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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

List of Leaders of the Freedom Party
1949-1952: Sir Ernest Benn
1952-1961: Edward Martell
1961-1969: Donald Johnson
1969-1976: Enoch Powell
1976-1984: Don Bennett
1984-2007: John Gouriet
2007-: Sean Gabb

In these times of uncertainty and the new electability of the far-right, it is perhaps natural to look back at the last time Western Europe turned to populist parties as one. In 1956, elections were held in West Germany, where the Federalist Union brought about a brief shock to the dominance of the CDU; in Italy, where the Monarchists performed a similar service; and in France, where a shopkeeper named Pierre Poujade started an anti-tax crusade which widened into a defence of the common man against bureaucrats, foreigners and politicians – readers will see similarities with a certain British party which broke through at the same time.

The story of the Freedom Party begins with the end of the story of the Liberal Party. Once an august party sweeping all before it, the Liberal Party crashed and burned when Labour succeeded in bringing the centre-left vote into their own auspices in 1945. They won 11 seats – fewer even than what became popularly known as the ‘Davies Liberals’ who were in permanent coalition with the Tories – and lost their leader, Archibald Sinclair, by a very narrow margin. The only remaining MP with any real experience or public profile was Megan Lloyd-George, daughter of David and sister of Gwilym, who was even further to the left than her father. Megan Lloyd George was a divisive figure in the Party: the first female party leader in British history by a long distance, and a proponent of oddball ideas such as Keynesianism and the Beveridge Plan. For most of the remaining Liberal members, these concepts were not only insupportable, but incomprehensible to boot.

What Megan Lloyd George failed to understand was that the bulk of the Liberal membership had joined because they believed in certain principles (for instance, free trade and free enterprise) which had flowered under Gladstone and been maintained even by the New Liberals, but no amount of hereditary loyalty would allow them to twist their principles into a philosophy redolent of Socialism. A group of discontented Liberals, led by Sir Ernest Benn (uncle of Tony), split off to form the Freedom Party, which would be built on these old certainties – but the new Party could not break through onto the centre stage until the way was clear.

With membership atrophying, candidates difficult to find or fund, and offers of electoral pacts with the Tories rebuffed, the Lloyd George Liberals were knocked down to two seats in 1950 (although Jo Grimond, not amenable to the new direction, was elected as an Independent Liberal in Orkney and Shetland). There had been no recovery by 1951, meaning that Megan Lloyd George herself lost her seat – she was later to join Labour, which many thought she ought to have done before destroying the Liberals. Roderic Bowen, the last Liberal MP, joined the Conservative Government on the same terms as Gwilym Lloyd-George, except for a less important ministry, and that was that for three-party Britain.

Or so it seemed.

The situation was to change in 1956. By this point, many voters had realised that the Tory Government wasn’t going to reverse the reforms made by the Attlee Government. Churchill, Eden, Butler – none of them had any intention of cutting back on the welfare state to allow the little man to stand on his own two feet. For all their talk, free trade in practice meant protectionism, and One Nation meant that the nationalised monopolies would remain nationalised, all of which meant - as far as they were concerned - that the fight against totalitarian Hitlerism had been lost in the peace.

The Freedom Party’s new leader, Edward Martell, was much more of a self-publicist than Sir Ernest Benn – he attracted headlines by organising what Socialists called ‘scab labour’. When the buses went on strike, he arranged for the Freedomites to run their cars as a replacement service; when the postal service went on a work-to-rule, the Party delivered letters – at a small mark-up for fundraising purposes. Martell’s charisma and Hayekian rhetoric, along with the votes of hacked-off free-marketers and inveterate malcontents, delivered over a dozen seats in the 1956 general election, introducing Britons to such faces as Oliver Smedley, S. W. Alexander, John Creasey, George Watson and Alan Peacock.

The Freedom Party was most successful when it united the anti-Socialist vote in industrial Labour constituencies (for instance, Edward Martell entered Parliament for Bethnal Green), in sharp contrast to the post-war Liberal Party, which seemed to be more of a rural phenomenon during its brief existence. Freedomites performed well in London and in the Yorkshire-Lancashire textile belt – for instance, the seats of Bolton West, Huddersfield West, Colne Valley, and Rochdale. But the surge was only temporary. The country had famously “never had it so good” in 1960, which seemed to legitimise the Butskellite consensus against which the Freedom Party railed. Martell resigned as leader shortly after going backwards in the election of that year.

He was succeeded by Carlisle MP Donald Johnson, who defeated Jo Grimond (Grimond had given up Independent status to join the Freedom Party in 1957) for the leadership, and who brought a new intelligence to the Freedom Party. Previously, it had stood for free enterprise, free trade, electoral reform and general anti-politician sentiment. Johnson and his lean new machine set a more constructive tone. Yes, the charming Johnson remained essentially a populist playing to the public gallery (his famous joke about Macmillan’s 69-seat majority is generally regarded as the nadir of Parliamentary debate), but he also exerted pressure on the Government to establish an Ombudsman and sell off the state-owned pubs (all public houses in Carlisle had been nationalised in 1916 - they really were public). Pamphlets flooded out from Freedomite presses, with titles like ‘The Unservile State’, ‘Free Trade = Cheap Food’ and ‘The Drift to a Corporate State’, all arguing for the abolition of price controls, exchange controls, the welfare state and nationalised industries. Admittedly, George Watson’s argument that Karl Marx invented genocide and that Hitler only had the idea for the Holcaust because he was a Socialist met with a considerable amount of opposition from all sides.

The fortunes of the Freedom Party rose again shortly after their 1960 setback when the economist Arthur Seldon won the Orpington by-election of 1962, thus proving that Freedomite ideas could appeal to the affluent suburbs where Butskellism was supposedly delivering the goods. During the 1960s, political commentators argued themselves hoarse over the relevance of the ‘Seldon Man’ – a comfortable middle-class man with a car and a three-bed semi, who might be attracted by the Freedom Party’s promises of individual liberty and a voucher system to get his children into public schools.

Other prominent Freedomites of the time included: Oliver Smedley, the owner of a pirate radio station; George Kennedy Young, a former MI6 agent who set up a private army with which he intended to launch a coup against Harold Wilson if he “went too far”; Wallace Lawler, who introduced the Freedom Party to the community-based style of vote-gathering which attracted so much criticism from the Labour Party; and John Creasey, the author of over six hundred crime novels and an exponent of a Swiss-style all-party permanent coalition. This proposal was included in the 1965 manifesto but was rejected out of hand by both Wilson and Maudling. Wilson's eight-seat majority was famously good enough for him.

The final intellectual strand of the Freedom Party, though, was opposition to immigration and the Common Market. The EEC, in particular, was a bug-bear of the Freedomites, symbolising everything that was wrong with the post-war consensus: a protectionist economy limiting trade with the world and fuelling high prices, high inflation and Socialist economic planning. Towards the end of the 60s, this issue became predominant, somewhat against the wishes of Donald Johnson, who preferred a broad-based approach. Enoch Powell, long a sympathiser of the Freedom Party’s economic policies, finally defected in 1968 after being sacked from Heath’s frontbench. Immediately, he resigned his Wolverhampton South West seat and won it back in a by-election, thus setting the Powell Precedent. And this moment of high drama delivered him the momentum to challenge Johnson for the leadership shortly afterwards. There was no contest.

Powell campaigned heavily on the Europe question in 1970 and achieved the Freedom Party’s most successful result by appealing to disaffected Tories who weren’t keen on Heath’s quasi-federalist position on the most important issue of the day. Both major party leaders went to bed before election day certain that they would win, but both were wrong: the Freedom Party held them to a hung Parliament, the first in forty years. John Creasy suggested an All-Party Coalition, but Wilson preferred to go into Opposition and rebuild – or, for less generous observers, keep his party from splitting apart on the Europe issue by sitting it out.

The referendum was held before the UK was due to enter, in 1972. This was part of the price Heath had to pay for the two-party coalition, the others being three Cabinet seats and the abolition of key Keynesian tools such as incomes policy. Naturally, the Cabinet seats resulted in vicious in-fighting between Powell and people like MacLeod, and the end of the Price and Income Board incited huge industrial unrest, and the referendum tore the coalition – not to mention the Freedom Party – apart.

A strong campaign from the Refrain side, uniting Freedomites, Labour left-wingers and some Tory mavericks, made Enoch Powell the most popular politician in the land, but it wasn’t enough to carry the country. In a 52-48 result, Refrain lost and Powell had to decide whether to stay in Government and carry out an entry process he thought would destroy the United Kingdom, or pull out impetuously and prove that the Freedom Party really wasn’t a serious governing party. He thought long and hard, but in the end, he sold out his much-vaunted principles in return for a much more stringent Commonwealth immigration policy, which would have included voluntary repatriation for the first time.

This was unacceptable to many of the hardcore supporters of the Freedom Party. John Kingsley Read, MP for Blackburn, declared the referendum “a provisional result which takes us to the next stage” and vowed to fight Europe and immigration even at the cost a corporatist state. Many of the new entrants to the Freedomite Parliamentary Party were of similar instincts, and they split off to form the National Party later in 1972, when it was beyond doubt that Powell had lost the sympathy of the people. So many MPs defected, in fact, that the Conservative-Freedomite coalition lost its majority, and had to eke out deals with Scottish and Welsh Nationalists, Dick Taverne’s short-lived Social Democrats, and even Vanessa Redgrave’s Radical Alliance, in order to survive into the spring of 1973. At this point, the Freedom Party was almost entirely wiped out. The new game in town was the National Party.

The four remaining MPs selected Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, former commander of the Pathfinder Force in the Second World War and briefly a Liberal MP for 73 days in 1945, as their new Leader. This was a sensible choice, as he was just as opposed to the EEC as the National Party were, but hadn’t been tainted by the Coalition. He had resigned as Defence Minister the day after the referendum and saw out the Parliament on the backbenches. Unfortunately, Bennett was an Australian who didn’t suffer fools gladly and had a chip on his shoulder about the aristocracy, none of which was very attractive to the sorts of middle-class people who were previously amenable to voting for the Freedom Party. After twenty-two years in Parliament, the Freedomites lost all their seats in 1978 – Margaret Thatcher had by this point, of course, stolen most of their raison d’etre. However, Bennett did win a seat in the 1979 European elections, which were held under STV as part of the price for the Powellites’ continued support for EEC entry in 1972-3. Since then, however, the Freedomites have declined to the status of a Randian grouplet.

It is now the National Party, sustained for many years merely by European Parliament seats, who pose a populist threat to the two-party duopoly. And while it is tempting to muse on what Britain would be like if the Freedomites – or even the Liberals – had survived in any meaningful way, it is up to us to make sure that the current right-wing surge in Europe ends up being a flash in the pan in the manner of the French Poujadistes or the German Federalist Union, rather than the two-decade institution that was the Freedom Party.
 
Also this is very phresh as usual, @Uhura's Mazda

How do you find these people and then slot them into the timelines? Do you have a big book of names for future use?
 
Also this is very phresh as usual, @Uhura's Mazda

How do you find these people and then slot them into the timelines? Do you have a big book of names for future use?
Am beginning this post with the honest aspiration of not going into a long essay about my Method.

I've obviously always known that there were right-wing Liberals who weren't happy with the direction of travel under Grimond, Thorpe and Steel, and that some of these went off to do their own things, often opposing the Common Market when that became an issue (much like their present-day ideological descendants - Hannan, et al). I was reminded of these people when I went through all the post-war by-elections for that post the other day about micro-party candidates who got 5% or more. These included Martell and Creasey, and Smedley was another frequent candidate. I was particularly impressed with my long-term memory for dredging up Don Bennett, the ex-Liberal Pathfinder Force guy, who I only know because he got 5% in a Euro election in 1984 as a Eurosceptic Independent. I do those sorts of posts far too often.

After that, it was just a matter of wiki-walking and googling to find the links between these disaffected Gladstonian-Eurosceptic Liberals. For instance, most of them had been members of a pressure group named the Society for Individual Freedom, and there was another right-Liberal group, which seems to have been a bit more moderate and which attracted mainstream Liberal members and MPs, called The Unservile State. Smedley is another link, because he helped to found a well-known think-tank called the Institute of Economic Affairs, which eventually became mainstream and provided the intellectual spadework for the Thatcherite turn. Seldon was in the IEA and was also a Liberal candidate. So there was clearly a network of people who thought in similar ways but who never coalesced into a party of their own.

An old AH.com WI thread of Heat's about the Liberals collapsing in the 70s and being replaced by the National Front provided a jumping-off point for thinking about the actual narrative. Additionally, there's a rather good quote from a friend of Megan Lloyd George's in the 50s about how, if the Liberal Party didn't exist, we'd be seeing a populist movement like the Poujadists.

The Redgrave Radical Alliance was a bit silly, because they were tiny and deeply unsuccessful IOTL, but I wanted to create a feeling of the anti-War, anti-Nuclear folks finding somewhere to go in the absence of a Liberal Party.

Another thing which might provoke comment is my placing of Grimond as an economic liberal when his leadership saw a resurgence of the radical, social-liberal wing IOTL - I had a vague memory that his own views were not along the lines of his party and hunted down an academic paper to confirm this. From 'What if the Liberal Party had Broken through from the Right?' by Jaime Reynolds (which is mostly bollocks when it actually tries to answer that question):
Jo Grimond’s charisma, his injection of progressive new ideas and the influx of radically minded recruits he attracted, modernised the Liberal Party and overcame its greatest handicap, its old-fashioned and backward-looking image. He shifted the Liberals to the centre-left, and it might well be thought that the shift was inseparable from his leadership.

What is surprising is that this shift was strangely at odds with Grimond’s personal views on economic policy. As Michael McManus’s recent biography shows, for much of his career Grimond was on the economic right and was an early and outspoken critic of the post-war economic consensus. This was true of his initial years as an MP from 1950, when he was a lone voice in British politics (apart from other Liberals and a few maverick Tories) warning of the dangers of inflation and excessive public expenditure. The first quotation at the head of this chapter is representative of his usual line in speeches and writings at the time. It was also true of his views after he had ceased to be Liberal Leader in 1967. It is no exaggeration to say that already in the 1950s he anticipated many of the core economic concerns and ideas of the Thatcherites. However, it is certainly true that during his leadership Grimond muted his economic views and that the party downgraded its traditional concern with free trade, competitive markets, low taxation and controlling public expenditure. By 1961 the party was calling for production targets for industry and ceilings on wages and profits. The Liberals’ 1963 economic policy called for a five-year plan with the establishment of national and regional planning bodies.

It is unlikely that Grimond intended the shift to go so far. In his The Liberal Challenge (1963), he seems to have conceived economic planning as coordination of economic and fiscal policies, not as any further encroachment on the private sector. To some extent the party was swept along by the technocratic, corporatist mood of the time, post-Orpington euphoria and the logic of the radical realignment strategy. The party’s economic policies were drawn up hastily and gave out conflicting messages.

In fact there remained a significant undercurrent of economic liberalism in the Grimond party. An important part of the Liberals’ appeal was as a protest party on behalf of the ‘little man’ against the political and economic establishment. Liberal publicity continued to play up traditional concerns such as the need for action against monopolies in order to encourage competition. Free trade was not entirely forgotten, although it was largely eclipsed by new causes such as the Liberals’ early support for British entry to the Common Market. This decision alienated some of the more right-wing economic liberals in the party, who saw the Common Market as a protectionist project.

If the decisive step was taken under Grimond’s Leadership, it was under his successors Jeremy Thorpe and David Steel that the shift was completed. Thorpe was an old adversary of the free traders in the debates of the 1950s, and did not share Grimond’s interest in policy issues. David Steel was in many respects a social democrat and steered the party towards the Lib-Lab Pact of 1977–78 and the SDP Alliance of 1981–87. He was by no means an instinctive economic liberal.

In practice it is unlikely that an old-style free trade party could have survived, and Grimond’s modernisation was critical for the Liberals’ revival. He was trying to update the party’s economic liberalism, but lost control of the process which went further than he intended. Under Grimond the Liberals could have – and perhaps very nearly did – become the focus of the neo-liberal renaissance. But the opportunity was lost and by the late 1960s the Liberals were indistinguishable from the other two parties in their support for the post-war consensus.

So yeah, short answer: the Internet. Also my memory.
 
This is the sequel, of sorts, to my above list [the one that ends with President Perry surrendering].

It's basically "all the hipster choices I could find".

Chief Ministers of the Loyal Dominion of Tredecima (1849-1869)
Sir James Shields (Consolidation) 1849-1860
1849 (C maj.): def. Joseph Ritner (Separatist)
1852 (C maj.): def. Joseph Ritner (Separatist)
1856 (C maj.): def. William Seward (Separatist), Franklin Pierce (Polycratic)
Sir Stephen Douglas (Consolidation) 1860-1867
1862 (C maj.): def. William Seward (Separatist), Franklin Pierce (Polycratic)
Sir James Roosevelt (Consolidation) 1867-1869*
1867 (suspended)
Franklin Pierce (Polycratic) 1869

Executive Directors of the Polycratic Union of America (1869-1893)
Franklin Pierce (Polycratic) 1869-1880*
1870: 81% Support, 19% Oppose
1872: 85% Support, 15% Oppose
1874: 74% Support, 26% Oppose
1876: 78% Support, 22% Oppose
1878: 69% Support, 31% Oppose
1880: 73% Support, 27% Oppose
Samuel Tilden (Polycratic) 1880-1885*
1880: def. Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (Reform), Terence Powderly (Ordinary Men)
1882: 58% Support, 42% Oppose
1884: 55% Support, 45% Oppose
Samuel Clemens (Independent, then Pioneer) 1885-1890
1885: def. William Tweed (Polycratic)
1886: 49% Support, 51% Oppose
1886: def. William Wallace (Polycratic)
1888: 52% Support, 48% Oppose
1890: 45% Support, 55% Oppose
Leon Abbett (Polycratic, then "Leonite" Polycratic) 1890-1893
1890: def. Samuel Clemens (Pioneer), John W. Johnston (Yeoman's), Harvey D. Colvin (People's Merit)
1892: 41% Support, 59% Oppose
1892: def. Arthur P. Gorman ("Originalist" Polycratic), James B. Weaver (Farmers' Fusionist), Benjamin Harrison (People's Merit)
1893: 55% Yes, 45% No

Provosts of the American Social Union (1893-1907)
Leon Abbett (Polycratic-United Citizens) 1893-1895*
1894: def. Arthur P. Gorman (Polycratic-Law and Order), Sylvester Pennoyer (Farmers' Fusionist), Charles Foster (People's Merit)
Horace Boies (Polycratic-United Citizens) 1895-1902
1895: def. Arthur P. Gorman (Polycratic-Law and Order), William Mahone (Farmers' Fusionist), Benjamin Harrison (People's Merit)
1900: def. William McKinley (People's Merit), John G. Carlisle (Polycratic-Law and Order), William J. Bryan (Farmers' Fusionist)
1902: 71% Recall, 29% Don't Recall
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Republican Proposal) 1902-1907
1902: def. Horace Boies (Polycratic-United Citizens), William J. Bryan (Farmers' Fusionist), John W. Slayton (Mutualist Workers')

Executive Directors and Chairmen of the Popular Assembly of the Union of American Localities (1907-1924)
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Republican Proposal) and Joseph W. Bailey (Polycratic-Law and Order) 1907-1911

1907 EXD: def. Horace Boies (Polycratic-United Citizens), George W. P. Hunt (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker)
1907 CPA (RP-PLA coal.): def. John Sharp Williams (Polycratic-United Citizens), George W. P. Hunt (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker)
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Republican Proposal) and John Sharp Williams (Polycratic-United Citizens) 1911-1915
1911 EXD: def. George B. McClellan (Polycratic-United Citizens), E. Victor Debs (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker)
1911 CPA (PUC-MFW coal.): def. Joseph W. Bailey (Polycratic-Law and Order), George W. P. Hunt (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker)
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and John M. Parker (Republican Proposal) 1915-1919
1915 EXD: def. Jack London (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), John Sharp Williams (Independent)
1915 CPA (RP maj.): def. George W. P. Hunt (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), no leader (Independent (fmr. Polycratic-United Citizens))
Jack London (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) and John M. Parker (Republican Proposal) 1919-1923
1919 EXD: def. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Republican Proposal), Finis Garrett (New Citizens Alliance)
1919 CPA (RP maj.): def. George W. P. Hunt (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Morris Sheppard (New Citizens Alliance)
Jack London and George W. P. Hunt (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) 1923-1924*
1922 EXD: def. Charles L. McNary (Republican Proposal)
1922 CPA (MFW maj.): def. John M. Parker (Republican Proposal), Morris Sheppard (New Citizens Alliance)

Commanders in Chief of the Union of American Localities and Leaders of the Spartan Legion of America (1924-1957)
John Pershing (Spartan Legion) 1924-1938*
1924: unopposed
Douglas MacArthur (Spartan Legion) 1938-1954*
1938: unopposed
George C. Marshall (Spartan Legion) 1954-1955*
1954: def. Curtis LeMay (Spartan Legion)
Matthew Ridgway (Spartan Legion) 1955-1957
1955: def. Curtis LeMay (Spartan Legion)

Executive Directors of the Union of American Localities (1957-present)
C. Estes Kefauver (Alliance for Progress, Justice and Education) 1957-1962*
1957 (PJE maj.): def. Burton K. Wheeler (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), John Sherman Cooper (New Republican), Joseph McCarthy (True Spartans), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration), Spessard Holland (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Duke Morrison (Cowboy)
1961 (PJE maj.): def. Victor Reuther (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), John Sherman Cooper (New Republican), Duke Morrison (Cowboy), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration), Spessard Holland (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Samuel W. Tucker (We Shall Overcome)
Albert Gore (Alliance for Progress, Justice and Education) 1962-1965
Victor Reuther (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) 1965-1975
1965 (MFW maj.): def. Jacob Javits (New Republican), Duke Morrison (Cowboy), Albert Gore (Alliance for Progress, Justice and Education), Spessard Holland (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Samuel W. Tucker (We Shall Overcome), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration)
1969 (MFW maj.): def. Jacob Javits (New Republican), Duke Morrison (Cowboy), Bob Marshall (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Claude Pepper (Progressive), Samuel W. Tucker (We Shall Overcome), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration)
1973 (MFW maj.): def. Jacob Javits (New Republican), Duke Morrison (Cowboy), Bob Marshall (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Orval Faubus (Progressive), James Lawson (We Shall Overcome), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration)
Bob Bullock (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) 1975-1977
Jacob Javits (New Republican) 1977-1985
1977 (NR maj.): def. Bob Bullock (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Bob Marshall (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Orval Faubus (Progressive), James Lawson (We Shall Overcome), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration), no official leader (Cowboy)
1981 (NR maj.): def. Bob Bullock (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Bruce Babbitt (Green/Polycratic Alliance), James Lawson (We Shall Overcome), James Carter (Progressive), Richard Nixon (Monarchist Restoration)
Bob Bullock (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) 1985-1991
1985 (MFW-GPA coal.): def. Jacob Javits (New Republican), Bruce Babbitt (Green/Polycratic Alliance), James Lawson (We Shall Overcome), Richard Nixon and James Carter (Progressive Monarchist)
1989 (MFW-GPA coal.): def. John Chafee (New Republican), Bruce Babbitt (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Robert Dole (Progressive Monarchist), James Lawson (We Shall Overcome)
Terry Kohler (New Republican) 1991-2002
1991 (NR-PM coal.): def. Bob Bullock (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Robert Dole (Progressive Monarchist), Carl Stokes (We Shall Overcome), Bruce Babbitt (Green/Polycratic Alliance)
1995 (NR maj.): def. Bob Bullock (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Robert Dole (Progressive Monarchist), Carl Stokes (We Shall Overcome), Virginia Abernethy (Polycratic), Barry Commoner (Green)
1999 (NR maj.): def. Andy Stern (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Wendell Berry (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Robert Dole (Progressive Monarchist), Kweisi Mfume (We Shall Overcome), Ruth Bennett (Magna Carta)
Tom Harkin (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) 2002-2006
2002 (MFW-WSO coal.): def. Terry Kohler (New Republican), Wendell Berry (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Kweisi Mfume (We Shall Overcome), John Kerry (Progressive Monarchist), Ruth Bennett (Magna Carta)
Peter Fitzgerald (New Republican) 2006-2014
2006 (NR maj.): def. Tom Harkin (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), John Kerry (Progressive Monarchist), Pierce Brosnan (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Ruth Bennett (Magna Carta), Kweisi Mfume (We Shall Overcome)
2010 (NR-MC coal.): def. Jack Reed (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker), Warren Redlich (Magna Carta), John McCain (Progressive Monarchist), Pierce Brosnan (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Erik Fleming (We Shall Overcome)
Mary Kay Henry (Mutualist-Farmer-Worker) 2014-present
2014 (MFW-GPA-WSO coal.): def. Peter Fitzgerald (New Republican), John McCain (Progressive Monarchist), Tom Cotter (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Warren Redlich (Magna Carta), Erik Fleming (We Shall Overcome)
2018 (MFW-GPA-WSO coal.): def. Boris Johnson (Progressive Monarchist), Knute Buehler (New Republican), Tom Cotter (Green/Polycratic Alliance), Erik Fleming (We Shall Overcome), Robert Sarvis (Magna Carta)
 
im sorry

A New Kind Of Politics

Tony Blair (Transforming Britain) 1997-2007
1997: def John Major (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal Democrats), Daffyd Wigley (Plaid Cymru), Alex Salmond (SNP)

2001: def William Hague (Working Hard), Charles Kennedy (Centrists for Kennedy), John Swinney (Justice for Scotland), Ieuan Wyn Jones (Independents for Welsh and Justice)
2005: def Michael Howard (Movement for the Homeland), Charles Kennedy (Centrists for Kennedy), Alex Salmond (Advance Scotland!), Ieuan Wyn Jones (Independents for Welsh and Justice), Linda Smith (Left Society)
Gordon Brown (Global Britain) 2007-2010
David Cameron (Democratic Constitutionalists-New Centre coalition, then Democratic Constitutionalists) 2010-2016

2010: def Gordon Brown (Global Britain), Nick Clegg (New Centre), Alex Salmond (Advance Scotland), Ieuan Wyn Jones (Independents for Welsh and Justice), Caroline Lucas (Conservation League)
2015: def Ed Miliband (Equality Movement), Nicola Sturgeon (New Scotland), Nick Clegg (New Centre), Leanne Wood (League for Wales), Nigel Farage (New Freedom),
Natalie Bennett (New Beginning)
Theresa May (Team Movement, then Team Movement-DUP coalition) 2016-
2017: def Jeremy Corbyn (Justice Coalition), Nicola Sturgeon (New Scotland), Tim Farron (Towards the Future), Leanne Wood (League for Wales), Caroline Lucas & Jon Bartley (Conservation league incorporating Justice for Britain)
 
something a little outside my usual wheelhouse

Second Ptolemaic Dynasty

702-740: Cleopatra VII Philopater (Ptolemaic)
702-702 (with Ptolemy XII Auletes)
702-706 (with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopater)
707-710 (with Ptolemy XIV)
710-740 (with Ptolemy XV Caesarion)

740-766: Ptolemy XV Caesarion (Ptolemaic-Caesarid)
740-766 (with Cleopatra VIII Selene)
766-000: Ptolemy XVI Theos Philopater (Ptolemaic-Caesarid-Antonid)

Mark Anthony and Cleopatra's successful war with Octavian - effectively killing the dream of an imperial Rome and leading a series of internescine wars between generals, financiers and senators that ended with a restoration of Republican values and order in a much reduced Rome - resulted in the rebuilding of an Egyptian Empire that had suffered reversals under the reign of the First Ptolemaic Dynasty.

Ptolemy XV Caesarion took power upon his mother's death, and chose not to pursue his technical claims as Julius Caesar's successor, concentrating on continuing his mother's economic policies, rebuilding the empire in Nubia and building trade relations with India. He married his half-sister (by Mark Anthony) Cleopatra Selene, and upon his death his son Ptolemy XVI ascended the throne.

Ptolemy XVI is cast very much in the mould of his original namesake, taking the Egyptian Empire to new heights in the aftermath of a new Roman Civil War, expanding into Greece and threatening the frontiers of Persia. While he still reigns, the idea of the restoration of the Alexandrian Empire is mooted once again.
 
im sorry

A New Kind Of Politics

Tony Blair (Transforming Britain) 1997-2007
1997: def John Major (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal Democrats), Daffyd Wigley (Plaid Cymru), Alex Salmond (SNP)

2001: def William Hague (Working Hard), Charles Kennedy (Centrists for Kennedy), John Swinney (Justice for Scotland), Ieuan Wyn Jones (Independents for Welsh and Justice)
2005: def Michael Howard (Movement for the Homeland), Charles Kennedy (Centrists for Kennedy), Alex Salmond (Advance Scotland!), Ieuan Wyn Jones (Independents for Welsh and Justice), Linda Smith (Left Society)
Gordon Brown (Global Britain) 2007-2010
David Cameron (Democratic Constitutionalists-New Centre coalition, then Democratic Constitutionalists) 2010-2016

2010: def Gordon Brown (Global Britain), Nick Clegg (New Centre), Alex Salmond (Advance Scotland), Ieuan Wyn Jones (Independents for Welsh and Justice), Caroline Lucas (Conservation League)
2015: def Ed Miliband (Equality Movement), Nicola Sturgeon (New Scotland), Nick Clegg (New Centre), Leanne Wood (League for Wales), Nigel Farage (New Freedom),
Natalie Bennett (New Beginning)
Theresa May (Team Movement, then Team Movement-DUP coalition) 2016-
2017: def Jeremy Corbyn (Justice Coalition), Nicola Sturgeon (New Scotland), Tim Farron (Towards the Future), Leanne Wood (League for Wales), Caroline Lucas & Jon Bartley (Conservation league incorporating Justice for Britain)

I would have gone with Democrats for Change when it comes to David Cameron, but that said, this is all truly inspired.
 
Second Ptolemaic Dynasty

Nice work, Bob, this is a pretty interesting format idea!

I would have gone with Democrats for Change when it comes to David Cameron, but that said, this is all truly inspired.

In retrospect, you're right--I just really like 'Constitutionalists' as a term for UK conservative parties.

Honestly, I really lucked out with the SNP leader names.
 
John F. Kennedy (Democratic) 1961-1963*
1960: def. Richard Nixon (Republican)
Lyndon B. Johnson (League of Brotherhood and Justice) 1963-1969
1964: def. Barry Goldwater (Buck Government!)
Richard Nixon (Republican for Nixon) 1969-1974*
1968: def. Hubert H. Humphrey (Honesty, Humility, Humphrey), George Wallace (Greatness Within)
1972: def. George McGovern (Goodness Movement)
Gerald Ford (Great Fortitude) 1974-1977
Jimmy Carter (Jimmy Cares) 1977-1981

1976: def. Gerald Ford (Great Fortitude)
Ronald Reagan (Republican for Reagan) 1981-1989
1980: def. Jimmy Carter (Jimmy Cares), John B. Anderson (Join for a Bold America)
1984: def. Walter Mondale (With Modernity)
George H. W. Bush (Great and Brave) 1989-1993
1988: def. Michael Dukakis (Modern Democratic)
Bill Clinton (Be Change) 1993-2001
1992: def. George H. W. Bush (Great and Brave), Ross Perot (Ready for Perot)
1996: def. Bob Dole (Bold with Dole), Ross Perot (Ready for Perot)
George W. Bush (Great, Wise, Brave) 2001-2009
2000: def. Al Gore (America's Greens)
2004: def. John Kerry (Justice and Knowledge)
Barack Obama (Bloc for Obama) 2009-2017
2008: def. John McCain (John's Movement)
2012: def. Mitt Romney (Mitt's Republican)
Donald Trump (Donald Trump's) 2017-
2016: def. Hillary Clinton (Hillary's Coalition)

By the end, it's just lazily "name and maybe a word". Trump doesn't even bother with a word.
 
I guess I’m going to do this. Instead of being an exploration of some different idea that I’ll probably never put to TL, like these usually are for me, these are from my story Fashions Made Sacred. It’s not so much “spoilery”, because all of it takes place well in the past of the actual story, but if fair warning if you wanted to avoid things like this.

The Most High, Most Noble and Most Excellent Princes, the Kings of France and of Navarre, by the Grace of God in Their Most Christian Majesty (House of Bourbon — 1589-present)
1589-1610: Henry IV
1610-1643: Louis XIII
1643-1709: Louis XIV [1]
1709-1744: Louis XV [2]
1744-1752: Louis XVI [3]
1752-1787: Louis XVII [4]
1787-1848: Louis XVIII [5]
1848-1889: Henri V [6]
1889-1925: Francis III [7]
1925-1952: Henri VI [8]
1952-1997: Francis IV [9]
1997-0000: Christine [10]
0000-0000:
Charles Pepin Louis Philip Henry Francis, Dauphin of Viennois
0000-0000: Marie Louise Aphrodite Francine Henrietta Christine, Duchess of Cyprus

Royal Consorts of the Kingdom of France and Navarre (1589-present — by birthright style)
1589-1599: Princess Margaret of France (House of Angoulême)
1600-1610: Princess Maria of Tuscany (House of Medici)
1615-1643: Archduchess Anne, Infanta of Spain (House of Hapsburg)
1660-1683: Archduchess Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain (House of Hapsburg)

1709-1744: Lady Maria Adelaide of Savoy (House of Savoy)
1752-1775: Infanta Maria of Portugal (House of Braganza)
1795-1804: Princess Elisabeth of Poland (House of Wettin)
1808-1848: Princess Caroline of Bavaria (House of Wittelsbach)
1848-1889: Archduchess Maria Christina, Princess of Venice (House of Hapsburg)
1889-1925: Lady Maria Josepha Bescos Panadero (Bescos political family)
1925-1952: Princess Lucretia of Italy (House of Guelph)
1957-1992: Princess Eleonora of Saxony (in pretense) (House of Wettin)
1997-0000: Philippe, Duke of Orleans (House of Orleans)

0000-0000: Princess Maria Louisa of Peru (House of Potosi)

[1] Louis XIV, so-called the "sun king", went for one last, great war to assert the dominance of France through all of Europe, seeking the crowning jewel: to place his grandson, Philip, on the Spanish throne, starting the War of the Spanish Succession. But the longest-reigning monarch France has ever seen would not live to see that his reach had exceeded his grasp; he died - due probably to what historians have identified as complications from diabetes - and left the kingdom to a different grandson to set back in place.

[2] Louis XV, who had been only the Duke of Burgundy until mere months before his grandfather's death, was left the task of getting out of what the Sun King had left him -- a country left low in finances, low on morale, low on soldiers, and with the armies of Austria, the Netherlands, England and Sweden bearing down upon him. Louis was forced into a humiliating peace for France, surrendering even the hard-won territory of Alsace for breathing room. Louis turned to his nobility, who tended to dominate his administration, to maintain stability. However, the same nobility resisted any attempt to claw back the incomes which his grandfather and his other predecessors had ceded to them. Expensive adventurism in America and India cost the state far more than it brought in, and Louis found that he was never able to have the peace he desperately needed, though perhaps which he did not want -- his grandfather had left France astride all of Europe, and he found maintaining her place in the world to be as expensive as gaining it in the first place, and not as profitable as it might seem.

[3] Louis XVI inherited a kingdom with trouble upon trouble, expense upon expense, but he had known what he was getting into; he had been an active dauphin, and, on taking the throne, took swift action to curb the power of the nobility, and strengthen the Crown: he called the first Estates-General in over a hundred years to reform the Constitution, and strip away the most odious noble taxation privileges. In what is now considered the first modern Estates-General, the king granted new privileges to the estates of clergy and commons to gain their support in reining in the high nobility, and even managed to win some of the petty nobility's support against the great magnates of the French kingdom. Louis also called the second modern Estates-General, barely a year before his own death, and began to slowly eke France into a modern society.

[4] Louis XVII was a weaker man than his father, with less personality, less strength, and lesser all around, but, if there was one thing he excelled in, it was management; Louis continued his father's policy of avoiding new wars - a policy much beloved by the Estates-Generals he began to call with increasing regularity - and focused on putting the kingdom on sound financial foundations. In his thirty-five years on the throne, France fought only one major war - one forced upon Louis by outside circumstance - and, over time, found its modern constitution begin to take shape, as the Estates-General evolved from an irregular constitutional convention into the real, modern legislative body that it is today.

[5] If Louis XVI called the modern Estates-General, and Louis XVII made it, Louis XVIII was the man to embrace the body. A strong, reserved monarch, Louis, on taking the throne from his grandfather, quickly made himself the darling of the Estates-General, and he wielded it to redraw the internal borders of the French state, to break down tariff boundaries inside, and unify systems of administration across the ancient kingdom. Not since Francis I had the internal mechanisms of the state been so overhauled, both dramatically and successfully, and, over a reign of decades, France began to take the shape that it has today. He expertly utilized the Estates-General's support to finally bring the parlements - the last great bastion of noble power outside of the Estates-General - to heel, and reform the parlements into something resembling their modern form. It was Louis XVIII, also, who brought France into the Great German War, relying on the reforms he and his grandfather had made to keep the country on its feet. His intervention saved the Holy Roman Empire, and helped to secure France's dominant power over the rest of Europe for the rest of his life, and, indeed, for a century thereafter. However, his reign also saw the loss of Saint-Domingue to its slave revolt - the crown jewel of the French colonial empire - which he ultimately, wisely, ceded to its own destiny. However, it would be left to his son to abolish that hated, despicable practice in France's other colonies, which he never would himself.

[6] Henry V, the son of Louis XVIII, was his father's reverse in nearly every way. He was a warmonger, who quarreled constantly with his ministers and the Estates-General. He squandered as much of his father's legacy as he could get his hands on, and brought France into countless conflicts, both to conquer new, unprofitable, restive and resistant colonies, as well as to play games of rivalry with other colonial powers; indeed, he nearly brought the Old Alliance to an end more than once by his hazardous foreign and colonial policies. Nevertheless, his father had placed the kingdom on very sound footing, such that Henry was unable to completely unmake it; his influence slowly dwindled in his own kingdom, to the point that, nearer the end of his reign, he could not even bring to bear the political capital to block his son's scandalous choice in matrimony.

[7] Francis III was a cooler, more reserved man than his father, despite his (well-deserved) reputation for rocking the boat. Francis was a conservative man, but not unthinking, and he was more subtle in his ways in managing the kingdom than his father had been. To his detriment, he did continue to seek to expand and consolidate France's colonial ambitions, but, to his credit, he worked to avoid the wars that his father had actively sought out. Despite his conservatism, Francis' reign is seen as an era of modernization, due to the influence of his consort's radically American zenobian ideals, which reverberated across the realm and, indeed, the continent.

[8] Henry VI, like his grandfather, was a far more active monarch than his father, Francis, had been, but in quite a different direction; Henry was an arch-modernizer, who spearheaded massive reforms in administration and social policy in his kingdom, though now tempered by his conservative Estates-General, rather than pressed on by its radicals as his father had been. It was he who ended the firm law of agnatic primogeniture from the kingdom; it was he who admitted women to military academies, and whose influence helped lead the Council of Turin to formally endorse contraception. It was he who abolished the property requirement to vote for the Third Estate. He left his mark on the land; unfortunately, he also left his mark on other lands, across the globe, as his harsh colonial policies meant to maintain his father's and grandfather's gains have left a gaping black mark on his record, which can never be totally expunged. And, in his zeal for internal and "internal" (read: colonial) affairs left Europe vacant, for Poland and Batavia to rise and challenge the consensus France had tried to maintain. Louis XVIII's system of French continental dominance came finally crashing to the ground in Henry's reign.

[9] Francis IV is remembered as broadly conservative, but we should remember that this is in the context of his father's radical reforms; Francis would be considered a radical in any time before his own. His over forty years on the throne saw, finally, the dismantling of the French colonial empire, and the end of France's great colonial crimes in America, in India and in Africa. His time in office saw wide-reaching military reforms, hand-in-hand with colonial withdrawal; it also saw the rapidly-increasing pace of technological achievement, which, initially, had seemed to be ready to usher in a new era of eternal progress... and saw it instead culminate in the Global War. He stayed in Paris for the months-long siege of the French capital, but would die in the aftermath, leaving France in its darkest hour in other hands...

[10] Christine stepped up to take her father's place in the heart of the crisis, and proved an able wartime leader. She has seen vast reforms to the judiciary for the first time in over a century, which she herself has championed and pushed for; indeed, there is no question, that it is that which she would like to be her legacy, in making the country more just than she left it. But, sadly, for now, what she is known for is her wartime service, and the possibility of having to repeat it. Since the day the sky turned bright over the Pacific, and Acapulco ceased to exist in an instant, the pall of originalistic war has lain across the world. The bombers await only the Queen's word for Cracovia, for Vilnius and Antwerp to erupt in original fire -- and wait hours, if not minutes, for Paris to vanish in response. If we make it through this...

Well.

Maybe the judicial reforms will be her legacy...
 
Peter Shore defeats Healey for the Labour leadership. He does away with the electoral college and moves against Militant and the fans of unilateral disarmament while launching savage critiques of the new monetarist doctrines. With the Falklands butterflied and the Gang of Three slightly less unhappy, he leads Labour to victory against the unpopular Thatcher Government. However, upon reaching Number Ten, he finds he doesn't have the numbers to leave Europe without a referendum and has to fight a nail-biting referendum campaign. With Britain already knitted into the European economy fairly closely after just a decade of EEC membership, the two years of transitional deal negotiations go predictably badly and he is forced out after spending all his political capital on the Withdrawal Agreement. It falls to David Owen (who campaigned for Union but promised to uphold the decision of the British people) to attempt to halt the economic decline fuelled by Shore's foreign policy and Foot's Treasury tenure with City-oriented 'Social Market' reforms.

In the meantime, the culture war set off first by Thatcherism, then by Shoreism, and finally by the Owenite betrayal of the policies which got Shore elected in the first place, has all but destroyed the old order. Alienated by Peter Shore, the New Social Movements have given Labour up as a bad job and flocked to the reformed Communist Party, while the socially conservative end of the Thatcherites have united with extremist Labour Eurosceptics (mistrustful of Owen's dangerous level of Europhilia) behind the banner of the rejuvenated National Front. The changing party system reflects the febrile discontent in British society in the late 80s, as even the Yuppies take to the streets with painfully middle-class placards.

The return of a Tory Government does little to staunch the tide of feeling, though, and still less to rebuild Britain. It turns out that the Commonwealth nations have got on with their own affairs since we abandoned them for Europe in the 70s. And Defence cutbacks force us to meekly accept the fait accompli of the new Spanish junta's seizure of Gibraltar, inciting a revolt of Tory MPs. The defectors join forces with a national-populist splinter from the National Front to form the National Unionist Party, which briefly holds the balance of power before meekly returning to the fold in return for a few minor concessions. Nothing ever changes, even when everything is changing.

Well, nothing changes until 1992, anyway. After that, party names start to get so stupid that most Britons are now too embarrassed even to write them down.

1983-1986: Peter Shore (Labour)
1983 def: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Roy Jenkins (Liberal), David Penhaligon (Real Liberal)
1984 EEC referendum: 52% Independence, 48% Union

1986-1988: David Owen (Labour)
1988-1991: Peter Carington (Conservative)
1988 def: David Owen (Labour), Andrew Brons (National Front), David Penhaligon (Liberal), Nina Temple (Social Party)
1991-1992: Peter Carington (Conservative with National Unionist support)
1992-1994: Nick Griffin (New Greatness)
1992 def: Bryan Gould (Labour), Peter Carington (Conservative), David Icke (Social Party), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal)
 
Peter Shore defeats Healey for the Labour leadership. He does away with the electoral college and moves against Militant and the fans of unilateral disarmament while launching savage critiques of the new monetarist doctrines. With the Falklands butterflied and the Gang of Three slightly less unhappy, he leads Labour to victory against the unpopular Thatcher Government. However, upon reaching Number Ten, he finds he doesn't have the numbers to leave Europe without a referendum and has to fight a nail-biting referendum campaign. With Britain already knitted into the European economy fairly closely after just a decade of EEC membership, the two years of transitional deal negotiations go predictably badly and he is forced out after spending all his political capital on the Withdrawal Agreement. It falls to David Owen (who campaigned for Union but promised to uphold the decision of the British people) to attempt to halt the economic decline fuelled by Shore's foreign policy and Foot's Treasury tenure with City-oriented 'Social Market' reforms.

In the meantime, the culture war set off first by Thatcherism, then by Shoreism, and finally by the Owenite betrayal of the policies which got Shore elected in the first place, has all but destroyed the old order. Alienated by Peter Shore, the New Social Movements have given Labour up as a bad job and flocked to the reformed Communist Party, while the socially conservative end of the Thatcherites have united with extremist Labour Eurosceptics (mistrustful of Owen's dangerous level of Europhilia) behind the banner of the rejuvenated National Front. The changing party system reflects the febrile discontent in British society in the late 80s, as even the Yuppies take to the streets with painfully middle-class placards.

The return of a Tory Government does little to staunch the tide of feeling, though, and still less to rebuild Britain. It turns out that the Commonwealth nations have got on with their own affairs since we abandoned them for Europe in the 70s. And Defence cutbacks force us to meekly accept the fait accompli of the new Spanish junta's seizure of Gibraltar, inciting a revolt of Tory MPs. The defectors join forces with a national-populist splinter from the National Front to form the National Unionist Party, which briefly holds the balance of power before meekly returning to the fold in return for a few minor concessions. Nothing ever changes, even when everything is changing.

Well, nothing changes until 1992, anyway. After that, party names start to get so stupid that most Britons are now too embarrassed even to write them down.

1983-1986: Peter Shore (Labour)
1983 def: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Roy Jenkins (Liberal), David Penhaligon (Real Liberal)
1984 EEC referendum: 52% Independence, 48% Union

1986-1988: David Owen (Labour)
1988-1991: Peter Carington (Conservative)
1988 def: David Owen (Labour), Andrew Brons (National Front), David Penhaligon (Liberal), Nina Temple (Social Party)
1991-1992: Peter Carington (Conservative with National Unionist support)
1992-1994: Nick Griffin (New Greatness)
1992 def: Bryan Gould (Labour), Peter Carington (Conservative), David Icke (Social Party), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal)

Nick's National Front
 
Peter Shore defeats Healey for the Labour leadership. He does away with the electoral college and moves against Militant and the fans of unilateral disarmament while launching savage critiques of the new monetarist doctrines. With the Falklands butterflied and the Gang of Three slightly less unhappy, he leads Labour to victory against the unpopular Thatcher Government. However, upon reaching Number Ten, he finds he doesn't have the numbers to leave Europe without a referendum and has to fight a nail-biting referendum campaign. With Britain already knitted into the European economy fairly closely after just a decade of EEC membership, the two years of transitional deal negotiations go predictably badly and he is forced out after spending all his political capital on the Withdrawal Agreement. It falls to David Owen (who campaigned for Union but promised to uphold the decision of the British people) to attempt to halt the economic decline fuelled by Shore's foreign policy and Foot's Treasury tenure with City-oriented 'Social Market' reforms.

In the meantime, the culture war set off first by Thatcherism, then by Shoreism, and finally by the Owenite betrayal of the policies which got Shore elected in the first place, has all but destroyed the old order. Alienated by Peter Shore, the New Social Movements have given Labour up as a bad job and flocked to the reformed Communist Party, while the socially conservative end of the Thatcherites have united with extremist Labour Eurosceptics (mistrustful of Owen's dangerous level of Europhilia) behind the banner of the rejuvenated National Front. The changing party system reflects the febrile discontent in British society in the late 80s, as even the Yuppies take to the streets with painfully middle-class placards.

The return of a Tory Government does little to staunch the tide of feeling, though, and still less to rebuild Britain. It turns out that the Commonwealth nations have got on with their own affairs since we abandoned them for Europe in the 70s. And Defence cutbacks force us to meekly accept the fait accompli of the new Spanish junta's seizure of Gibraltar, inciting a revolt of Tory MPs. The defectors join forces with a national-populist splinter from the National Front to form the National Unionist Party, which briefly holds the balance of power before meekly returning to the fold in return for a few minor concessions. Nothing ever changes, even when everything is changing.

Well, nothing changes until 1992, anyway. After that, party names start to get so stupid that most Britons are now too embarrassed even to write them down.

1983-1986: Peter Shore (Labour)
1983 def: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Roy Jenkins (Liberal), David Penhaligon (Real Liberal)
1984 EEC referendum: 52% Independence, 48% Union

1986-1988: David Owen (Labour)
1988-1991: Peter Carington (Conservative)
1988 def: David Owen (Labour), Andrew Brons (National Front), David Penhaligon (Liberal), Nina Temple (Social Party)
1991-1992: Peter Carington (Conservative with National Unionist support)
1992-1994:
Nick Griffin (New Greatness)
1992 def: Bryan Gould (Labour), Peter Carington (Conservative), David Icke (Social Party), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal)
finally

a Britain that my antisemitic,homophobic,Romanian nationalist dad could love
 
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