- Location
- Tamaki Makaurau
I've literally just realised that the last non-Sith Chancellor was called Finis Valorum. Fuck off.
Not the worst name in Star Wars. Originally the Emperor was going to be Cos Dashit, but someone must have told George Lucas to sound it out and he was renamed Palpatine.I've literally just realised that the last non-Sith Chancellor was called Finis Valorum. Fuck off.
I've literally just realised that the last non-Sith Chancellor was called Finis Valorum. Fuck off.
Sounds more like the Galactic Perot tbh
His ship was called The Invisible Hand.Sounds more like the Galactic Perot tbh
His ship was called The Invisible Hand.
The Expected (?) Rebirth of Tory Tynemouth
CON GAIN TynemouthThe Expected (?) Rebirth of Tory Tynemouth
GE 2019 candidates: Joe Bell (Brexit), Duncan Crute (Conservative), Julia Erskine (Green), Joe Kirwin (Labour), Frances Weetman (Liberal Democrat)
OhhhI think this gimmick has already been done, but I've put in too much effort to dump this, so here goes.
Children of Britannia
1937-1938: Leo Amery (Conservative)
1938-1943: Leo Amery (Conservative leading War Government with Labour, Liberals, National Liberals, and National Labour)
1943-1958: Malcolm MacDonald (National)
def 1943: (Majority) Stafford Cripps (Labour), Richard Acland (Radical Action), Reginald Hall (Independent Unionist), Henry Haydn Jones (Independent Liberal)
def 1948: (Majority) Herbert Morrison (Labour), Richard Acland (Radical Action), Waldron Smithers (Independent Unionist)
def 1953: (Majority) Morgan Phillips (Labour), Tom Horabin (Radical Action), Nigel Birch (Independent Unionist), Alfred Suenson-Taylor (New Liberty)
1958-1959: Oliver Baldwin (Labour)
def 1958: (Coalition with Radical Action) Richard Law (National), Meghan Lloyd George (Radical Action), Oliver Smedley (New Liberty), T. E. Utley (Independent Unionist)
1959-1963: Meghan Lloyd George (Radical Action)
1963-1968: Randolph Churchill (National)
def 1963: (Majority) Alfred Robens (Labour), Meghan Lloyd George (Radical Action), Ralph Harris (New Liberty)
1968-1971: Nicholas Eden (National)
def 1968: (Majority) Ian Aitken (Labour), Peggy Duff (Radical Action), John Gouriet (New Liberty), Fred Boothby (Scottish) [abstained]
1971-1980: Maurice Macmillan (National)
def 1973: (Majority) Harold Walker (Labour), Paul Foot (Radical Action), Keith Joseph (New Liberty), Fred Boothby (Scottish) [abstained]
def 1978: (Minority with UUP support) Martin Attlee (Labour), Leo Abse (Radical Action), Denis Walker (Independent National), Keith Joseph (New Liberty), Fred Boothby (Scottish) [abstained]
1980-1981: David Douglas-Home (National)
1981-1989: Martin Attlee (Labour)
def 1981: (Majority) David Douglas-Home (National), Peter Tatchell (Radical Action), Jim Sillars (Democrats for Scotland), Keith Joseph (New Liberty)
def 1986: (Majority) Paul Channon (National), Clive Lord (Radical Action), Jim Silliars (Democrats for Scotland)
1989-2001: Margaret Jay (Labour)
def 1991: (Majority) Michael Jopling (National), Liz Lynne (Radical Action), Maria Fyfe (Democrats for Scotland)
def 1996: (Majority) Julian Amery, then Douglas Hogg (National), Peter Hain (Radical Action), Robin Harper (Democrats for Scotland)
2001-xxxx: Mark Thatcher (National)
def 2001: (Majority) Alan Johnson (Labour), Charles Kennedy (The Democrats), Lindsey German (Radical Action), Bruce Ogilvie (Scotland League)
To understand the National Party, one must first understand their greatest leader--Malcolm MacDonald. After serving as Foreign Secretary in Amery's war government, his capable record and suave manner led him to be selected as candidate by the National Coupon, who felt that someone both popular with the public and with the other coupon parties was needed to prevent a radical Labour victory. His decision to merge the parties of the coupon into a single party was controversial, and nearly led to a hung parliament due to Acland's left-liberal vehicle and various discontented splinter parties, but MacDonald's charm and the record of the war pulled the new Nationals through. From then on out, the party's dominant position was guaranteed. The Nationals became associated with the tanned, smiling, relaxed face of post-war prosperity, the 'Tory Democrat' measures that brought the British Health Insurance scheme and the state pension, and the 'light-touch' diplomacy that tried to maintain Empire and Europe as equal partners to the United States in the Shadow War. While the government certainly had its failures--the half-hearted measures aimed to produce an Imperial Federation are often criticised--MacDonald's long ministry is still idolised, and as the man himself stepped down to make way for his ambitious Foreign Secretary, it seemed like the Nationals could go on and on forever.
This was not to be. A combination of Law's aloof manner on the campaign trail, and the public's near-desensitisation to Red-baiting after over a decade of being told that a vote for Labour was a vote for Stalin to eat your baby, allowed Labour to narrowly eke out a majority by allying with the Radicals. From the steps of Downing Street Baldwin promised radical change for the country, the new dawn that had been smothered after the War, a Britain that would take care of its citizens. He was found slumped over his desk a year into his term, the stress of the media hounding him over his relationship with his 'private secretary' J. P. Boyle having been far too much strain on his heart. Lloyd George had the leadership thrust upon her, and vainly attempted to pass Baldwin's agenda while trying to deal with the fallout from the now-unleashed moral panic. Despite automatically earning a place in the history books as the first female PM, she was unable to achieve much aside from some limited reforms to local authorities and faltering efforts at decolonisation, and was swept aside by the return of the National Party. However, this was a different beast to the party of five years ago--the moral panic unleashed by the reveal of Baldwin's sexuality had allowed the socially conservative wing of the Nationals to seize internal power. Churchill, raised by his ambitious father to become the PM Winston wanted him to be, was adamant that public morality and Imperial integrity would be preserved by his government. There would, in the words of Colonial Secretary Ian Smith, 'not be one step back against the forces of decay'.
Churchill remains one of Britain's most controversial PMs. While his domestic policy was fairly standard--cracking down on the Bohemians and deviants, and continuing the National's slow slide into shady symbiosis with business--the marks his foreign policy decisions have made on the British psyche have never fully come off. A generation were conscripted to go fight and die in the Rhodesian bush and stave off the sunset of empire, and after President Kinnick pulled America out in '64 any hope of victory evaporated. With all the opposition parties running on increasingly popular anti-war platforms, things looked bleak for the Nationals until, on a cold day in February, Churchill's liver finally gave out. Party grandees, sensing an opportunity to drop the dead weight that was the right, swiftly pulled the inoffensive Secretary for Energy into the leadership, and then managed to scrape through in the election thanks to anti-war vote splitting and a slight sympathy vote. Eden's time in office was very much not defined by him--his cabinet effectively ran domestic affairs from behind his back, and while he did manage the one foreign triumph of bringing America back to Rhodesia, Jackson would have intervened in a fight between two anthills if he thought it would damage the Soviets. When rumours started to circulate of the PM's sexuality, the grandees and Eden both agreed that it was time that he stepped down, and one of the more personable men in the smoke-filled room stepped into the breach in an attempt to provide a stable government.
Unfortunately, not only was stability lacking in the nation, it was even lacking in the party. Macmillan, whose family name and fortune had led to a monotonous rise through the ranks, was ultimately too used to getting his own way to lead a National party increasingly divided along various fault lines. While his continuation of the semi-Keynesian status quo merely led to Keith Joseph flouncing off to run New Liberty into the ground, rather than the exodus of the libertarian faction of the party as some predicted, foreign affairs proved more of a challenge. It was clear to everyone that Rhodesia was lost--everyone, that is, except the hardliners on the National back benches, for whom the survival of minority rule was more important than life itself. When Macmillan, having scraped out a slightly more comfortable majority thanks to the rise of Scottish nationalism taking votes from Labour, began to bow to the inevitable and send British troops home at last in '76, the hardliners balked, and Denis Walker quit as Colonial Secretary to announce the formation of a new parliamentary group. While initially Macmillan could govern without them, the Independent Nationals managed to even make a few gains in the next General, a change that reflected serious discontent in Britain. Rising unemployment, urban deprivation, veterans coming home and ending up beggars--the Macmillan years, especially the minority government period, are remembered as a time when Britain had rarely had it so bad. Eventually, after two years of a delicate minority coalition, Macmillan threw in the towel, stepping aside for his deputy to hold, almost as a formality, the election that would end the National stranglehold on British politics.
While the election of Atlee certainly set the Nationals on a dark path, their point of no return was only reached in 1996, when his protege was gearing up for re-election. Despite the previous twin disasters of the incompetent Channon and snobbish Jopling, and Attlee's electoral reforms removing many of the more outrageously gerrymandered safe seats, the Nationals went confidently into the 1996 campaign. After all, had they not as leader the son of the man who won the war against the Axis? The golden candidate of the National right who had been chomping at the bit for years, who might have saved the Nationals had he been in charge instead of Macmillan? Unfortunately, there was one main problem with Julian Amery--he was 77 years old, and after an energetic hustings in Southwold, he walked off the stage and keeled over dead of a stroke. With the death of their candidate from old age, and his replacement's soon-revealed corruption and out-of-touch nature, the Nationals were soft targets for nearly every attack line previously assembled against them. Jay managed to wrangle a fourth Labour-dominated Parliament, and the Nationals were completely decimated. A week later, various senior members and donors affiliated with the Party booked the traditional back room in the Carlton Club, got out the brandy and cigars, and began to debate over who might be suitable as a leader...
.....
"Well, what with how badly things were going, we really couldn't think of anyone suitable for the longest bally time! We had the next election in the bag, but people didn't think that, of course, not with the situation, so no-one wanted to come forward and lose again!" Johnson said, almost laughing. "The conversation just went round and round--if I focus I think I can still hear Tim [Tim Collins, National Whip, MP for Chigwell] yammering on about the Cyberdroid invasion of Wibble V or whatever--and no-one wanted to talk about the obvious! Must have been like all those damm generals sitting with Iulus in the Aeneid, not wanting to talk about how all those ships just turned into a bunch of naked bir--women. Naked women. Are you writing all of this down?". I assured him that I was, and he laughed. "Better keep out some of the blue language, then!" He launched straight back into his tale. "Obviously, the subject did eventually come up, and we were still pretty out of ideas--I think we even considered Greenie Sue [Sue Kramer, Leader of the London Council Authority 1997-99, MLCA for Coombe Hill] at one point to get her out of the way! No-one was very enthusiastic--Nige [Nigel Lawson, Chairman of The Spectator Group] was still pushing his little pet Fish-Eyes Mike [Michael Gove, Shadow Minister for Transport, MP for Gordon] but no-one else seemed to have anyone they really wanted to be leader."
"I think it was Hilda [Baroness Hilda Thatcher, CFO of Atlas Chemicals Inc.] who first mentioned it, obviously, but only in a sarcastic manner--as in, 'since we're scraping the barrel why not try my son'? You know how it is. But I think someone seconded it, and you know, a lot of us got to thinking, you know, he's young and not a stuffed shirt, that's what we need, and he's got that glamour from the race he did--the eldest [Boris Johnson, Spots Editor for The Spectator] wouldn't stop wittering on about how he won Da Car Rally or whatever--I thought all rallies had cars! And he was quite well-spoken, and he was a friend of the Imperials but shiny enough for the Reformers and his mother's backing won round the Corporatists and wasn't old Conan [Sir David Lightblown, National Whip, MP for Tamworth] looking a bit peaky, he wants to retire and the seat is practically nailed-on blue, we could shove him in no problem...". Johnson began to tail off at this point, and remained silent for a few minutes. Eventually, he began to speak again:
"We didn't know he'd be so popular with the public. We didn't know that Jay would stand down and let Johnson lead the party into the general. We didn't know that the Radishes would go full loony and the Scots take their machine nationwide. We didn't think he'd win, God Almighty, we didn't want him anywhere near power, but maybe he didn't mean the things he said, and we wanted the Socialists out, and we wouldn't just let him do whatever he wanted, and..." Johnson trailed off here again. "God Almighty." he repeated. "God Almighty.".
....
A lot of people have asked me why I think the National Party 'went mad'. I feel that this is an erroneous statement. The National Party was not overcome with some sudden madness. When it nominated Thatcher, it merely returned to all its worst instincts amplified--to corporatist deals with business, to insincere leadership, to blunt-force power projection, to social authoritarianism, and above all, to the aristocratic thinking that meant that the surnames of Amery's War Cabinet would be familiar to anyone who glanced at the National front bench. With or without Thatcher, the disease would have triumphed.
--Extracts taken from Clare Berger's new book, Nation on the Verge of A Nervous Crackdown: Britain Under Thatcher
For those who were interested in this, I’ve started a TL following the same outline I had in mind for its footnotes!Austriae est imperare orbi universo
"It is Austria's destiny to rule the whole world" - Habsburg family motto
Holy Roman Emperors
1556-1564: Ferdinand I (Habsburg) Austrian Line
1556 Elected Unanimously
1564-1598: Philip I (Habsburg) Spanish Line
1564 Elected Unanimously with special complaint from Frederick III, Elector Palatine
1598-1612: Rudolph II (Habsburg) Austrian Line
1598 Elected Unanimously
1612-1621: Philip II (Habsburg) Spanish Line
1612 votes from Bohemia, Mainz, Trier, Cologne - Palatine, Brandenburg, and Saxony vote for Frederick V of the Palatinate
1621-1627: Rudolph III (Habsburg) Austrian Line
1621 Elected Unanimously, abstentions from rebellious electors
1627 forcibly deposed at the Vienna Diet
1627-1649: Philip III (Habsburg) Spanish Line
1627 Elected at the Vienna Diet, contested; rendered null at Salzburg, 1649
1649 Instrumentum Pacis Argentoratum reconstitutes the Holy Roman Empire, excluding Italian and Habsburg lands, ends the Forty Years War
1649-1656: Charles VI (Wettin)
1649 Elected Unanimously, born John George of Saxony
1656-1679: Ferdinand II (Wittelsbach) Bavarian line
1656 Elected Unanimously, born Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria
1679-1688: Frederick IV (Hohenzollern)
1679 Elected Unanimously
1688-0000: Leopold I (Habsburg) Austrian Line
1688 Elected 5-3
King and Emperor of Spain, Italy, Austria, and the New World, Protector of Flanders
1649-1665: Philip IV (Habsburg)
1665-1700: Charles II (Habsburg)
1700-0000: Leopold I (Habsburg) Austrian Line
1700 beginning of the Fifteen Years War / War of the Universal Monarchy
(Will try to follow with footnotes ASAP)
Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
1943-1944: Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (Military)
1944: Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (Military leading Government of National Liberation: Democrat, Communist, Liberal, Labour, Action, National Labour)
1944-1945: J. H. Thomas (National Labour leading Government of National Liberation: Democrat, Communist, Liberal, Labour, Action, National Labour)
1945: J. B. Priestley (Action leading Government of National Liberation: Democrat, Communist, Liberal, Labour, Action, National Labour)
1945-1946: Harold Macmillan (Democrat leading Government of National Liberation: Democrat, Communist, Liberal, Labour, Action, National Labour)
1946-1947: Harold Macmillan (Democrat leading Government of National Liberation: Democrat, Labour, Communist, Republican)
1946 (Witenagemot) def: John Strachey (Labour), Harry Pollitt (Communist), Gwilym Lloyd-George (National), Alfred Hitchcock (Citizens' Front), George Orwell (Republican), Don Bennett (Monarchist), Richard Acland (Action)
1947: Harold Macmillan (Democrat leading Government of National Liberation: Democrat, Labour, Communist)
1947-1950: Harold Macmillan (Democrat leading Government of the Centre: Democrat, Social Democrat, Liberal, Republican)
1948 def: Harry Pollitt and John Strachey (Popular Front), Jim Griffiths (Social Democrat), Wilfrid Roberts (National Front), Don Bennett (National Monarchist), George Orwell (Republican), John Becket (British Social Movement)
1950-1951: Harold Macmillan (Democrat leading Government of the Centre: Democrat, Social Democrat, Republican)
1951-1953: Harold Macmillan (Democrat leading Government of the Centre: Democrat, Republican)
1953: Harold Macmillan (Democrat minority)