Alternate Wikibox Thread

[Callan]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan

​

Margaret Thatcher DBE was an English judge. She was for much of her career the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom.

Graduating from Oxford with a degree in chemistry, Thatcher initially worked as a chemist for Imperial Chemical Industries, and unsuccessfully stood in the 1950 general election for the Conservative Party. Her wealthy husband sponsored her legal studies and she was called to the bar in 1953. After failing to be selected by the Conservative Party for a winnable seat in the 1955 and 1959 elections, Thatcher chose to focus on her legal career. She initially focused on tax law, but came to be noted for her work on both criminal defences and prosecutions.

In 1975 she became the third woman to be appointed as a High Court judge and the first to be appointed to the Queen’s Bench, which hears a wide range of common law cases and also has special responsibility as a supervisory court. In 1988 she became the first woman appointed as a Lady Justice of Appeal (Judge on the Court of Appeal), having chaired the inquiry into the Channel Tunnel Fire Disaster the previous year. Her appointment as Lady Justice made her the highest ranking female judge in the United Kingdom.

During her judicial career she was noted for her verbose remarks during sentences and judgements and harsh sentences in criminal cases. As an appeal judge she was noted for upholding key parts of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1991, but was also one of the judges who struck down the criminalization of abortion in 1988 in the Crown vs. James before the Law Lords forced full legalization the next year.

She retired as a judge in 1999 and was appointed the next year to chair the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. However, her appointment was immediately criticised by victims’ rights groups due to her strong links with the previously-ruling Conservative Party - her husband Denis Thatcher was a long-time party donor - and her perceived unwillingness to include mention of politicians such as Cyril Smith. She stood down from the inquiry a week after her appointment was announced.

 

[Thande]

Loving the Obscure Non-PM wikiboxes. I think I remember having a similar idea a while back but never acted on it. I'm not sure how I was going to do it, though, because I think I was imagining a TLIAD pastiche, and you'd need some excuse for why these people were being presented as a list in succession. I have a dim memory that I might have been thinking of making it something like the '7 up' kids documentaries, some fly-on-the-wall where it follows These Ordinary People.

 

[Callan]

Loving the Obscure Non-PM wikiboxes. I think I remember having a similar idea a while back but never acted on it. I'm not sure how I was going to do it, though, because I think I was imagining a TLIAD pastiche, and you'd need some excuse for why these people were being presented as a list in succession. I have a dim memory that I might have been thinking of making it something like the '7 up' kids documentaries, some fly-on-the-wall where it follows These Ordinary People.

It’s based on a series of wikiboxes Gorrister did on the other place on the exact same theme - I think the hinterlands of various UK PMs make it a different dynamic.

On your idea, it sounds very similar to @Roberto El Rey’s excellent TLIAD.

 

[Excelsior]

It’s based on a series of wikiboxes Gorrister did on the other place on the exact same theme - I think the hinterlands of various UK PMs make it a different dynamic.

On your idea, it sounds very similar to @Roberto El Rey’s excellent TLIAD.

That was a great series. I sometimes thought about doing a version of that but Gorrister knocked it out of the park the first time so I never bothered.

 

[Gorrister]

That was a great series. I sometimes thought about doing a version of that but Gorrister knocked it out of the park the first time so I never bothered.

Aw shucks. That being said, a lot of the choices I went with (Obama at SC, FBI Director Nixon) were pretty low hanging fruit. You could definitely go in a different direction - for example, Poppy taking a job at Brown Brothers Harriman like he was offered and becoming a banker rather than an oilman etc...

 

[Callan]

Aw shucks. That being said, a lot of the choices I went with (Obama at SC, FBI Director Nixon) were pretty low hanging fruit. You could definitely go in a different direction - for example, Poppy taking a job at Brown Brothers Harriman like he was offered and becoming a banker rather than an oilman etc...

Suppose the interesting one now would be Biden. Not obvious what else he would do, given he got elected to the Senate so young.

 

[monroe]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan

View attachment 79868
​

Margaret Thatcher DBE was an English judge. She was for much of her career the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom.

Graduating from Oxford with a degree in chemistry, Thatcher initially worked as a chemist for Imperial Chemical Industries, and unsuccessfully stood in the 1950 general election for the Conservative Party. Her wealthy husband sponsored her legal studies and she was called to the bar in 1953. After failing to be selected by the Conservative Party for a winnable seat in the 1955 and 1959 elections, Thatcher chose to focus on her legal career. She initially focused on tax law, but came to be noted for her work on both criminal defences and prosecutions.

In 1975 she became the third woman to be appointed as a High Court judge and the first to be appointed to the Queen’s Bench, which hears a wide range of common law cases and also has special responsibility as a supervisory court. In 1988 she became the first woman appointed as a Lady Justice of Appeal (Judge on the Court of Appeal), having chaired the inquiry into the Channel Tunnel Fire Disaster the previous year. Her appointment as Lady Justice made her the highest ranking female judge in the United Kingdom.

During her judicial career she was noted for her verbose remarks during sentences and judgements and harsh sentences in criminal cases. As an appeal judge she was noted for upholding key parts of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1991, but was also one of the judges who struck down the criminalization of abortion in 1988 in the Crown vs. James before the Law Lords forced full legalization the next year.

She retired as a judge in 1999 and was appointed the next year to chair the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. However, her appointment was immediately criticised by victims’ rights groups due to her strong links with the previously-ruling Conservative Party - her husband Denis Thatcher was a long-time party donor - and her perceived unwillingness to include mention of politicians such as Cyril Smith. She stood down from the inquiry a week after her appointment was announced.

martin

martin

martin

 

[Thande]

It’s based on a series of wikiboxes Gorrister did on the other place on the exact same theme - I think the hinterlands of various UK PMs make it a different dynamic.

On your idea, it sounds very similar to @Roberto El Rey’s excellent TLIAD.

Ah, I thought I'd seen it recently (Roberto's TL) but couldn't remember where!

 

[Callan]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Margaret Thatcher

​

John Major was an English businessman and whistleblower.

Major was born into a middle class family, but dropped out of school aged sixteen. After working a number of different clerking and business roles Major accepted a secondment in Jos, Nigeria with Standard Bank. He remained based in West Africa and Southern Africa for most of his career, coming to specialize in facilitating foreign direct investment across the continent. He became known as a financial “go between” between the global north and many African nations, as many African dictatorships collapsed in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War in the early 1980s. His most notable business dealings involved facilitating investment and business deals between western governments and both sides of the 1986-92 South African Civil War.

Major came to international prominence in 1995 as the key whistleblower in what became known as the Arms to Apartheid Scandal. His testimony was crucial in exposing how British and American businesspeople, government officials and politicians had systemically and illegally flouted international sanctions regimes to arm and resource the Apartheid regime during the conflict, effectively aiding and abetting war crimes. His testimony led to several arrests and convictions in Britain, America and in South Africa. In 1997, Major was bestowed with Honorary Citizenship of South Africa by President Winnie Mandela.

In the aftermath of his testimony, Major was shunned by many in the British expat business community, and became a rhetorical and physical target for white supremacist and Afrikaner groups. After 1995 he frequently travelled with armed guards.

He was murdered in Hong Kong in 2000, shot dead in the street by an unknown assailant. Despite several international investigations, no culprit or conspirators have ever been formally identified. Several South African politicians, most notably former foreign minister Peter Hain, have publicly accused British and American intelligence services as being responsible for Major’s death. INTERPOL’s investigation into the murder remains officially active and ongoing, and the South African government maintains a R20,000,000 ($1,000,000) reward for information about the case.

Major’s life, specifically his role in the South African Civil War and the Arms to Apartheid Scandal, have been the subject of much cultural interest. Most notable of the cultural depictions is the 2004 non-fiction book An Englishman Abroad by journalist and novelist Michael Gove, which was in 2007 adapted by playwright David Hare into the stage play of the same name. This stage play was in turn adapted into the 2016 biopic The Go-Between in which Major was portrayed by Christian Bale.

 

[Nyvis]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Margaret Thatcher

View attachment 79894​

John Major was an English businessman and whistleblower.

Major was born into a middle class family, but dropped out of school aged sixteen. After working a number of different clerking and business roles Major accepted a secondment in Jos, Nigeria with Standard Bank. He remained based in West Africa and Southern Africa for most of his career, coming to specialize in facilitating foreign direct investment across the continent. He became known as a financial “go between” between the global north and many African nations, as many African dictatorships collapsed in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War in the early 1980s. His most notable business dealings involved facilitating investment and business deals between western governments and both sides of the 1986-92 South African Civil War.

Major came to international prominence in 1995 as the key whistleblower in what became known as the Arms to Apartheid Scandal. His testimony was crucial in exposing how British and American businesspeople, government officials and politicians had systemically and illegally flouted international sanctions regimes to arm and resource the Apartheid regime during the conflict, effectively aiding and abetting war crimes. His testimony led to several arrests and convictions in Britain, America and in South Africa. In 1997, Major was bestowed with Honorary Citizenship of South Africa by President Winnie Mandela.

In the aftermath of his testimony, Major was shunned by many in the British expat business community, and became a rhetorical and physical target for white supremacist and Afrikaner groups. After 1995 he frequently travelled with armed guards.

He was murdered in Hong Kong in 2000, shot dead in the street by an unknown assailant. Despite several international investigations, no culprit or conspirators have ever been formally identified. Several South African politicians, most notably former foreign minister Peter Hain, have publicly accused British and American intelligence services as being responsible for Major’s death. INTERPOL’s investigation into the murder remains officially active and ongoing, and the South African government maintains a R20,000,000 ($1,000,000) reward for information about the case.

Major’s life, specifically his role in the South African Civil War and the Arms to Apartheid Scandal, have been the subject of much cultural interest. Most notable of the cultural depictions is the 2004 non-fiction book An Englishman Abroad by journalist and novelist Michael Gove, which was in 2007 adapted by playwright David Hare into the stage play of the same name. This stage play was in turn adapted into the 2016 biopic The Go-Between in which Major was portrayed by Christian Bale.

That one is kinda tragic. Curse you for making me care.

 

[Callan]

That one is kinda tragic. Curse you for making me care.

I wanted to do something with Major having briefly worked in Nigeria, and Major as a bent businessman had already been done, but I'd never seen him done as a genuinely heroic figure...

 

[Thande]

I wanted to do something with Major having briefly worked in Nigeria, and Major as a bent businessman had already been done, but I'd never seen him done as a genuinely heroic figure...

Depending on your perspective, you could say he was in "Curse of Maggie" - though I threw in the 'but at what cost' thing about fallout from his war on paparazzi meaning that Jimmy Savile is never unmasked.

I like that your version feels very authentic to the real Major, both the business connections and his moral convictions. Also South African Peter Hain is a nice touch - even though it occasionally comes up in TLIADs, there's still a lot of untapped potential in 'politicians from families that nearly did/didn't emigrate' what-ifs.

 

[Callan]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Margaret Thatcher
John Major

​

Tony Blair is a British businessman and music producer.

The son of a prominent law professor and educated at prestigious private schools, Blair moved to London at the age of 18 to attempt a career as a music promoter. He had minor success as a talent scout and promoter with several rock bands in late 1970s and early 1980s, and co-founded Adelaide Records in 1987 with Pete Waterman. He came to prominence in the 1990s as the talent scout and producer behind the pop group Studio 2054, for whom he was also manager until their breakup in 2005.

By this point he had established himself as a pop culture figure in his own right, frequently appearing on talk shows and regularly guest-hosting the Reality TV Talent show What It Takes. He repeatedly declined offers to become the full-time host of the programme, due to Blair's unwillingness to put aside his political ambitions for a full-time media career.

A longtime supporter and donor to the Labour Party, by the late 2000 he had established a reputation as their de-facto chief fundraiser alongside former editor of The Sun and Labour Peer Ghislaine Maxwell. It was this arrangement which saw Blair become the centre of what became known as the Maxwell Affair, where he and Maxwell were accused of facilitating money laundered from corrupt foreign businessmen, authoritarian states and criminal enterprises into donations for the governing Labour Party in exchange for influence on politicians and policy. While the then-Prime Minister and Labour leader Paddy Ashdown was never personally implicated in criminal wrongdoing, the scandal is widely viewed as the proximate cause of the downfall of the Ashdown Ministry in 2011 due to the dragged-out legal proceedings and corruption allegations surrounding the Labour Party.

After several delays, Maxwell and Blair stood trial for money laundering and perverting the course of justice in March 2014. After a two-week trial both were fully acquitted on all charges after the trial judge instructed the jury to acquit due to lack of evidence. Subsequently, he and Maxwell received substantial damages in libel settlements from The Times and Minitel publication Today, the news outlets that originally broke the Maxwell Affair, for alleging a romantic relationship between the two.

After his acquittal, Blair moved to the United States. He quickly established himself as an investor in several prominent tech firms, reinventing himself as a fundraiser and investor for Minitel start-ups by utilizing his connections in the international music industry. He became most notable as the Chief Financial Officer and chief spokesperson for Andromeda Finance, a start-up focused on crowdfunding and specialized investment for artists and the creative industries. Upon the collapse of Andromeda Finance in March 2023, Blair was arrested by American authorities on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud. Pleading not guilty, Blair was released on $1,000,000 bail.

His trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is scheduled to begin on April 9, 2024.

 

[awnman]

This version of Tony Blair is also notable in internet culture for the response “Was Tonty Blair behind this!?” to conspiracy theories, when after the Maxwell affair, a particularly unhinged comment accusing Blair of first gaining a connection with the Maxwells after being hired at age 16, to sink Morning Cloud and murder Ted Heath went viral and became a classic “copypasta”.

 

[Thande]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Margaret Thatcher
John Major

View attachment 79963​

Tony Blair is a British businessman and music producer.

The son of a prominent law professor and educated at prestigious private schools, Blair moved to London at the age of 18 to attempt a career as a music promoter. He had minor success as a talent scout and promoter with several rock bands in late 1970s and early 1980s, and co-founded Adelaide Records in 1987 with Pete Waterman. He came to prominence in the 1990s as the talent scout and producer behind the pop group Studio 2054, for whom he was also manager until their breakup in 2005.

By this point he had established himself as a pop culture figure in his own right, frequently appearing on talk shows and regularly guest-hosting the Reality TV Talent show What It Takes. He repeatedly declined offers to become the full-time host of the programme, due to Blair's unwillingness to put aside his political ambitions for a full-time media career.

A longtime supporter and donor to the Labour Party, by the late 2000 he had established a reputation as their de-facto chief fundraiser alongside former editor of The Sun and Labour Peer Ghislaine Maxwell. It was this arrangement which saw Blair become the centre of what became known as the Maxwell Affair, where he and Maxwell were accused of facilitating money laundered from corrupt foreign businessmen, authoritarian states and criminal enterprises into donations for the governing Labour Party in exchange for influence on politicians and policy. While the then-Prime Minister and Labour leader Paddy Ashdown was never personally implicated in criminal wrongdoing, the scandal is widely viewed as the proximate cause of the downfall of the Ashdown Ministry in 2011 due to the dragged-out legal proceedings and corruption allegations surrounding the Labour Party.

After several delays, Maxwell and Blair stood trial for money laundering and perverting the course of justice in March 2014. After a two-week trial both were fully acquitted on all charges after the trial judge instructed the jury to acquit due to lack of evidence. Subsequently, he and Maxwell received substantial damages in libel settlements from The Times and Minitel publication Today, the news outlets that originally broke the Maxwell Affair, for alleging a romantic relationship between the two.

After his acquittal, Blair moved to the United States. He quickly established himself as an investor in several prominent tech firms, reinventing himself as a fundraiser and investor for Minitel start-ups by utilizing his connections in the international music industry. He became most notable as the Chief Financial Officer and chief spokesperson for Andromeda Finance, a start-up focused on crowdfunding and specialized investment for artists and the creative industries. Upon the collapse of Andromeda Finance in March 2023, Blair was arrested by American authorities on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud. Pleading not guilty, Blair was released on $1,000,000 bail.

His trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is scheduled to begin on April 9, 2024.

Excellent choice of photo there to fit the image. This is probably one of the most obvious (and fitting) careers, at least to those of us who lived through Blair's premiership. (Still remember Charles Kennedy on HIGNFY disgustedly noting that Blair's default idea for designing the look of anything was to add a guitar to it).

 

[Callan]

Excellent choice of photo there to fit the image. This is probably one of the most obvious (and fitting) careers, at least to those of us who lived through Blair's premiership. (Still remember Charles Kennedy on HIGNFY disgustedly noting that Blair's default idea for designing the look of anything was to add a guitar to it).

It’s striking how so many contemporary accounts of Blair compare him to an ageing rock star, and not in a complimentary sense. Nearly made him a rockstar through apparently the couldn’t sing very well.

I think if he hadn’t gone into politics (or just never made it to the top) his magpie tendencies would be much more pronounced. Certainly I think that if he had been a minister under say Smith or Brown in the late nineties he would’ve immolated sooner rather than later in some sort of financial scandal.

 

[Callan]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Margaret Thatcher
John Major
Tony Blair

​

Gordon Brown is a Church of Scotland minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly between 2008 and 2009.

The son of a Church of Scotland minister who grew up in a Manse, Brown was educated in a series of fast-stream and hothouse education programmes and was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the same early age of 16. However by his own account these accelerated learning and the hothouse environments - which he described as a "cruel experiment" - left him severely burned out and he dropped out of university at the age of 19.

After several years in a depressive state, Brown turned back to faith, and was ordained as a minister in 1980. In 1985 he moved to Greenock, Inverclyde became involved with ministry to offenders, as chaplain of HMP Greenock prison. In 2005 he transferred to St Margaret's Community Church of Dunfermline, close to his home town of Kirkaldy, where he has worked ever since.

In May 2008, he took part in the coronation of Charles III and Caroline, presenting a Bible to the king.

After his tenure as Moderator, Brown published several non-fiction books about theology and philosophy. He has publicly attacked the deportation policies of the Newton Dunn and Smith Governments. He has a keen interest in addiction issues, arguing that drug possession should be decriminalized, and has campaigned for the Green Party on the basis of their support for such a measure.

Brown is also a friend of mystery novelist Joanne Rowling. The titular protagonist of her Danny Crale series - a retired Church of Scotland minister - is reportedly based on Brown.

 

[Time Enough]

Brown is also a friend of mystery novelist Joanne Rowling. The titular protagonist of her Danny Crale series - a retired Church of Scotland minister - is reportedly based on Brown.

Aaaahhhhgh, oh that’s good.

 

[Thande]

Aaaahhhhgh, oh that’s good.

Agreed, it's all good but that's chef's kiss.

I'm now trying to guess what the others will be, but I won't post it here till after Callan does.

 

[Callan]

Aaaahhhhgh, oh that’s good.

Agreed, it's all good but that's chef's kiss.

Brown and Rowling are/were friends OTL - she donated a lot of money Labour when he was PM and there was talk of her getting a peerage. Apparently they became associated through Rowling’s campaigning with Gingerbread (when it was called the National Council of One Parent Families), and if anything it’s even easier to Brown getting involved with that charity as a clergyman as opposed as Chancellor.