- Location
- Balham
- Pronouns
- he/him
With today’s news that CUK-TIG-RA-HOGWARTS has itself split, bringing forward the death knell for the party after just three months or so, it’s time to talk about how this fate might have come about for the SDP in 1981.
A few thoughts occur: Jenkins wanted to just join the Liberals anyway, which is what the TIG element of the split will probably do. But that wouldn’t count as a parallel if the Gang of Four just upped and did that from the start.
It’s also possible that the SDP could never have failed this hard, precisely because the Four were too high profile and Good. Jenkins speaks for himself, Owen was a wunderkind, Williams was a trailblazing woman with huge profile, and Rodgers, for all the jokes, was a very popular backbencher and is said to be the reason so many people defected with the original Four. Maybe the same four could have completely messed up their first few months somehow and then quietly joined the Liberals. But it’s hard to see them polling as badly as CUKTIG did.
So I will allow answers that in fact change who the Gang of Four are - TIG didn’t have any Normie big-hitters, just Chuka, who inaccurately thought he was.
Also, feel free to do the reverse - AHC: Save TIG - perhaps by constructing a Gang of Four 2019 Edition that would’ve had some success. My instinct for this to work is you need another member named David, who also served as a fresh-faced Foreign Secretary...
A few thoughts occur: Jenkins wanted to just join the Liberals anyway, which is what the TIG element of the split will probably do. But that wouldn’t count as a parallel if the Gang of Four just upped and did that from the start.
It’s also possible that the SDP could never have failed this hard, precisely because the Four were too high profile and Good. Jenkins speaks for himself, Owen was a wunderkind, Williams was a trailblazing woman with huge profile, and Rodgers, for all the jokes, was a very popular backbencher and is said to be the reason so many people defected with the original Four. Maybe the same four could have completely messed up their first few months somehow and then quietly joined the Liberals. But it’s hard to see them polling as badly as CUKTIG did.
So I will allow answers that in fact change who the Gang of Four are - TIG didn’t have any Normie big-hitters, just Chuka, who inaccurately thought he was.
Also, feel free to do the reverse - AHC: Save TIG - perhaps by constructing a Gang of Four 2019 Edition that would’ve had some success. My instinct for this to work is you need another member named David, who also served as a fresh-faced Foreign Secretary...