- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
the first time id ever heard of the british empire was in the dangerous book for boys, thats not healthy
-
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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State
- Thread starter Mumby
- Start date
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
i enjoi something different! its very evocative
Bene Tleilax
Well-known member
I got it through Horrible Histories.
Bene Tleilax
Well-known member
Ideal Supreme Court
CJ: Ruth Bader Ginsberg
AJ: Barack Obama
AJ: Frank Caprio
AJ: Judy Shendlin
AJ: Angus King Jr.
AJ: Dean Barkley
AJ: Ed Bernstein
AJ: Merrick Garland
AJ: Jim Gray
CJ: Ruth Bader Ginsberg
AJ: Barack Obama
AJ: Frank Caprio
AJ: Judy Shendlin
AJ: Angus King Jr.
AJ: Dean Barkley
AJ: Ed Bernstein
AJ: Merrick Garland
AJ: Jim Gray
I Saw A Red Sky
He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but 🤓
Jeez.
First Secretaries of the United Commonwealths
2010-2013: Gordon Brown (Liberal-Labour)
2013-2014: Martin O'Malley (Democratic)
2014-2015: Hillary Clinton (Democratic)
2015: Ed Miliband (Labour-Democratic coalition)
2015: Yvette Cooper (Labour-Democratic coalition)
2015: Kate Hoey ('Insurrectionist' emergency government)
2015-2016: Yvette Cooper (New Movement-Democratic coalition)
2016: Ivanka Trump (National Government consisting of New Movement, Northern Irish Labour Party, Scottish Unionists)
2016-2017: Gerry Fitt (Northern Irish Labour Party)
2017: John McDonnell (An Independence From Neoliberalism)
2017-: Gerry Fitt & John McDonnell (Northern Irish Labour Party-An Independence From Neoliberalism coalition)
2010-2013: Gordon Brown (Liberal-Labour)
2013-2014: Martin O'Malley (Democratic)
2014-2015: Hillary Clinton (Democratic)
2015: Ed Miliband (Labour-Democratic coalition)
2015: Yvette Cooper (Labour-Democratic coalition)
2015: Kate Hoey ('Insurrectionist' emergency government)
2015-2016: Yvette Cooper (New Movement-Democratic coalition)
2016: Ivanka Trump (National Government consisting of New Movement, Northern Irish Labour Party, Scottish Unionists)
2016-2017: Gerry Fitt (Northern Irish Labour Party)
2017: John McDonnell (An Independence From Neoliberalism)
2017-: Gerry Fitt & John McDonnell (Northern Irish Labour Party-An Independence From Neoliberalism coalition)
- Location
- Das Böse ist immer und überall
- Pronouns
- he/him
the aesthetic cannot be corralled
- Location
- Municipal Commune of Bourne
- Pronouns
- He/Him
i am enjoying the johnny mac love in here
I tested one over at the Other Place (Bob has seen it), I quite like it, and I will post it here later when I sort the colour scheme and I’m not doing a deep clean on my house in Plaistow.
Blackadder Mk2
Well-known member
Broken Hearts
1997-2000: Tony Blair (Labour)
2000-2005: Gordon Brown (Labour)
2005-2006: Robin Cook (Labour-Liberal Democratic Coalition)
2006-2008: Peter Hain (Labour-Liberal Democratic Coalition)
2008-2009: Jack Straw (Labour-Liberal Democratic Coalition)
2009-2013: David Davis (Conservative)
2013-2015: Philip Hammond (Conservative)
2015-????: Adam Afriyie (Conservative)
Things Can Only Get Better. Britain at the Heart of Europe.
Two promises made by Tony Blair that never quite became true. It is hard to recognise the reputation of Blair as a man people agreed was one of Britain's best, but also someone who failed to be what he should have been. He let Britain down, in other words. His defenders will say that Blair was failed; by a Chancellor open to a referendum but then unwilling to support his own side, by a Party that said they loved Europe but then hid as their voters either shrugged their shoulders or cursed at them, by a political system that rewarded a man in a baseball cap lying on a truck with a pound-sign on it, and some even say Britain itself failed Blair.
It wasn't even close. The polls that showed a dramatic upswing after Blair, Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine, and Paddy Ashdown all stood on stage and spoke for the Euro suggested an era of Blair-power. An era where the crude nationalism of the Thatcher years could be cast aside. Maybe an era where all the sensible centrists would form their own party.
But then the polls stopped rising. They stagnated, and then they fell. The NO side were helped by leaks of being considered mad by the BBC, air-tight economic arguments unravelling when asked about deficit spending, enforcement rules, and what either meant for sovereignty if they worked and the economy if they didn't. Brown hid in Number 11 and Robin Cook was soon the only senior Cabinet Minister willing to go in front of the cameras with Blair. Defeat seemed certain and it made sense that Blair would listen to those who told him the only way to win the referendum. Many have said that Blair showed bravery, but that he had invested so much personal and political capital into the referendum that defeat would kill his Premiership spiritually.
So Tony Blair subtly told the people of Britain that if they chucked the Euro, they chucked him with it. He was cheered, jeered, and many didn't believe him. The polls that said the threat would turn the tide as voters would fear the return of the Tories never happened. Gordon Brown existed, after all. And when the head of the YES campaign got caught in hot-water over passports, that was the end of the dream of Britain in the Euro.
57-43 and that was the end of Blair's Premiership. In the same year that Europe took the next step, Britain seemed to dig in its heels and reject a dream beyond the Channel. Blair's resignation speech was considered moving and astounding, but nowadays people detect a moralising tone that a parent uses with a disappointing child that grates in hindsight. Blair departed from office having achieved much by the standards of its public, but his autobiography released in 2002 carried a bitter sense that he had done nothing of true value beyond the Northern Ireland peace process and the standard of liberal interventionism.
It's unfair to put all the blame on the frontbench's unease on Brown. He only gave the honest numbers to those who asked, avoided the public eye, and was relatively co-operative. But he was hated among the front bench and there was a disillusionment among the pro-Euro and Europhilic membership. That Brown narrowly defeated Robin Cook in the leadership election did not help his nerves. He rose to the plate when the planes hit the Twin Towers, he continued the work of New Labour, the Tories had a paltry 182 seats in the election, and then he pissed it all away by going into Iraq.
The party split, the country revolted, and Brown's lesser qualities became apparent with fits of screaming, phone-throwing, and temper-tantrums turning an already uneasy alliance rotten. Blair's book had made enough silent jabs at Brown that a possible reconciliation via his appointment to the Foreign Office after Cook's resignation died quickly. Ken Clarke proved an ample match for Brown at the Dispatch Box and, when he wasn't fighting with his party, had made progress in winning over the country. His opposition to Iraq nearly destroyed his leadership, but he was vindicated when the dossier proved dodgy.
2005 might have seen a Con-LibDem Coalition, but Labour's lead in seats proved too great. Brown had tried to make a deal with the DUP, but Labour wasn't having it. The threat of a challenge from Cook forced Brown's hand and Cook and Kennedy shook hands on the steps of Number 10. The dream of a united Left seemed in sight.
The tragedy of Cook's death, the rising incidences of the Deputy Prime Minister being drunk in the Commons, and the landslide defeat for STV in the 2008 Referendum killed good-feeling. Labour backbenchers had flocked to FPTP's banner and the LibDems, upon ejecting Kennedy, had begun to move to the right economically. Peter Hain did the best he could, but a double-scandal involving funding for his leadership campaign and attempts to force Gibraltar into a joint-sovereignty arrangement ended in tears as he was forced to resign.
Jack Straw's rise came less from genuine desire and more a rabid need for someone at the job to survive the term. Brown's tenure rapidly became beloved as the last time that Britain had a Prime Minister capable of lasting more than a few years at the job. He was boring, inoffensive, and thus lacked any potential scandal.
And then the economy was on fire, questions about the deficit were made, and the Liberal Democrats again changed leaders and this one wrote the Orange Book. As Labour plummeted and the LibDems struggled to detach themselves, the Conservatives under David Davis now seemed less like stodgy fuddy-duddies and more like those who saw the crisis coming. Davis' Referendum Pledge on EU Treaties was doubled-up by a pledge for a renegotiation of powers, but what truly mattered was a stoic pledge to sort out Britain's budget.
What actually happened, other than austerity, was relations with Europe turning toxic and David wrecking his own leadership with one wet, sloppy kiss on the first day that Parliament returned from the 2013 General Election. He had been re-elected one day, and then ejected the next. 'Shoulda Gone For The Cheek' The Sun declared. Maybe, however, it was him saying "Calm down, dear." to the woman in question that fucked it.
At the end of the day, however, Hammond would be haunted by his predecessor demanding-and getting-a referendum on the EU itself after years of being stung with blunt rejections grated. It didn't help that the public considered Davis' actions at worst not a resigning offence. Many differed, but more thought the same.
Hammond tried to be a boring but reliable figure, but ended up just being boring. The 54-46 defeat for the STAY campaign has been blamed on the expenses scandal and others blamed it on Davis' wild ambitions, but perhaps Britain was just the square-peg that'd never fit. Blair lamented the decision from his office in Washington and moved on with his life, having found a comfortable niche in America, and some in the EU celebrated the chance to finally force through the Berlin Treaty to serve as a de facto Constitution.
And Britain's new Prime Minister was a change from the old and grey men who had failed to survive. A man who symbolised a changing Britain. A modern Britain. A man of style to go with substance.
They hope.
1997-2000: Tony Blair (Labour)
2000-2005: Gordon Brown (Labour)
2005-2006: Robin Cook (Labour-Liberal Democratic Coalition)
2006-2008: Peter Hain (Labour-Liberal Democratic Coalition)
2008-2009: Jack Straw (Labour-Liberal Democratic Coalition)
2009-2013: David Davis (Conservative)
2013-2015: Philip Hammond (Conservative)
2015-????: Adam Afriyie (Conservative)
Things Can Only Get Better. Britain at the Heart of Europe.
Two promises made by Tony Blair that never quite became true. It is hard to recognise the reputation of Blair as a man people agreed was one of Britain's best, but also someone who failed to be what he should have been. He let Britain down, in other words. His defenders will say that Blair was failed; by a Chancellor open to a referendum but then unwilling to support his own side, by a Party that said they loved Europe but then hid as their voters either shrugged their shoulders or cursed at them, by a political system that rewarded a man in a baseball cap lying on a truck with a pound-sign on it, and some even say Britain itself failed Blair.
It wasn't even close. The polls that showed a dramatic upswing after Blair, Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine, and Paddy Ashdown all stood on stage and spoke for the Euro suggested an era of Blair-power. An era where the crude nationalism of the Thatcher years could be cast aside. Maybe an era where all the sensible centrists would form their own party.
But then the polls stopped rising. They stagnated, and then they fell. The NO side were helped by leaks of being considered mad by the BBC, air-tight economic arguments unravelling when asked about deficit spending, enforcement rules, and what either meant for sovereignty if they worked and the economy if they didn't. Brown hid in Number 11 and Robin Cook was soon the only senior Cabinet Minister willing to go in front of the cameras with Blair. Defeat seemed certain and it made sense that Blair would listen to those who told him the only way to win the referendum. Many have said that Blair showed bravery, but that he had invested so much personal and political capital into the referendum that defeat would kill his Premiership spiritually.
So Tony Blair subtly told the people of Britain that if they chucked the Euro, they chucked him with it. He was cheered, jeered, and many didn't believe him. The polls that said the threat would turn the tide as voters would fear the return of the Tories never happened. Gordon Brown existed, after all. And when the head of the YES campaign got caught in hot-water over passports, that was the end of the dream of Britain in the Euro.
57-43 and that was the end of Blair's Premiership. In the same year that Europe took the next step, Britain seemed to dig in its heels and reject a dream beyond the Channel. Blair's resignation speech was considered moving and astounding, but nowadays people detect a moralising tone that a parent uses with a disappointing child that grates in hindsight. Blair departed from office having achieved much by the standards of its public, but his autobiography released in 2002 carried a bitter sense that he had done nothing of true value beyond the Northern Ireland peace process and the standard of liberal interventionism.
It's unfair to put all the blame on the frontbench's unease on Brown. He only gave the honest numbers to those who asked, avoided the public eye, and was relatively co-operative. But he was hated among the front bench and there was a disillusionment among the pro-Euro and Europhilic membership. That Brown narrowly defeated Robin Cook in the leadership election did not help his nerves. He rose to the plate when the planes hit the Twin Towers, he continued the work of New Labour, the Tories had a paltry 182 seats in the election, and then he pissed it all away by going into Iraq.
The party split, the country revolted, and Brown's lesser qualities became apparent with fits of screaming, phone-throwing, and temper-tantrums turning an already uneasy alliance rotten. Blair's book had made enough silent jabs at Brown that a possible reconciliation via his appointment to the Foreign Office after Cook's resignation died quickly. Ken Clarke proved an ample match for Brown at the Dispatch Box and, when he wasn't fighting with his party, had made progress in winning over the country. His opposition to Iraq nearly destroyed his leadership, but he was vindicated when the dossier proved dodgy.
2005 might have seen a Con-LibDem Coalition, but Labour's lead in seats proved too great. Brown had tried to make a deal with the DUP, but Labour wasn't having it. The threat of a challenge from Cook forced Brown's hand and Cook and Kennedy shook hands on the steps of Number 10. The dream of a united Left seemed in sight.
The tragedy of Cook's death, the rising incidences of the Deputy Prime Minister being drunk in the Commons, and the landslide defeat for STV in the 2008 Referendum killed good-feeling. Labour backbenchers had flocked to FPTP's banner and the LibDems, upon ejecting Kennedy, had begun to move to the right economically. Peter Hain did the best he could, but a double-scandal involving funding for his leadership campaign and attempts to force Gibraltar into a joint-sovereignty arrangement ended in tears as he was forced to resign.
Jack Straw's rise came less from genuine desire and more a rabid need for someone at the job to survive the term. Brown's tenure rapidly became beloved as the last time that Britain had a Prime Minister capable of lasting more than a few years at the job. He was boring, inoffensive, and thus lacked any potential scandal.
And then the economy was on fire, questions about the deficit were made, and the Liberal Democrats again changed leaders and this one wrote the Orange Book. As Labour plummeted and the LibDems struggled to detach themselves, the Conservatives under David Davis now seemed less like stodgy fuddy-duddies and more like those who saw the crisis coming. Davis' Referendum Pledge on EU Treaties was doubled-up by a pledge for a renegotiation of powers, but what truly mattered was a stoic pledge to sort out Britain's budget.
What actually happened, other than austerity, was relations with Europe turning toxic and David wrecking his own leadership with one wet, sloppy kiss on the first day that Parliament returned from the 2013 General Election. He had been re-elected one day, and then ejected the next. 'Shoulda Gone For The Cheek' The Sun declared. Maybe, however, it was him saying "Calm down, dear." to the woman in question that fucked it.
At the end of the day, however, Hammond would be haunted by his predecessor demanding-and getting-a referendum on the EU itself after years of being stung with blunt rejections grated. It didn't help that the public considered Davis' actions at worst not a resigning offence. Many differed, but more thought the same.
Hammond tried to be a boring but reliable figure, but ended up just being boring. The 54-46 defeat for the STAY campaign has been blamed on the expenses scandal and others blamed it on Davis' wild ambitions, but perhaps Britain was just the square-peg that'd never fit. Blair lamented the decision from his office in Washington and moved on with his life, having found a comfortable niche in America, and some in the EU celebrated the chance to finally force through the Berlin Treaty to serve as a de facto Constitution.
And Britain's new Prime Minister was a change from the old and grey men who had failed to survive. A man who symbolised a changing Britain. A modern Britain. A man of style to go with substance.
They hope.
Last edited:
*another D a v i d
First Secretaries of the Commonwealth
1979* – 1981 Michael Foot (Labour)
1981– 1993 Oliver Tambo (ANC)
1993 Daniel Ortega (FSLN)
1993 – 1996 Robert Mugabe (ZANU-PF)
1996 – 1999 Nelson Mandela (ANC)
1999 – 2000 Thabo Mbeki (ANC)
2000 – 2008 Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC)
2008 Simba Makoni (Mavambo)
2008 – 2010 Gordon Brown (Labour)
2010 – 2013 Ian Khama (BDP) in coalition with FRELIMO (Arnando Guebuza)
2013 – 2017 Solly Mapaila (SACP) in reluctant coalition with ANC (Jacob Zuma)
2017 – Cyril Ramaphosa (New Dawn coalition: ANC with SACP (Blade Nzimande/Solly Mapaila))
* I date my politically awakening to seeing my parents looking dispairingly at the 1979 general election results and going to look at the newspaper and understanding that somehow all those blue circles in the picture were a bad thing
I was the one who started this back on that Other Place, so I figured I might as well cash in over here.
i had a very dark period in my teenage years
Presidents of the United States of Avalanches
1998 - 2001: Bill Clinton / Al Gore (Democratic)
2001 - 2005: George Bush / Dick Cheney (Republican)
defeated, 2000: Al Gore / Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
2005 - 2011: Rudy Giuliani / Mike Crapo (Republican)
defeated, 2004: Joe Lieberman / Max Cleland (Democratic)
defeated, 2008: Sam Harris / Various (Secularist), Dianne Feinstein / Bill Nelson (‘War’ Democrats), Russ Feingold / Cindy Sheehan (Give Peace a Chance!)
2011 - 2013: Sam Harris (Inquisition)
2013 - 2014: Liz Warren / Lisa Murkowski / Bob Corker (Union for Saving America)
2014 - present: Jovanka Beckles (Movement for Socialism)
defeated, 2015: Lisa Murkowski (Union), Dana Rohrabacher (Liberty), Hillary Clinton (Democrats - Liberty ‘15!), uncontested (American National Party)
i had a very dark period in my teenage years
Presidents of the United States of Avalanches
1998 - 2001: Bill Clinton / Al Gore (Democratic)
2001 - 2005: George Bush / Dick Cheney (Republican)
defeated, 2000: Al Gore / Joe Lieberman (Democratic)
2005 - 2011: Rudy Giuliani / Mike Crapo (Republican)
defeated, 2004: Joe Lieberman / Max Cleland (Democratic)
defeated, 2008: Sam Harris / Various (Secularist), Dianne Feinstein / Bill Nelson (‘War’ Democrats), Russ Feingold / Cindy Sheehan (Give Peace a Chance!)
2011 - 2013: Sam Harris (Inquisition)
2013 - 2014: Liz Warren / Lisa Murkowski / Bob Corker (Union for Saving America)
2014 - present: Jovanka Beckles (Movement for Socialism)
defeated, 2015: Lisa Murkowski (Union), Dana Rohrabacher (Liberty), Hillary Clinton (Democrats - Liberty ‘15!), uncontested (American National Party)
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2005-2008: Ken Livingstone (London Labour majority)
2005: George Galloway (Stop The War), Bob Crow/Roger Bolton (Independent Working Class Association), Charles Kennedy (Radical), David Davis (Conservative)
2008-2008: Ken Livingstone (London Labour minority)
2008-2009: Ken Livingstone (London Labour-Order and Progress coalition)
2009-2013: Harpal Brar (Union of Anti-Revisionist Forces)
2009: Ken Livingstone (London Labour), Brian Paddick (Order and Progress), Gordon Brown (Scottish Labour), Caroline Lucas (Radical-Ecologist Alliance)
2010: Suspended
2013-2014: Harpal Brar / Ed Miliband (UARF / Social Democratic leading Government of Truth and Reconciliation)
2013: Tony Benn (Europe Is Not A Nation), Caroline Lucas (Radical-Ecologist Alliance), Jeremy Corbyn (Stop The War), Robin Tilbrook (English Democrat), Tony Blair (Centre)
2014-2015: Ed Miliband (Social Democratic-Europe Is Not A Nation coalition)
2015-2015: Jon Cruddas (English Socialist leading Emergency Government)
2015-2017: Jon Cruddas (English Socialist-Commonwealth-Europe Is Not A Nation coalition)
2015: Jon Lansman (Commonwealth), Kelvin Hopkins (Europe Is Not A Nation), Maurice Glasman (Poale Zion), Jeremy Corbyn (Stop The War)
2017-: Jon Cruddas / John McDonnell / Laura Pidcock (English Socialist leading People's Triumvirate)
So, here's a list showing my own progression. As with the others, please ask away.
2005: George Galloway (Stop The War), Bob Crow/Roger Bolton (Independent Working Class Association), Charles Kennedy (Radical), David Davis (Conservative)
2008-2008: Ken Livingstone (London Labour minority)
2008-2009: Ken Livingstone (London Labour-Order and Progress coalition)
2009-2013: Harpal Brar (Union of Anti-Revisionist Forces)
2009: Ken Livingstone (London Labour), Brian Paddick (Order and Progress), Gordon Brown (Scottish Labour), Caroline Lucas (Radical-Ecologist Alliance)
2010: Suspended
2013-2014: Harpal Brar / Ed Miliband (UARF / Social Democratic leading Government of Truth and Reconciliation)
2013: Tony Benn (Europe Is Not A Nation), Caroline Lucas (Radical-Ecologist Alliance), Jeremy Corbyn (Stop The War), Robin Tilbrook (English Democrat), Tony Blair (Centre)
2014-2015: Ed Miliband (Social Democratic-Europe Is Not A Nation coalition)
2015-2015: Jon Cruddas (English Socialist leading Emergency Government)
2015-2017: Jon Cruddas (English Socialist-Commonwealth-Europe Is Not A Nation coalition)
2015: Jon Lansman (Commonwealth), Kelvin Hopkins (Europe Is Not A Nation), Maurice Glasman (Poale Zion), Jeremy Corbyn (Stop The War)
2017-: Jon Cruddas / John McDonnell / Laura Pidcock (English Socialist leading People's Triumvirate)
So, here's a list showing my own progression. As with the others, please ask away.
My finding a way to reconcile my Hoxhaism with my membership of Ed Miliband’s Labour Party - that didn’t turn out well as a perfect triangulation, as I had tone down my Stalin worship to such an extent that I probably briefly didn’t consider myself a communist during a brief period.
My politics went national - my first political memory was Livingstone’s speech after 7/7, so I just knew him as the ‘big Labour man on telly that me and my family love’. That evolved, of course, as I got to know politics on a greater scale and came to read about Marxism-Leninism on the family computer when I was about 10 (this evolution took place during my brief fascination with Brian Paddick after watching an ITV London interview with him at about the same time). In the end, I chose the Albanian Party of Labour over the Lib Dems (while still being a nominal Labour supporter).
So many reasons, but he’s the first person who gave me a break politically and - whilst I am way to his left - I am also rooted in a similar kind of working-class, slightly socially conservative communitarianism. He’s been a solid bloke for as long as I’ve known him as well.
I’ll also be working for him next year, so it’d be wrong not to pay homage.
- Location
- North Solihull
- Pronouns
- she/her
These are fun, so if you'll indulge me:
First Collegues of the Transitional Authority of Greater Mercia
2001-2001 William Hague (Conservative)
2001-2005 Three Daily Mail editorials in a black shirt, idk (UKIP)
2005-2007 David Davis (Conservative)
2007-2008 Gordon Brown (Labour)
2008-2009 David Miliband (Labour-Conservative coalition)
2009-2010 Gordon Brown (Labour) with NZ Labour confidence and supply
2010-2010 Andy Burnham (Aspirational Labour)
2010-2013 Ed Miliband (Birmingham Labour-One Nation Labour-Red Labour Coalition)
2013-2014 Cait Reilly (Unemployed Peoples' Union - Anti-Workfare)
2014-2016 Natalie Bennett (Green)
2016-2017 position vacant due to Occupation
2017-2018 Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) (suspended pending review)
2018-2018 (Acting) (Transgender and Jewish Rights Alliance) with support from the reanimated avatar of John Balance (NZ Liberal-escapism)
All my teenage opinions came from one source and one source only. Since then I've drifted somewhat leftward. I blame education.
My ratting and re-ratting of the mid-2010s has occured with an almost uncanny ability to incorrectly predict the increasingly messy future course of British politics.
I can't remember the name of NZ Labour's 2009 leader, though I do remember personally meeting both him and Jacinda when she was just a List MP. Maybe he didn't exist.
First Collegues of the Transitional Authority of Greater Mercia
2001-2001 William Hague (Conservative)
2001-2005 Three Daily Mail editorials in a black shirt, idk (UKIP)
2005-2007 David Davis (Conservative)
2007-2008 Gordon Brown (Labour)
2008-2009 David Miliband (Labour-Conservative coalition)
2009-2010 Gordon Brown (Labour) with NZ Labour confidence and supply
2010-2010 Andy Burnham (Aspirational Labour)
2010-2013 Ed Miliband (Birmingham Labour-One Nation Labour-Red Labour Coalition)
2013-2014 Cait Reilly (Unemployed Peoples' Union - Anti-Workfare)
2014-2016 Natalie Bennett (Green)
2016-2017 position vacant due to Occupation
2017-2018 Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) (suspended pending review)
2018-2018 (Acting) (Transgender and Jewish Rights Alliance) with support from the reanimated avatar of John Balance (NZ Liberal-escapism)
All my teenage opinions came from one source and one source only. Since then I've drifted somewhat leftward. I blame education.
My ratting and re-ratting of the mid-2010s has occured with an almost uncanny ability to incorrectly predict the increasingly messy future course of British politics.
I can't remember the name of NZ Labour's 2009 leader, though I do remember personally meeting both him and Jacinda when she was just a List MP. Maybe he didn't exist.
- Location
- Tamaki Makaurau
His name was Phil Goff and you're right, he didn't.
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- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
In the name of avoiding a DRPK-Like Eternal Presidentcy of Lincoln under which there's an utterly boring list of people like Colin Powell and John McCain until I left the GOP and then utterly boring picks of moderate Democrats, I decided to deal with something else, my tendency to always set up Socialism in the USA in the worst light possible. Because shit, I disagree with plenty of Conservatives and Liberals I've used over the years and still given them a good shake. So here goes.
The Long Wooing of American Reform and American Socialism
1897-1901: William J. Bryan / Spencer Trask (Democratic / Populist)
1925-1933: Frank O. Lowden / Franklin D. Roosevelt (Republican)
1949-1953: Walter P. Reuther / Harry S. Truman (Square Deal)
The War of the Triple Entente would break out during the Burton Administration in 1913, and his administration would be defined by an American Effort to stay out of the war initially. Domestically there were efforts to replace the Populism of the Bryan Years with full grown progressivism, the most famous example of which would be the "Second Bank War", in the end Burton was forced to compromise creating the Federal Bank System instead of the Third Bank of the United States, with 48 full member reserve banks for each state. Under Burton there would also be the relatively peaceful US annexation of Hawaii putting an end to years of coups and countercoups in the Republic, and the US treaty with the Philippines establishing bases on Luzon after that Republic secured its independence from Spain. But, inevitably neither Hawaii, or Banks or Haiti could deny the US its moment of destiny with the Entente-Central Powers war as the conflict arrived in Latin America and the German U-Boat campaign turned on American flagged shipping. In early 1916 the United States found itself without a choice. While the US Navy helped clear the seas for the United Kingdom US ground forces would fight in pitched combat in Venezuela, around the Rio de la Plata and in operations that proved massively unpopular domestically, against insurgents in rural Brazil, putting the lessons of Mexico to good use. In the end Russia would collapse into Revolution with the Romanov's exiled to Paris, Austria-Hungary and Germany turning on each other in the middle of a war as both empires slowly starved, Italy forced to sue for a Separate Peace and a ceasefire on the Western Front. America on the other hand could comfortably claim a win, with friendly governments come to Venezuela, Argentina and Chile and the Brazillian Revolution smothered in its cradle. The United States would see the end of the war as the Chance to establish the Congress of the Americas. In Europe the War would be followed by rage and revolution as people from Dublin to Kazan wondered what it had all been for.
Unsurprisingly the American economy turned sour in 1918 as the global conflict came to a fizzled end and the Popular Democrats would use that to gain majorities in Congress and then in 1920 would retake the White House. Unfortunately for them the man who did so was an autocratic force in and of himself. William Randolph Hearst's term as President would be chaotic, with massive popular discontent, a general strike, the US Army turned into a mob of strikebreakers by the President's order, inflation, an an agricultural crash that Hearst in a fit of pique refused to respond to and vetoed several populist efforts to confront. To many it seemed that Hearst was eyeing the Fasciste in Paris and taking notes, to others it seemed like he was descending into Paranoia expecting the Social Revolutionaries of Russia to suddenly export themselves here, something that seemed unpopular even with the Socialist Labor Party, with their commitment to the Democratic Process. In the end Hearst would be rejected by the Popular Democrats as his authoritarian tendencies continued to grow and he attempted to insist on a "Popular Corporatist" revolution for the Party and the Country. Booted out, he would cost the Party the election of 1924 but he and his cynically branded "Jeffersonian Movement" would fade just as quickly as it had arrived.
Frank Lowden would thus come to office as the grand peacemaker during the boom years. Always in negotiations with the now Popular Democrats, who after the departure of Hearst was firmly under the control of its several left-leaning factions, and the Socialist Labor Party who continued to steadily grow in voter percentages and congressional seats in urban districts. His opponents rarely came away happy but concessions were won. Lowden would turn to support the conservation movement after decades of further Populist-fueled land exploration in the west, as well as seeking regulation of the stock market in the defense of small shareholders, and saw the separation of the Department of Industry, Labor and Health into three separate departments. But then in 1928 the economy crashed. When election day came around it appeared that Lowden's very loud and very dramatic, Progressive steps had saved things from getting worse but, well it hadn't. The stock market crash was followed by several bank failures in the US west as the bottom came out on the agricultural economy. Civil Wars in China, Italy and Spain as well as the "Self-sufficiency" Policies of the new Regents in Dresden crippled the global economy, spending things further into a spiral that would see Lowden's legacy never able to be recovered.
And with that, with things at their lowest, the Left fractionally dominated Popular Democrats and the Right fractionally dominated Socialist Labor Party began to talk. 1930 would see a massive number of seats won by local alliances and set both parties up for a joint ticket in 1932. Harold Ickes, the Democratic radical would come into office promising a Square Deal for the American worker, farmer and even the office worker. The Depression would be defeated by Brute Force and spending: Countless "Alphabet Soup" Programs would fight to expand the patchwork of Civil Rights policies that were scattered across America since the collapse of Reconstruction, Education would be prioritized, Workers were given federal aid to buy out owners and form cooperatives in some cases, while nationalizations would form on the other. All American workers were enrolled in Unions, and US troops would be deployed in several Southern states to enforce an end to segregation. Ickes, a dynamo of action would see the Square Deal not just become a platform, but eventually the basis for a new and unified political party, the union being overseen in a million acts of patronage and backroom deals by his driven Postmaster General, James P. Cannon.
In the end, the US economy recovered, and prospered, just in time for the Nation's greatest crisis since 1861. The French Fasciste and the regime of "Mittleuropa" came together in a pact from hell, declaring crusades against World Jewery, World Capitalism and World Communism. By the end of 1940 Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemberg, Lithuania, and the United Baltic States would all crushed under the treds of French and Austro-German troops and Tanks, terror bombed and occupied. The SR Regime was forced to seek Peace in 1940 with the Axis, surrendering for a time huge tracks of the country to the Fascistes. In Europe, Britain and the Irish Free State stood alone and across Southern France and Eastern Europe camps were created to industrialize murder. The Indian Union would take advantage of the war to declare their neutrality and effectively depart the British Empire. Fighting sea-sawed across West and North Africa. French and German U-Boats again tightened their grip on the British Isles and threatened them with starvation. And while discontent was high in the new Party, Ickes moved firmly and decisively. There would be no permitted era of terror on the High Seas. It was a French submarine that torpedoed the liner SS America in the early winter of 1940, just days after Perichenko announced the cease-fire on Soviet Radio. And with that the United States entered the World War. US troops would, for the next for years fight everywhere, from Indochina and Malaya to North Africa, then Italy, Spain and eventually on the Russian Front as the new Frunze government restarted the war, and all the way to Paris and eventually in 1945, Vienna and then Dresden.
Ickes would find himself the longest-serving US president when it was all said and done, and would immediately, in the post-war glow seek to avoid the pitfalls and failures of the past to see the US economy not only survive but prosper in the post-war transition. As he moved one of his former Vice Presidents to the State Department, the road was clear on how to do that: The United States would help rebuild the whole world, as prosperity was the best assurance against a return to the Fasciste or the embrace of the totalitarianism that Petrograd had spread across Eastern Europe and was a humanitarian necessity after years of war. Ickes though would not see the full embrace of his new vision though he was comfortable with the results when after years of strain his heart would give out while he rested at his Maryland Farm. It was a quick death, and if he realized what was happening, he could at least content himself with the fact that he had made the right call when he'd picked the executive director of the US Auto Authority, who had turned Detroit into the Arsenal of Democracy to take over the number two job in the last election.
Made a few changes to the list, one of them is kind of a big deal because new name.
The Long Wooing of American Reform and American Socialism
1897-1901: William J. Bryan / Spencer Trask (Democratic / Populist)
1896: William J. Bryan / Thomas E. Watson (Populist), Thomas B. Reed / H. Clay Evans (Republican)
1901-1905: William J. Bryan / Charles A. Towne (Democratic / Populist)1900: William McKinley / Frederick D. Grant (Republican)
1905-1909: William J. Bryan / Adlai E. Stevenson (Popular Democratic)1904: Robert M. LaFollette, Sr. / Franklin Murphy (Republican), Eugene V. Debs / Benjamin R. Tucker (Socialist Labor)
1909-1913: Frank Steuenberg / William Sulzer (Popular Democratic)1908: Theodore Roosevelt / Herbert S. Hadley (Republican), William D. Haywood / Charles H. Corregan (Socialist Labor)
1913-1921: Theodore E. Burton / T. Woodrow Wilson (Republican)1912: Frank Steuenberg / William Sulzer (Popular Democratic), Eugene V. Debs / Thomas J. Hagerty (Socialist Labor)
1916: James B. “Champ” Clark / James H. Kyle (Popular Democratic), Charles E. Russell / Vincent St. John (Socialist Labor)
1921-1924: William R. Hearst / Charles W. Bryan (Popular Democratic)1920: Theodore Roosevelt / William H. Taft (Republican), John L. Lewis / Joseph J. Ettor (Socialist Labor)
1924-1925: William R. Hearst / vacant (Independent) 1925-1933: Frank O. Lowden / Franklin D. Roosevelt (Republican)
1924: Charles W. Bryan / Burton K. Wheeler (Popular Democratic), William R. Hearst / A. Mitchell Palmer ("Jeffersonian" Independent), Charles E. Russell / William Z. Foster (Socialist Labor)
1928: Alfred E. Smith / Nellie Tayloe Ross (Popular Democratic), Norman M. Thomas / Charles H. Kerr (Socialist Labor)
1933-1941: Harold L. Ickes / William Z. Foster (Farmer-Labor Coalition/ Popular Front--- Popular Democratic, Socialist Labor)1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt / Henry M. Stinson (Republican), Richard B. Russell, Jr. / James M. Curley (National Democratic)
1936: William J. Donovan / George W. Norris (Republican), John W. Davis / Huey P Long (National Democratic)
1941-1945: Harold L. Ickes / Herbert C. Hoover (Square Deal)1940: Elliot Ness / Jesse H. Jones (Republican and Democratic), Vito A. Marcantonio / Harry F. Ward (Independent (Left) Section of the Square Deal Party)
1945-1947: Harold L. Ickes / Walter P. Reuther (Square Deal)1944: Scott W. Lucas / Leonidas C. Dyer (Republican and Democratic)
1947-1949: Walter P. Reuther / vacant (Square Deal)1949-1953: Walter P. Reuther / Harry S. Truman (Square Deal)
1948: Robert A. Taft / Helen G. Douglas (Republican and Democratic)
Bryan's squeeker win in 1896 is followed by twelve years of the Great Commoner in office. In that time he would see the passage of Free Silver, Amendments on Senate Elections (1903), Women's Sufferage (1907), the Income Tax (1908) and as his crowning achievement Prohibition (1904). The National Rural and Urban Doctors Systems and the Federal Hospital System, the Postal Banking System, the National Railway Corporation, And the Agricultural Adjustment Administration would see the increasing Progressive influence on the Radical Agrarian Administration, a useful counterweight, if an often unwelcome one vs the utopian, anti-intellectual, and often bigotted ideals of the Populists. Bryan's 1899 war with Spain would see the United States create protectorates in Cuba and Puerto Rico, and thus open the door for ever increasing interventions by the US in the Carribean, Central and South America. Between 1903 and 1905 the United States under Bryan would be caught in the Mexican Revolution with regular combat taking place around Vera Cruz, Tabasco and in the Border States (On both sides of the Border). Bryan, uncomfortable in his role as wartime President would eventually have to order General Miles to repeat Winfield Scott's campaign and take Mexico City. The US Intervention would eventually see the Francisco Madero consolidate power with his Liberal Reformers but regional conflicts in Mexico would haunt Bryan and his successors for years to come.The War of the Triple Entente would break out during the Burton Administration in 1913, and his administration would be defined by an American Effort to stay out of the war initially. Domestically there were efforts to replace the Populism of the Bryan Years with full grown progressivism, the most famous example of which would be the "Second Bank War", in the end Burton was forced to compromise creating the Federal Bank System instead of the Third Bank of the United States, with 48 full member reserve banks for each state. Under Burton there would also be the relatively peaceful US annexation of Hawaii putting an end to years of coups and countercoups in the Republic, and the US treaty with the Philippines establishing bases on Luzon after that Republic secured its independence from Spain. But, inevitably neither Hawaii, or Banks or Haiti could deny the US its moment of destiny with the Entente-Central Powers war as the conflict arrived in Latin America and the German U-Boat campaign turned on American flagged shipping. In early 1916 the United States found itself without a choice. While the US Navy helped clear the seas for the United Kingdom US ground forces would fight in pitched combat in Venezuela, around the Rio de la Plata and in operations that proved massively unpopular domestically, against insurgents in rural Brazil, putting the lessons of Mexico to good use. In the end Russia would collapse into Revolution with the Romanov's exiled to Paris, Austria-Hungary and Germany turning on each other in the middle of a war as both empires slowly starved, Italy forced to sue for a Separate Peace and a ceasefire on the Western Front. America on the other hand could comfortably claim a win, with friendly governments come to Venezuela, Argentina and Chile and the Brazillian Revolution smothered in its cradle. The United States would see the end of the war as the Chance to establish the Congress of the Americas. In Europe the War would be followed by rage and revolution as people from Dublin to Kazan wondered what it had all been for.
Unsurprisingly the American economy turned sour in 1918 as the global conflict came to a fizzled end and the Popular Democrats would use that to gain majorities in Congress and then in 1920 would retake the White House. Unfortunately for them the man who did so was an autocratic force in and of himself. William Randolph Hearst's term as President would be chaotic, with massive popular discontent, a general strike, the US Army turned into a mob of strikebreakers by the President's order, inflation, an an agricultural crash that Hearst in a fit of pique refused to respond to and vetoed several populist efforts to confront. To many it seemed that Hearst was eyeing the Fasciste in Paris and taking notes, to others it seemed like he was descending into Paranoia expecting the Social Revolutionaries of Russia to suddenly export themselves here, something that seemed unpopular even with the Socialist Labor Party, with their commitment to the Democratic Process. In the end Hearst would be rejected by the Popular Democrats as his authoritarian tendencies continued to grow and he attempted to insist on a "Popular Corporatist" revolution for the Party and the Country. Booted out, he would cost the Party the election of 1924 but he and his cynically branded "Jeffersonian Movement" would fade just as quickly as it had arrived.
Frank Lowden would thus come to office as the grand peacemaker during the boom years. Always in negotiations with the now Popular Democrats, who after the departure of Hearst was firmly under the control of its several left-leaning factions, and the Socialist Labor Party who continued to steadily grow in voter percentages and congressional seats in urban districts. His opponents rarely came away happy but concessions were won. Lowden would turn to support the conservation movement after decades of further Populist-fueled land exploration in the west, as well as seeking regulation of the stock market in the defense of small shareholders, and saw the separation of the Department of Industry, Labor and Health into three separate departments. But then in 1928 the economy crashed. When election day came around it appeared that Lowden's very loud and very dramatic, Progressive steps had saved things from getting worse but, well it hadn't. The stock market crash was followed by several bank failures in the US west as the bottom came out on the agricultural economy. Civil Wars in China, Italy and Spain as well as the "Self-sufficiency" Policies of the new Regents in Dresden crippled the global economy, spending things further into a spiral that would see Lowden's legacy never able to be recovered.
And with that, with things at their lowest, the Left fractionally dominated Popular Democrats and the Right fractionally dominated Socialist Labor Party began to talk. 1930 would see a massive number of seats won by local alliances and set both parties up for a joint ticket in 1932. Harold Ickes, the Democratic radical would come into office promising a Square Deal for the American worker, farmer and even the office worker. The Depression would be defeated by Brute Force and spending: Countless "Alphabet Soup" Programs would fight to expand the patchwork of Civil Rights policies that were scattered across America since the collapse of Reconstruction, Education would be prioritized, Workers were given federal aid to buy out owners and form cooperatives in some cases, while nationalizations would form on the other. All American workers were enrolled in Unions, and US troops would be deployed in several Southern states to enforce an end to segregation. Ickes, a dynamo of action would see the Square Deal not just become a platform, but eventually the basis for a new and unified political party, the union being overseen in a million acts of patronage and backroom deals by his driven Postmaster General, James P. Cannon.
In the end, the US economy recovered, and prospered, just in time for the Nation's greatest crisis since 1861. The French Fasciste and the regime of "Mittleuropa" came together in a pact from hell, declaring crusades against World Jewery, World Capitalism and World Communism. By the end of 1940 Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemberg, Lithuania, and the United Baltic States would all crushed under the treds of French and Austro-German troops and Tanks, terror bombed and occupied. The SR Regime was forced to seek Peace in 1940 with the Axis, surrendering for a time huge tracks of the country to the Fascistes. In Europe, Britain and the Irish Free State stood alone and across Southern France and Eastern Europe camps were created to industrialize murder. The Indian Union would take advantage of the war to declare their neutrality and effectively depart the British Empire. Fighting sea-sawed across West and North Africa. French and German U-Boats again tightened their grip on the British Isles and threatened them with starvation. And while discontent was high in the new Party, Ickes moved firmly and decisively. There would be no permitted era of terror on the High Seas. It was a French submarine that torpedoed the liner SS America in the early winter of 1940, just days after Perichenko announced the cease-fire on Soviet Radio. And with that the United States entered the World War. US troops would, for the next for years fight everywhere, from Indochina and Malaya to North Africa, then Italy, Spain and eventually on the Russian Front as the new Frunze government restarted the war, and all the way to Paris and eventually in 1945, Vienna and then Dresden.
Ickes would find himself the longest-serving US president when it was all said and done, and would immediately, in the post-war glow seek to avoid the pitfalls and failures of the past to see the US economy not only survive but prosper in the post-war transition. As he moved one of his former Vice Presidents to the State Department, the road was clear on how to do that: The United States would help rebuild the whole world, as prosperity was the best assurance against a return to the Fasciste or the embrace of the totalitarianism that Petrograd had spread across Eastern Europe and was a humanitarian necessity after years of war. Ickes though would not see the full embrace of his new vision though he was comfortable with the results when after years of strain his heart would give out while he rested at his Maryland Farm. It was a quick death, and if he realized what was happening, he could at least content himself with the fact that he had made the right call when he'd picked the executive director of the US Auto Authority, who had turned Detroit into the Arsenal of Democracy to take over the number two job in the last election.
Made a few changes to the list, one of them is kind of a big deal because new name.
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