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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

@Thande suggested the other day when I did my Klan America list that he would be interested in a Continuity-of-Government Communist Take Over of the US Government. This one is for you Tom.

Not With A Bang: The Creeping Second American Revolution

1869-1873: Ulysses S. Grant / Henry Wilson (Republican)
1868: Horatio Seymour / Francis P. Blair, Jr. (Democratic)
1873-1877: David Davis / Gilbert C. Walker (Liberal Republican / Democratic)
1872: Ulysses S. Grant / Edmund J. Davis (Republican),
1877-1881: James G. Blaine / Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)
1876: David Davis / Thomas A. Hendricks (Liberal Republican / Democratic / (National) Workingman's), Newton Booth / Alexander Campbell (Anti-Monopolist)
1881-1883: Marshall Jewell / Elihu B. Washburne (Republican)
1880: Daniel E. Sickles / George V. N. Lothrop (Democratic), Benjamin F. Butler / Marcus M. Pomeroy (Anti-Monopolist / (National) Workingman's)
1883-1885: Elihu B. Washburne / vacant (Republican)
1885-1893: A. Oakey Hall / Richard P. Bland (Democratic)

1884: Philip Sheridan / John A. Logan (Republican), Benjamin F. Butler / John St. John (Anti-Monopolist / Workingman's)
1888: Benjamin Harrison / William W. Phelps (Republican), James B. Weaver / Charles E. Cunningham (Populist), Henry George / Terence V. Powderly (Workingman’s)

1893-1897: Whitelaw Reid / William McKinley (Republican)
1892: Adlai E. Stevenson / Donald M. Dickinson, James G. Field (Democratic / Populist), Dyer D. Lum / Peter J. McGuire (Socialist Labor)
1897-1903: John P. Buchanan / Thomas L. Johnson (Democratic / Populist)
1896: John P. Buchanan / Charles F. Adams, Jr. (Democratic) Whitelaw Reid / John J. Ingalls (Republican), S. Grover Cleveland / William E. Russell (National “Gold” Democratic), S. Philip Van Patten / Benjamin R. Tucker (Socialist Labor)
1900: Seth Low / H. Clay Evans (Republican), Eugene V. Debs / Hutchins Hapgood (Socialist Labor), Melville W. Fuller / Joseph C. S. Blackburn (National Democratic)

1903-1905: Thomas L. Johnson / vacant ("Popular" Democratic)
1905-1907: Seth Low / Louis D. Brandeis (Progressive Union --- Republican / National Democratic)

1904: William J. Bryan / Charles A. Towne (Farmer-Labor Populist), Eugene V. Debs / Voltairine de Cleyre (Socialist Labor)
1907-1909: Henry Ford / vacant (Independent)
1909-1915: Albert R. Parsons / Victor L. Berger (Socialist Labor)

1908: Election Suspended
1912: Albert R. Parsons / Louis D. Brandeis (Independent Socialist Labor / Independent)

1915-1917: Victor L. Berger / vacant (Socialist Labor)
1917-1921: Victor L. Berger / Voltairine de Cleyre (Official “Party Line” Socialist Labor)

1916: Henry George, Jr. / Ross Winn (Non-Partisan Council "Red-White-and-Blue" Socialist Labor)
1921-1924: John S. Reed / Maximilian S. Hayes (Official “Party Line” Socialist Labor)
1920: Hiram W. Johnson / C. Catherine R. O’Hare (“Progressive” Independent / Socialist Labor), John G. London / Allan L. Benson (National “Natsy” Socialist Labor), Voltairine de Cleyre / Morris Hillquit (Left Conference “Red-Black” Socialist Labor)
1924-1925: Maxililian S. Hayes / vacant (Official “Party Line” Socialist Labor)
1925-1929: Charles E. Russell / Henrik Shipstead (Progressive Committee “Right” Socialist Labor)

1924: Emma Goldman / Norman M. Thomas (Left Conference “Red-Black” Socialist Labor), Maximilian S. Hayes / Cyril V. Briggs (Official “Party Line” Socialist Labor)
1929-1937: John G. London / William Z. Foster (National “Natsy” Socialist Labor)
1928: William D. Haywood / James W. Ford (Left Conference “Red-Black” Socialist Labor), Charles E. Russell / Charles E. Ruthenberg (Official & Progressive Committee Socialist Labor)
1932: Ellen Dawson / Arthur C. Townley (“Bill of Rights Front” Independent Socialist)

1937-1940: John G. London / Smedley D. Butler (Official & National “Natsy” Socialist Labor)
1936: Unopposed
1940-1941: John G. London / vacant (National "Natsy" Socialist Labor)
1941-1943: John G. London / William Z. Foster (National “Natsy” Socialist Labor)

1940: Unopposed

David Davis was probably the only man who could have won against the Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. Davis in addition to being a hideously racist prime example of the rotten organ that was the Liberal Republicans was pretty good on Labor issues. His victory massively jacked up the aspirations of the working class for political gains on one end while driving the Republican Party into Chaos, as Grant and his administraton had been all that kept Ben Butler from going off the reservation with his radicalism. Davis would end reconstruction and be rather unmemorable in his milquetoast reform legislation but the forces he unleashed never quite went away.

Radical reform grew fast but in many ways was still slow to build. Agrarian Reformers, Eclectic thinkers and Social Reformers took the political lead for years with the Anti-Monopolists and Populists. Republicans having sent Davis packing spent a decade fighting for patrician One Nation conservatism and civil rights for the freedmen. In the end though, the disjointed and often mutually hostile pushes for reform or radical revolution in regards to the Social Question in the United States began to take hold. The Democrats found some success with Economic Liberalism tied with state and local level social reform under Oakey Hall but Corruption and Economic collapse saw the Party pivot to the Populists in 1897 after neither Tammany Democrats or the Republicans could compensate for the Crash of 1891. John P. Buchanan came into office with an intensive program of agrarian reform and for a time a major faction in the Socialist Labor Party, that sought to support his legislation and considered endorsing him as their predecessors had done to Davis in his failed reelection bid of 1876. But in the end Buchanan turned on them, his interest in Labor was clearly in regards to petty-ante reforms and hopes that attacking the "Jews and the Bankers" would inevitably lead to their uplifting rather then any concrete actions on his part to do so. His harsh use of State forces against strikes and his nativism doomed any chance that the glimmering hope of a united Anti-Republican Opposition Party was doable.

The Socialists turned in good results in 1896 and 1900. In addition years, of hard work in winning local and Congressional Elections allowed things to accelerate. In 1892 and 1896 splits in the Populist Party would see the Socialists win their first governorships in the western Mining States. 1898 would see them come within a few hundred votes of winning the Governorship of Pennsylvania. 1902 would see a Democratic-Socialist Labor Fusion Ticket take New York for the first time. Political Machines and Pinkertons could try as they would to hold back the tied, but after two generations of building up for it the Socialist Labor Party was on the rise and Buchanan's failure to ride the tiger meant that they were about to go on their own. And even where they didn't win, their numbers were rising. And while tensions were to put it mildly "High" as Georgists, Marxists, Radical Agrarians, Syndicalists, Radical Labor, and Anarchists all were sharing a party together, that weakness was turned into a strength by party organizers and treasurers who ignored those pesky problems in the name of getting votes. At the same time, the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor was eaten alive by the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance as it grew and grew with new chapters and massive membership hikes taking advantage of decades of breadcrumbs of labor reform that were, on the whole, actually a rather big piece of pie.

There were those in the Non-Populist Political Parties who saw which way the tide was going, and in 1904 leapt at the chance. Nominating hardliner reformers in an effort to find some sort of patrician solution to the Social Question. But in the end, the election had to go to the House anyway, and it nearly didn't go there way, with a large portion of the shattered Democratic benches still backing the failed economics of the Populists. Seth Low did become President, but within two years he was facing a Socialist Labor Plurality in the House, and not to mention what seemed to be ever-increasing waves of state and local office-holders.

And then it came to a head in the summer of 1907. The anthracite coal miners went on strike for pay and then first though a few distinct STLA actions things went out of control. Wildcat strikes followed. The Socialist Labor Party, though they'd never admit it afterwards, actually tried to stop things, fearing that a failure on the part of the strikes would cripple their long term chances at political gains. But in the end they couldn't. The people stepped up and demanded more, and would have gladly gone on without the SLP had it not come aboard. But the shirkers were eventually either driven out of the temple or converted. Seth Low dawdled as the thing turned into a nationwide General Strike, trying to handle negotiations. There were a few army mutinies at that, and a few cobbled together "Volunteer Companies" of Conservative Militiamen, Pinkertons and students who joined them but in the end it was no use. The country was either about to be swallowed by violent revolt or there could have been a chance, however slim, for peace. And Low, far from a Lincoln or a Czar backed down. He and his Vice President would resign, handing control of the Government to a Secretary of State that had been sworn in not an hour before hand. Henry Ford was no Socialist, but his benevolent treatment of his workers at his motorcar company and his reformer credentials and respected engineering mind made him an acceptable compromise to serve as a non-partisan President overseeing a cabinet that had to be majority SLP. Over his brief few years in office there would be mass negotiation with the Southern States and those of Northern New England where the revolution was weakest. In 1908 for the first time since before Washington, Congress declined to renew the legislation providing for a United States Army, discharging the entire service and handing. A "Second Bill of Rights", a series of a dozen sweeping amendments that would transform the government were approved at an unprecedented Article V Constitutional Convention. Nationalizations with compensation became a policy, though with pennies paid on the dollar. The New State Militias, veering very much towards the Red and the Red and Black saw violence across the country as the Volunteer Companies rose and fell, reaching their peak in October of 1908 when they seized control of 7 state capitals in one day. But it wasn't enough. All the while the Wildcat stream of thought in the SLP was strong, with land redistribution, factory takeovers, housing reorganizations and less savory events like many class and race based lynchings were irregularly carried out from the bottom up.

But in the end the First Stage of the Second American Revolution had been completed, and Socialism was the new law of the land. Albert Parsons would be selected in 1908 to replace Henry Ford by the new Congress having bested several rivals in the heart of the party. But the Anarchist and Democratic components in the SLP were enough, along with mass popular feeling to be uneasy with his 1908 selection with a suspended election. In 1912 he would run, But the 1910 Law on Political Parties made that election an interesting feat. Only Independents approved by the Socialist Labor Party and Socialist Labor Party Members themselves could make it though the process to run. There were those in the Party who disliked this, specifically the Anarchist-influenced factions, and they would often push to open things up further but for years things were mostly settled, with politics being a matter for factions in the SLP who would create their own organizations to push for their own varied takes on the Revolution. Albert Parson's the Grand Old Man of the Party didn't mind, and in fact, embraced the factionalist politics of the party, noting that clearly it was far better to discuss the "Hows" rather then the "Whys" of the past. At his death Victor Burger, even more of a liberal and a moderate pushed even further and for a time one could imagine that the Revolution was bound to stay more democratic, even as Conservative Voices were still blacklisted.

That would start to change under Jack Reed, who by Presidential fiat oversaw a massive reform to the Legal system in the United States, using massed convict labor to build a national road and rail system. Conditions in these camps varied wildly and in them began to enter more and more not just those who had violently stood against the government but those who had done so passively, though protest and speech. The United States Secret Service, having for decades spent time being a Treasury Department agency often with agents loaned out to the Justice Department was given an Independent Station under the President, becoming a source of power and fear for decades to follow. Reed though would die in office after a bout of tuberculosis. Max Hayes and his successor Charles Russell pushed hard to decentralize authority, easy enough to do as the National Judiciary Council grabbed at the chance to overturn Reed's centralization but it wasn't for much.

Eventually the Centralizing, Authoritarian Tendency was back. As War in Europe Broke out there was much talk of a US Revolutionary Intervention. Russell refused. But it was the call to action that a certain faction in the SLP had always been looking for. Reed had just talked about furthering the Revolution, But now, Jack London had a real issue. Vote for him and it would be better for the world. Maybe it would be, but his opponents in the party knew what his other views were, the militarism, the paramilitary violence, the pyramidal systle of leadership that ended with just one man, the views on dissent. But they weren't able to work together as the Anarchist-influenced Left Conference refused to join in a unified front in 1928. By the time they did in 1932 the opposition was castrated and it was too late, and Jack London's hateful, twisted view on the Revolution had finally taken hold, bringing about the second stage of the Revolution, where as long as he lived, opposition was not welcome.
 
Chairmen of the National Board of Mayors
Formed in 1946 by the Stafford Cripps Government as part of the Labour Government's restructure plan, the directly elected post of Mayor was the brainchild of Herbert Morrison, the ambitious Secretary of State for Restructuring who envisioned himself Mayor of London and the face of the national rebuilding efforts, a position he hoped would help him launch himself into the Premiership when Cripps retired. However Cripps had other plans, and handed the nomination of London Mayor to Clement Attlee, the long serving Mayor of Stepney, a maligned figure by the Party as a whole, but a man to whom Cripps took an immediate liking to when they met for the first time in the days following the war. Attlee's Mayorship was a good one by all accounts, and with the London experiment proving to have been a resounding success, Morrison would roll out a Mayor for most Boroughs (although some alleged this was in an attempt to ensure Attlee would not control the NBM for long). The rest is, as they say, history...

1946-1951: Clement Attlee (Labour - County of London 1945-1951)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1946, 1949
1951-1954: Patrick Dollan (SSP/Labour - Glasgow 1949-1957)
Appointed: 1951
1954-1957: Edward Martell (Liberal c. Civic Fusion - London 1954-1957)
Appointed: 1954
1957-1969: Albert Ballard (Labour - Sheffield 1954-1969)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1947, 1960, 1963, 1966
1969-1975: David Liddle (Progressives - Edinburgh 1969-1978)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1969, 1972
1975-1978: James Callaghan (Labour - Portsmouth 1975-1978)
Appointed: 1975
1978-1984: Alun T. Davies (Diwygio - Cardiff 1975-1984)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1978, 1981
1984-1987: Dorothy Dunlop (Ulster Unionist - Belfast 1984-1987)
Appointed: 1984
1987-1993: Edward Russell (Labour - Colchester 1987-1999)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1987, 1990
1993-1997: Roy Major (Reform - County of London 1990-1997)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1993, 1996
1997-1999: Steve Norris (Civic Conservative - Liverpool 1996-2002) acting
Appointed: 1997 under Special Meeting of the NBM following Mayor Major's resignation
1999-2005: Mervyn Rolfe (Labour - Dundee 1996-2005)
Appointed/Reappointed: 1999, 2002
2005-2011: Robert Wales (Labour - Glasgow 1993-2014)
Appointed/Reappointed: 2005, 2008
2011-2011: Graham Booth (Civic Conservative - Torbay 2005-2011)
Appointed: 2011
2012-2014: Michael Barnes (Civic Conservative - Wolverhampton 2012-2014) acting
Appointed: 2012 under Special Meeting of the NBM following Mayor Booth's sudden death
2014-2017: Leo Madden (Labour - Portsmouth 2011-2017)
Appointed: 2014
2017-present: John Harris (Liberal - Truro 2014-present)
Appointed: 2017
 
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Winning! - A Very Silly Rugby List

"England's ball... Peter Richards... to Wilkinson... Wilkinson goes for the drop goal! And he's done it!! He has done it again!! England's hero is back! And England have become the first team in history to win two successive world cups." - Ian Robertson, 20 Oct 2007.

1987: New Zealand
1991: Australia
1995: South Africa
1999: Australia
2003: England
2007: England
2011: New Zealand
2015: New Zealand
....

1997-2007: Tony Blair (Labour)
1997: John Major (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal Democrat)
2001: William Hague (Conservative), Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrat)
2005: Michael Howard (Conservative), Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrat)

2007-2012: Gordon Brown (Labour)
2007: David Cameron (Conservative), Ming Campbell (Liberal Democrat)
2012-2012: Ed Balls (Labour)
2012-: Sir Clive Woodward (Conservative)
2012: Ed Balls (Labour), Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat), Sian Berry/John McDonnell (Green-Left)

In a fit of infamous bad temper in early October 2007, Gordon Brown finally decided to quit the dithering and call a snap general election, rather unusually planned to be held on the second half of month. To many this appeared a last ditch attempt to regain some level of leadership and dynamism as polls began to show a serious slippage of Labour support in key marginal seats. To others, Labour was throwing away an unnecessary election to Cameron. The party got to work, but the popularity of Brown enjoyed in the honeymoon period of his premiership appeared gone... and possibly forever.

Despite being a keen rugby fan, though unfortunately a Scot, Brown's timing of the election had actually taken no consideration of the timing of the World Cup final. Despite being the ruling champions, England had struggled their way to the final, having to deal with both the turbulent political wranglings of the RFU which had almost seen Clive Woodward walk away in 2004, along with the retirement of key players such as Johnson and Dellaglio, and not to mention Wilkinson's 4 year absence from international arena. Nevertheless, Woodward's leadership proved good once again, and with a controversial try by Mark Cuetto allowed in the 42nd minute, another superb, almost mirror image drop goal by Johnny Wilkinson secured England's place in the history books once again.

While lacking the cultural dominance of football, and with skipper Phil Vickery's face splattered over the front pages of every major newspaper not really having the same glamour as David Beckham, the cultural impact was still felt. In marginals across the heartland of English rugby - the quite posh bits - a patriotic feelgood factor found itself materialized in continuing support for the government. And so it was that while many were writing off Brown as the man who threw away a government, it came to pass that English Rugby saved Britain's very Scottish prime minister. David Cameron failing to name a single member of the starting 15 squad for the world cup win did not particularly help things either.

The shock of the defeat hit the Conservatives hard, while many had seen Cameron's leadership as a "two election" strategy, the image of Brown marching back into No.10 with an increased vote AND seat count (somehow) just made things worse. After 18 months Cameron had finally given up, while many Tory MPs struggling to see power coming any time soon, departed to the private sector. Theresa May, once seen as a rising star and future leader, quit Westminster for a job back at St Hughs College. The vacancy left in her Maidenhead constituency needed filling, and so it was that local lad and now retired Clive Woodward, the most successful coach in English sporting history, got called up to save a slightly different struggling team.
 
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something half-baked

Hardial Patoha

10 Sept 2166: Born in Clementine Region, Luna
2187-2199: Officer, Lunar Defense Forces
2196-2201: United Combatants Legal Advocate
2196-????: Commonwealth Commission for Civic Cooperation Asset (Class B)
2197-2199: Liaison Officer to the Alder City Corrections Administration
2201-2213: Integrated Social Democratic Alder City Corporator for District 10 (Barclay)
2207-2208: Special Commissioner for Correctional Regeneration
2208-2208: Special Commissioner for Assistance to Ex-Offenders
2209-2213: Integrated Social Democratic, Whip
2213-2218: Integrated Social Democratic, Deputy President and Vice Chair of the Autonomous Municipal Corporation of Alder City
2218-2224: United Combatants, President of Local #407
8 May 2220: Broke ground on the Lance Corporal Loyola Mackessy Memorial Employment Center
2224-2225: United Combatants Lobbyist
2225-2235: New Sun Alder City Corporator for District 22 (Surangon)
2229-2233: Special Commissioner for Oversight of New Construction on the Surangon West Floating Tunnel
2235-2241: Independent Alder City Delegate to the Lunar Assembly
2241-2244: Citizens' Response Lobbyist
2244-2259: Independent Alder City Corporator for At-Large Seat E
2251-2253: Special Co-Commissioner for Population Regulation Reform
2259-2275: Pensioner, Memoirist, Falconry Enthusiast
1 February 2275: Died of pneumonia in Alder City, Luna

Of all humanity's colonies in the solar system, the Commonwealth of Luna contains the most reactionary tendencies that characterized Old Earth politics, due to both her proximity to shattered Terra and the ideological nature of her original colonists. Mostly hailing from the United States, Latin America, and India, Luna's founders were determined to resist the inexorable rise of Communism on Terra and in the myriad colonies that now dotted the solar system. As the New Soviet Man planted the red flag on Mars and throughout the Belt and Earth tore itself to pieces, the denizens of Luna retreated inwards, and by the mid-22nd century had become a poor, stunted offshoot of humanity sheltering under cracked domes, obsessed with the regressive ideologies of commodity fetishism and social reaction, occasionally turning to autarky. Meanwhile, the Communist nations of the system (particularly the Belt) inched steadily towards messianism and the end of history, with some going so far as to fully embrace Posadism and the coming of the Final Liberation.

For most of the 22nd century, political life in the Lunar region of Alder City was dominated by the Revival Law Movement, a big tent quasi-religious party that governed with impunity. In the 2190s, the RLM was violently removed by a popular uprising, which was subsequently crushed by the Lunar Defense Forces-backed Integrated Social Democratic Party, a big tent nominally progressive faction which would rule with little opposition for the next century.

Hardial Patoha first arrived in Alder City in 2197 as part of the LDF pacification army. The son of impoverished rock farmers from the polar Clementine region, Patoha first rose to prominence as a soldiers' union advocate and a prison reformer; he eventually resigned his officer commission to pursue a full career in his adopted home. Ambitious, intelligent, short-tempered, impulsive, and a passionate orator, Patoha's political career would span six decades and be characterized by a series of moments in which he nearly achieved the balance of power before losing it to rivals' intrigues or his own shortsightedness. After a five-year stint as Deputy President, Patoha would be expelled from the ISD for alleged "moral indecency" (no charges were filed, and the accusation statement was never specified). He returned to the United Combatants to lead the local, where he attained maverick status for his bombastic leadership style and much publicized efforts to secure zoning rights for a massively overfunded new headquarters (which would not be completed until thirteen years after he resigned as union president).

Patoha eventually fell out with the Combatants over alleged embezzlement of pension funds, though he remained a member for life. From the 2220s onward, he remained a permanent fixture in Alder City politics, moving from the opposition New Sun to the Independent Caucus. An old-style boss, he continuously advocated for public works projects in his district and returned to front pages briefly in the early 2250s for his (unsuccessful) efforts against an ISD measure to depopulate the frontier districts, which earned him back the love of the masses. Though he had been out of the public eye for decades, after his death at the age of 108, thousands of mourners attended the funeral of "Baba Patoha", a colorful figure who despite all his faults touched the lives of tens of thousands during his decades in the Corporation Assembly.
 
Electoral History of John Kerry

1973-79: Representative for Massachusetts-5
1979-93: Class 2 Senator for Massachusetts
1993-2001: President (with Pat Schroeder)
 
Presidents of the United States of Brazil:
1918-1922: Rodrigues Alves (Republicano Paulista)
1922-1926: Artur Bernardes (Republicano Mineiro)
1926-1927: Fernando de Melo (Republicano Mineiro)

1927: Brazilian Civil War sees a coalition of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and the Northeastern States oust de Melo.
1927-1928: Borges de Medeiros (Republicano Rio-Grandense)
1928-1932: João Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque (Republicano Paraíba)
1932-1936: Otávio Mangabeira (Republicano Baiano)
1936-1938: João Mangabeira (Esquerda Democrática)

def. 1936: Getúlio Vargas (Republicano Rio-Grandense), Gustavo Dodt Barroso (Ação Integralista), Júlio Prestes (Liberal)
1938: After meeting with Carlos Labarca of Chile, Several generals led by Dutra overthrew the Government

1938-1938: Gaspar Dutra (Military Junta)
1938: One week later, Dutra was counter-couped by Leftist elements who established the Union of Brazil

Chairmen of the Union of Brazil:
1938-1942: Minervino de Oliveira (Sindicalista)
1942-1946: Patrícia Rehder Galvão (Sindicalista)


A quick Kaiserreich list of a Syndicalist Brazil.
 
POD: Ohuro resigns rather than call a general election so the LibDem sympathy vote doesn't happen.

1978-80: Masayoshi Ōhira (Liberal Democrats)
1980-83: Shintaro Abe (Liberal Democrats)
1983- : Yōhei Kōno ("Popular Front")
 
Everyday is Like Sunday

1957-1963: Harold Macmillan (Conservative led Conservative Coalition)
def. 1957 (Majority): Hugh Gaitskell (Labour), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1963-1964: Alec Douglas Home (Unionist led Conservative Coalition)
1964-1968: Harold Wilson (Labour) † [1]

def. 1964 (Majority): Alec Douglas-Home (Unionist led Conservative Coalition), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
def. 1966 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)

1968-1971: Barbara Castle (Labour) [2]
1971-1973: Edward Heath (Conservative) [3]

def. 1971 (Majority): Barbara Castle (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1973-1974: Airey Neave (Conservatie) † [4]
def. 1974 (Minority): James Callaghan (Labour), Emlyn Hooson (Liberal), Roy Jenkins (Democratic), John O'Brien (National Front)
1974-19xx: Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton (Crossbench Peer led National Government including Conservative, Liberal, Democratic) [5]

1- On the Second of June, 1968, Harold Wilson was gunned down in the street. His assassin had shot him because of what he read in the Daily Mirror: that Wilson had to be stopped as he was slowly shuffling the Country to and over the brink into disaster. While Cecil King, the author, advocated a vague notion of Parliamentary impeachment for the Prime Minister, the assassin had other plans when it became evident that Wilson would not be removed, and thus made Wilson one of only two First Lord of the Treasuries to be killed in office. Wilson survived in the initial shooting, despite being fired upon seven times at near close range- he survived just long enough that he could say goodbye to Mary and his Children. Mourned by the country and granted the rare privilege of a State Funeral, not an eye in Britain was dry as his funeral procession made its way to Huddersfield. The old were in anguish. The young felt robbed. Wilson's four years in Office may not have been loved, but in seven shots he had become a martyr. But as the black suits were put away and damp handkerchiefs stuffed back into pockets, the future kept its murky funeral shroud as Wilson's successor moved into No. 10.
2- Castle entered office on a flurry of goodwill. Formally the Minister of Overseas Development, then transport, then Employment, she was entitled to become Britain's first woman Prime Minister by having the misfortune of being First Secretary of State at the time of Wilson's shooting. Her opposition decided to wait until after the election to make their move. Issues were quick to emerge- the economy was struggling, Trade Unions were revolting, the Party was divided, and worst of all, Ted Heath had found his voice. Castle found herself at the centre of this storm, fighting with her Chancellor Tony Crosland over the issue of the Unions, and unexpectedly finding common ground with Roy Jenkins on the same matter. The economy fared little better, with the surplus becoming deficit in '69, though decimalisation went with some ease, not that the British Public took comfort in this. James Callaghan would resign from the Home Office in 1970 following the passing of the Commonwealth Immigration Act, citing the emotional stress and the enduring depression he developed thanks to the job. His successor, Denis Healy, would be responsible for the implementation of the new Local Governments. On his part, they were something of a success, but they were nothing more that popping the bubbly on a sinking ship. Castle would stumble into a March election on the heels of fresh strikes, and despite a surprisingly energetic campaign, lost quiet badly, Labour sinking down to some 270 seats. Despite his stress, Callaghan would follow Castle as Leader- and in doing so, split the Party.
3- When Heath entered Downing Street, it was common knowledge his Premiership was that of a dead man walking. Inheriting an economy that was, as Heath would later remark candidly to his old friend Denis Healy, "fucked", and a situation with the Trade Unions that threatened to tear the country apart, Heath threw himself into his work, hoping that with enough elbow grease and backbone, he would prevail. But as pressure mounted, Heath couldn't take it. Retreated behind closed doors, he took to interacting from behind close colleagues and television screens. Some joked that Heath had died and a secret council had taken control; others took this more seriously, with the Chairman of the 1922 sighing relief when the Prime Minister appeared in Parliament. He became known as the 'Hermit Minister', but he did not shy away from duty. With the Trade Unions, he entered a duel; taking a hard line on strikers in an effort to 'break them' and the grip the Unions had, the Government enacted emergency measures, such as the long-weekends, at the height of the strikes. Heath, nor the Union bosses, blinked. At least until Bloody Sunday. A soldier, guarding non-union workers, shot and killed four strikers at a coal mine in Kent whilst trying to protect a convoy they had blocked. The nation seemed to imploded over night, with riots on a scale unseen in generations, martial law enacted in certain regions, with some even saying that the Trouble ridden Ulster was preferably to Hackney. After many attempts to placate the rioters, Heath retreated to Chequers. While there, the man who would succeed him visited, and told him the words he had uttered some years earlier: "You're finished". With no where left to go, Heath took the gracious decision to step down as Prime Minister, hoping that it would placate the rioters, although violence would continue as it took a nasty ethnic bent, though this was limited and easily dealt with as the majority dissipated as Heath left the country to his successor.
4- Airey Neave's motivation for becoming Prime Minister was personal. Dismissed by Heath following his heart attack in 1959 and feeling that his career had been unfairly clipped, the former spy found himself thrust into the perfect opportunity to prove his predecessor wrong, and it was an opertunity that he took on with vigour. Despite having only held minor roles in Government and on various select committees, Neave found the cloth of Leadership to be one that he fit comfortably within. With workers on strike and the social and economic fibres of Britain unraveling, Martial Law was the name of the game, and it was a game that Neave intended to play until he won. But he would need a larger majority, he felt. Following some short legislation, Neave unexpectedly thrust the nation into a General Election, taking advantage of the recent Labour split and resurgence of the Liberals in hopes he could divide and conquer. The opposite happened- an extremely hung parliament, part in thanks to surge of the Liberals and National Front. As a result Neave opted to run a minority Government until he could negotiate a Coalition. Unfortunately, the stress of the excitement he had long sought to taste was to much for him, and he suffered a catastrophic heart attack a few days later; he would die at his desk, slumped over a letter from Roy Jenkins reluctantly agreeing to form a Government.
5- On the heels of Neave's death, the nation needed a strong (and healthy) Leadership. The decision by the Queen to ask Harold Macmillan to form Government was thus something of a surprise, though, at least to her, not without some logic. Having met with her Cousin, Lord Mountbatten, a day after the election, but before Neave's sudden death, Mountbatten related to her the story of Cecil King's offer, and how he had turned him down when it was apparent treason. Whilst laughing off the idea, the notion of appointing a peer to lead the Government rooted itself, and after the sudden death of Neave, Her Majesty seriously considered the matter. Assembling the Privy Council, she sought advice on the matter. The Council was rightly split- the appointment of a Peer was drastic, and in many respects an undemocratic and partisan move by the Queen at a time of great natinal upheaval. The last thing the Privy Council wanted was a revolution on their hands. Others however, some with a vested interest in the idea, and others who believed that as the nation sunk further into a chaos a firmer hand was needed, were more responsive to the idea. Eventually the decision to appoint a Peer to Leadership of a Government of National Unity was agreed upon, though not before James Callaghan stormed out of the meeting, declaring he would have no part in a 'Dictatorship'. The question of who would lead was quickly bought up- Mountbatten declined the invitation, Baron Hailsham- then Conservative Leader in the House- was to become Lord Speaker, and even Baron Shackleton, the Labour Leader in the Lords, was unresponsive to the idea, especially once Callaghan made clear which pig he'd feed defectors to. Instead, a face emerged from the crowd to volunteer for the role, the familiar whiskered face of the recently created Earl of Stockton, Harold Macmillan, who would form this Unity Government a scant month after the election, and to unprecedented controversy...
 
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Doesn't that make it easier for him to go in? No question about being a peer but still a respected elder statesman. Maybe it goes over easier if he agrees to step in on condition that he not stand for election as party leader and that he resign as PM prior to the next general election? Or would that not help.
 
The background is that following the secession of Scotland in a narrow referendum and a botched attempt at the reunification of Ireland leads to a Donbass-esque frozen conflict, the Conservatives are crushed by nationalist Labour Party under Peter Shore, who, living up to his reputation of "the only possible Labour Party leader of whom a Conservative leader had cause to walk in fear", leads the country for almost two decades, with Britain becoming much more insular and protectionist, withdrawing from multiple trans-Atlantic defense treaties and fiercely protecting its remaining imperial holdings, all the while upholding autarkic democratic socialism at home.

The Conservatives, receiving the blame for the effective collapse of the UK, implode into three or four successor parties. Most notably, the rural-focused, conservationist Country-Green-Democratic Alliance, the proto-Thatcherite New Tories and the transnational British Unionists. The Liberals also re-emerge as the dominant party of economic liberalism and internationalism in the vacuum. In this TL the rump UK never joins the European Community in the 1970s, which has subsequently evolved into a centralized, French-dominated European Confederation.

1973-1991 Peter Shore (Labour)
1975 (Majority) def. Reginald Mauling (Conservative), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal), Enoch Powell (Independent Conservative)
1980 (Majority) def. Keith Joseph (New Conservative), Peter Walker ('One Nation' Conservative), Jon Pardoe (Liberal), Richard Body (Country), Norman St John-Stevas (Christian Democratic)
1984 (Minority) def. Peter Walker ('One Nation' Conservative), Jon Pardoe (Liberal), Richard Body (Country), Keith Joseph (New Conservative), Derek Enright (Christian Democratic)
1986 (Majority) def. Richard Body (Country Democrats), Alan Beith (Liberal), Margaret Bray (New Conservative), Peter Walker ('One Nation' Conservative), Tim Beaumont (Ecology)


Shore dies suddenly of a heart attack in 1991. Soon after, a dossier emerges revealing the Labour government's involvement in providing military aid to militias in Ulster. This, coupled with a stagnant economy, an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian public image and an alliance with the far-right spells disaster for Shore's successor, the former Minster of State for the Arts:

1991-1995 Robert Kilroy-Silk (Labour)
1991 (Minority with National Action confidence and supply) def. Richard Body & Tim Beaumont (Democratic & Green Alliance), Alan Beith & Michael Portillo (Liberal-New Conservative alliance), Michael Heseltine ('Continuity Conservative'), Max Mosley (National Action), David Owen (New Labour)

1995-2003 Nicholas Soames (Democratic & Green Alliance)
1995 (National Government with New Conservatives, Liberals, & Independent Labour), def. Alan Beith & Michael Portillo (Liberal-New Conservative alliance), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Labour), Ian Wrigglesworth & Ken Livingstone (Independent Labour), Michael Heseltine ('Continuity Conservative')
1997 (Majority) def. Frank Field (People's Labour), Michael Meadowcroft (Liberal), Ian Wrigglesworth (Radical Labour), John Redwood (New Conservative), Michael Heseltine (Unionist)
2001 (Coalition with Unionists) def. Margaret Beckett (People's Labour), Michael Meadowcroft (Liberal). Nick Bourne (Unionist), John Redwood (New Conservative), Margaret Hodge (Radical)


2003-2006 David Alton (Alliance)

2006-2008 Sarah Brinton (Liberal)
2006 (Coalition with Alliance & Unionists) def. Margaret Beckett (People's Labour) David Alton (Alliance), John Redwood (Freedom), Christopher Hitchens (Radical), Nick Bourne (Unionist)
2008 (Minority) def. Frank Field (People's Labour), Tom Burke (Alliance), John Redwood (Freedom), Oona King (Radical), Andrew Brons (Reform UK), Emma Nicholson (Unionist)


2009-2012 Frank Field (People's Labour)
2009- (Minority with Socialist Alternative confidence and supply) def. John Redwood & Andrew Brons (Freedom & Reform UK), Oona King (Radical), Philip Blond (Alliance),
Sarah Brinton (Liberal), Glenda Jackson & Billy Bragg (Socialist Alternative-Engage)


2012-2013 Simon Danzcuk (People's Labour)

2013-2018 Frank Goldsmith (Alliance)
2013 (Coalition with Liberals & Social Justice). def. Simon Danzcuk (People's Labour), Alan Duncan (Liberal), Oona King (Social Justice), Nadine Dorries (National), Graham Gove (Unionist), Glenda Jackson & John McDonnnell (Left Equality), Noel Edmonds (Independent)

2018- Nadine Dorries (National)
2018 (Grand Coalition with People's Labour) def. Kate Hoey (People's Labour), Frank Goldsmith (Alliance), Andy Burnham (Social Justice), Alan Duncan (Liberal), Guto Bebb (Plaid Cymru), John McDonnell (Left Equality), Graham Gove (Unionist), Noel Edmonds (Edmond's REAL England)


The worst nightmares of the liberal centre have manifested. True Blue and Blue Labour have united on an agenda of 'taking back control of our streets', British services for British workers, reducing immigration, withdrawal from the EFTA and an elected English parliament, while rolling back the powers of the Welsh, Cornish and Yorkshire Assemblies. Despite deriding each other as a 'racist' and a 'Marxist' respectively during the campaign, the new Prime Minister and Home Secretary seem to get on surprisingly well.

Oh well, at least Noel Edmonds wasn't given a Cabinet job.
 
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Talk Talk, Fight Fight v 0.5

Presidents of the Republic of Vietnam (South), Later President of the Federal Republic of Southern Vietnam, Vietnamese Confederation
1967-1971: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu / Nguyễn Cao Kỳ (National Social Democratic Front)
1967: Trương Đình Dzu /Trương Đình Dzu (“Dove” Independent)
1971-1975: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu / Trần Văn Hương (NSDF)
1971: Unopposed
1975: Trần Văn Hương / Nguyễn Văn Huyền (NSDF)
1975: Cancelled
1975-1977: Dương Văn Minh / Vũ Văn Mẫu (Independent / Forces for National Reconciliation)
1976: Nguyễn Cao Kỳ as Supreme Leader of the National Defence Committee
1975-1979: Dương Văn Minh / Trương Như Tảng (Independent / Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peace Forces)
1979-1982: Trương Đình Dzu / Trương Như Tảng (Vietnamese Fatherland Front --- Vietnamese Worker’s and Farmers Party / ANDPF)

1979: Dương Văn Minh / Nguyễn Thị Bình (VFF --- Independent / People’s Revolutionary Party, With support of the Revived Struggle Movement)

This is something I have had coming down the pipeline for sometime though its often been something that I've been worried about doing so consider this me hoisting up a test flag.

The fall of South Vietnam, like many decisive historical events is actually a bit more of a close-run thing then pop history will often think it is. Not only were there several chances for the South to actually blunt the 1975 offensive that dropped the curtain on more then a quarter-century of war in the country but there were political lifelines out as well. South Vietnam and North Vietnam were both at their limits in the final conflict and contrary to the 'revisionist' school there was considerable thought in the Communists of the North and the South towards what Victory would look like short of the hard to imagine at January 1st 1975 Image of the Tanks crashing of the RVN Presidential Palace.

Two things doomed the RVN that year to break first, one was the incompetence and strategic failures of President Thieu that denied the ARVN (Which was seeing a considerable increase in fighting quality compared to a decade before hand) any reserve forces, and the decision of the United States Government to secretly pilfer the 1974-1975 military support stockpiles to resupply the Israelis without letting it out into the open how utterly battered the IDF was in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. Here, political opponents of Golda Meir do leak that information out to the public, and the US Congress simply increases funding for support to the Israelis, the RVN stockpiles conveniently fogotten by them and thus, delivered. Following this, the French pressure on the Americans to see if Thieu can be removed as a means of seeking a Finlandized Piece is picked up by the State Department and the CIA. Thus as the 1975 Offensive commences the RVN is moving assets about, cutting deals, keeping families secured (Shockingly ARVN troops fought well when they knew their families were safe and not being abandoned on the Highway of Tears), and better defensive postions are being secured.

1975 will be defined by a series of absolutely bloody set piece battles as RVN and North Vietnamese Regular Troops go at it. The Viet Cong of the decade past are a hollow shell of themselves and the North is determined to win the war themselves this time (Actually True) meaning that Hue, Da Nang and Ban Me Thot become bloodbaths watched by the entire war. And then, when the Monsoon season finally returns, the French get their wish and "Big Mihn" the man who murdered the Diem Brothers in 1963 becomes President again, with calls for Communist inclusion in the government and a final, concession filled peace deal. Oppositon in the RVN and the Communist forces is high, fighting continues but it rapidly becomes a race to see if one side or the other can hold out just long enough to see exhaustion overtake the other.

Meanwhile the Central Highlands are Burning, the Killing Fields are underway, the Sino-Soviet-Vietnamese relationship is spiraling, and in 1976 Ronald Reagan is running for the Republican Presidential Nomination against a sitting President. The world wants to wash its hands of a war that it has never been able to. And the story I have in mind takes place.

I've actually gone both ways on if the South survives in the Story, but I figured for the sake of a list I should offer the "maximum" Southern Win. Vietnam on Paper and only on Paper reunified, Communist political factions assured key positions in the Southern regime, but Independence, even with only a paper pushing small army and Big Minh still hoping to establish himself as a dictator and open trade and travel with the Western World sees Vietnam heading towards a sort of Non-Aligned Sort of Communism, even as North and South and the USSR stay relatively close in the face of the Maoist behemoth.
 
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