmond and the more religious United Irish League gained at the expense of the INF. Another was the surprise victory of the small far-left Independent Labour Party in industrial areas. Led by the charismatic Keir Hardie, their sudden win of 3 seats was a sudden shock to many, including the Liberals. Richard Haldane and others argued that this growing working-class pressure needed to be "accommodated" into the Liberal Party - hence "Social Liberalism", "as social as socialism, but as liberal as the liberals of old"
But the Liberals' new leader, the Earl Spencer, was sceptical of this and disencouraged it from happening. Chamberlain was primarily a man of domestic affairs, while Salisbury was one of foreign affairs and that is how the Unionist Government held. Salisbury led Britain into the Second Boer War, which proved a costly victory for the British and finally finished in 1902
In the first election of King Edward VII's reign, the Unionists held even as the ILP lost their seats due to intense local Liberal campaigning. The Earl Spencer was increasingly opposed because of his wiffly-waffly stance on the Boer War, but he ended up resigning as leader due to a bout of ill health, enabling the more radical Richard Haldane to rise to power. Haldane drove the Liberals to the left, allying with local trade unions and friendly socialist associations to run "Social-Liberal" candidates to ward off the rise of the more radical ILP
In 1902, Salisbury fell ill and decided to announce his resignation. The Conservative Party was divided on who to support for leader due to the unexpected disappearance of Salisbury's nephew and political "heir" Arthur Balfour, and so the King sent for...
Joseph Chamberlain (Conservative-Liberal Unionist coalition, then Liberal Unionist minority) 1902-1905
"An Interesting Man in Interesting Times"
Despite his popularity, Chamberlain knew that it would be a hard job leading the government as the Conservatives still had a numerical advantage in the coalition. Unfortunately, the King distrusted the names that popped up as possible Conservative leaders, and so decided to call on the only man he knew and trusted and well,
liked. That was Chamberlain. The Conservative top brass objected to this, including the man who was their new leader, Michael Hicks Beach, a critic of Chamberlain on free trade. Hicks Beach ended up declaring that the Liberal Unionists would not enjoy the support of the Conservatives and fractured the party in the process. There were Conservatives who were conscious of Chamberlain's intense popularity and from seats that had a considerable LU presence who decided to switch allegiances and prop up Chamberlain
Shakily holding a government together only by virtue of Liberal absentation in votes of no confidence, Chamberlain was on the precipice. His most lasting legacy would be setting up the "Home Rule All Round Association" that would have its vision realised eventually. But in 1905, his time ran out after years of shaky government. The British people were getting fed up with reports of governments on the brink of collapse
Michael Hicks Beach (Conservative minority) 1905-1907
1905 (min.): def. Richard Haldane (Liberal, inc. "Social-Liberal"), Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist), John Redmond (Irish Parl.)
"Life's Not a Beach"
A man often characterised as hard, "Black Michael" oversaw the split that enabled Chamberlain to take his Liberal Unionists to be fully separate from the Conservatives, but also to more firmer discipline in Tory ranks and a firm message of stability and rejection of radicalism, portraying Haldane and Chamberlain as similar "wild-eyed radicals" seeking to "experiment on Britain". Hence why in a bitter three-way election, Hicks Beach emerged triumphant. That was the zenith of his ministry. After, it proved to bog down in stagnation as the Tories increasingly relied on ad-hoc deals with Liberals and/or Liberal Unionists, until one by-election gave the Liberals a seat advantage. The King stepped in again
Richard Haldane (Liberal (inc. "Social-Liberal") minority, then majority, then Wartime Coalition) 1907-1919
1907 (maj.): def. Michael Hicks Beach (Conservative), Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist), John Redmond (Irish Parl.), Philip Snowden (Independent Labour)
1911 (maj.): def. Michael Hicks Beach (Conservative), Arthur Conan Doyle (Liberal Unionist), John Redmond (Irish Parl.), Philip Snowden (Independent Labour)
"War Against Poverty"
A Liberal Imperialist and a "Social Liberal", Richard Haldane is one figure that both the Liberals and SDP vaguely claim as their own. A firm radical, Haldane allied with David Lloyd George and fellow Liberals on the party's left to push forward a "revolution in the party" and ultimately the country
Put in power after a by-election gain led to the Liberals having more seats than the Conservatives, Haldane immediately called a snap election and rode people's discontent with Tory and Liberal Unionist shambles to a firm majority that he believed would hold. Also notable is the election of many Social-Liberals, elected in alliances with trade unions and socialist associations. Some of those would appear in his cabinet. Meanwhile the ILP was recovered from their 1901 blow and won 4 seats in the North of England under the leadership of fierce orator Philip Snowden
Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George's declaration that his budget - the "People's Budget", would be a wartime budget to fight poverty, was published in newspapers as "Government Declares 'War' On Poverty!" which caught on as a slogan. But Haldane's personal focus was on the Army and on reforms he felt was necessary to fight the coming European war, one he was sure was inevitable
The People's Budget made King Edward VII nervous especially at the "radical" rhetoric of Liberals such as Churchill and Lloyd George. Haldane intervened and managed to convince the King to tell the Lords to let the budget through, at the cost of a pledge to further tie Britain's diplomatic efforts with France's, something that Haldane begrudgingly agreed with despite his wish to quell tensions with Germany
In 1911, Hicks Beach worked out a tenuous agreement with new Liberal Unionist leader and famed novelist, Arthur Conan Doyle, and went into the election with the opposition united and stronger than ever. But the People's Budget was popular and the voters gave Haldane a new albeit slimmer majority. The war that the Prime Minister saw as inevitable, would finally happen in 1913
As alliances dragged countries into the war on two sides, the legacy of now deceased King Edward VII and Haldane's foreign policy would prove to hold as Britain entered the war on France's side. Haldane was distrustful of bringing in the opposition when the Tories didn't in the Boer War, but as the war dragged on, the idea of an "all hands on deck" coalition of the Libs, the Tories and the Liberal Unionists [not the ILP, they were fairly pacifist and their leader opposed recruitment for the Armed Forces] gained popularity and in 1916 after a disastrous battle, Haldane conceded the argument and brought the Tories and Lib Unionists in, appointing Austen Chamberlain as Home Secretary and other prominent Lib Unionists and Tories to cabinet posts. This was an uncomfortable arrangement, especially as Haldane was widely distrusted by the ex-opposition
The war finally finished in late 1918, but Haldane held on, arguing that "we need to win the peace". In 1919, two things happened that made his staying on impossible. The first was the Social-Liberal faction voting to establish itself as a separate party, the Social Democratic Party, due to increasing disputes with more traditional Liberals. This was a blow to Haldane as the Social-Liberal faction was his creation. But the second and fatal blow was the withdrawal of the Liberal Unionists and Conservatives due to the growing Irish tension. They saw Haldane as too "soft" on the rising nationalist force in Ireland, especially the radical Sinn Fein. Deciding that it was time for him to step down, he announced his retirement as Prime Minister, allowing David Lloyd George to reach the position he envied for long yet was denied for years
Meanwhile, an earthquake was starting in British politics that would radically transform everything