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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Never Leave the Front Porch

(more a -punk or a thought experiment than a real AH, but: what if strict campaign finance laws, an independent public broadcasting service, and a culture of mistrust for professional politicians in the wake of Watergate had led to a Rainbow Coalition kind of scenario where both parties develop into coalitions of populist social movements?

The Republican side of this was very hard to do given how many of their leaders are just rich lawyers or doctors who went into elected office without any link to street-level conservative activism.)

1981-1989: Howard Jarvis / Phyllis Schlafly (Republican)
1980 def. Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (Democratic), Dolores Huerta / Barry Commoner (Citizens)
1984 def. Gary Hart / Alice Tripp (Democratic)

1989-1997: John Lewis / Jim Jontz (Democratic)
1988 def. Pat Robertson / Billy McCormack (Republican), Dick Randolph / Ron Paul (Libertarian)
1993 def. Clymer Wright / Myron Ebell (Republican)

1997-2001: Bill Sizemore / Randall Terry (Republican)
1996 def. Ralph Nader / Barbara Mikulski (Democratic)
2001-2005: Paul Wellstone / Hilda Solis (Democratic)
2000 def. Randall Terry / Jack Gargan (Republican), Bill Sizemore / Jesse Ventura (Independent)
2005-2013: Joe Arpaio / Tim Eyman (Republican)
2004 def. Paul Wellstone / Hilda Solis (Democratic)
2008 def. Barack Obama / Ron Wyden (Democratic)

2013-0000: Winona LaDuke / Linda Chavez-Thompson (Democratic)
2012 def. Richard Mack / Dave Brat (replacing Roy Moore) (Republican)
2016 def. Dan Patrick / Michele Fiore (Republican)


Presumably the 2020 election is shaping up to be a contest between Maryland Governor Ben Jealous and Senator Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia on the Democratic side, while the Republican coalition is strained by evangelicals' increasing discomfort with the militia movement's domination over the party - in particular the kingmaker role of millenarian Mormon fundamentalists like the Bundy family.

Of course, as in every timeline, the media are talking up the potential independent candidacy of Michael Bloomberg, who wants to be the first major candidate from outside the Social Movements since 1984.
 
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The Expected (?) Rebirth of Tory Tynemouth

1945-1950: Grace Colman (Labour)
1950-1974: Irene Ward (Conservative)
1974-1997: Neville Trotter (Conservative)
1997-2005: Alan Campbell (Labour)
2005-2017: Michael McIntyre (Conservative)
2017-2019: Frances Weetman (Labour)
2019-2019: Frances Weetman (The Independent Group)
2019-2019: Frances Weetman (Change UK)
2019-2019: Frances Weetman (The Independent Group for Change)
2019-2019: Frances Weetman (Independent)
2019-2019: Frances Weetman (The Independents)
2019-2019: Frances Weetman (Liberal Democrat)

GE 2019 candidates: Joe Bell (Brexit), Duncan Crute (Conservative), Julia Erskine (Green), Joe Kirwin (Labour), Frances Weetman (Liberal Democrat)

2005 saw Whitley Bay councillor Michael McIntyre overcome Alan Campbell's majority of 8,678 to take Tynemouth with a majority of 137 and one of the highest swings of the election, the Conservatives having taken 26 of the constituency's 30 seats on the council the previous year. But like Croydon Central, Enfield Southgate, Peterborough, and Reading East, 2017 saw it return to Labour and elect Tynemouth councillor Frances Weetman (who had narrowly defeated Laura Pidcock for the Labour selection).

Then Weetman left to join The Independent Group, which then changed its name to Change UK. And then, after Change.org threatened them with legal action, changed back to The Independent Group (for Change). The Independents left just over a month later than in OTL, thanks to butterflies, meaning that Tynemouth ended up being represented by seven different parties (well, counting TIG/Change UK/TIGfC as different parties) in one year when Weetman left them to join the Liberal Democrats.

Today, on the 12th of December 2019, the voters of Tynemouth will make a choice - will they return to the Conservatives and vote for Duncan Crute, the Newcastle businessman who compared Jeremy Corbyn to Robin Hood? Or will they again go with a young Labour councillor and vote for Joe Kirwin? Or will Frances Weetman somehow win re-election? (yeah, probably not)
 
The Expected (?) Rebirth of Tory Tynemouth

GE 2019 candidates: Joe Bell (Brexit), Duncan Crute (Conservative), Julia Erskine (Green), Joe Kirwin (Labour), Frances Weetman (Liberal Democrat)
CON GAIN Tynemouth

CON: 24,608; 44.7%
LAB: 16,707; 30.4%
LDM: 9,710; 17.6%
BRX: 2,803; 5.1%
GRN: 1,201; 2.2%

Majority: 7,901; 14.3%
Turnout: 55,029; 71.2%
 
I 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
 
I 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
Ohhh

I like this a lot

Great job.
 
MulroneyPunk

1984-1992: Brian Mulroney (Progressive Conservative)
1984: John Turner (Liberal), Ed Broadbent (New Democratic)
1988: Ed Broadbent (New Democratic), Jean Chretien (Liberal)

1992-1997: Barbara McDougall (Progressive Conservative)
1993: Dave Barrett (New Democratic), Jean Chretien (Liberal)
1997-2000: Bob Rae (New Democratic)
1997 (Minority): Barbara McDougall (Progressive Conservative), Mel Hurtig (Liberal)
2000-2008: Daniel Paille (Progressive Conservative)
2000: Bob Rae (New Democratic), Mel Hurtig (Liberal)
2005: Phil Edmonston (New Democratic), David Orchard (Liberal)

2008-2010: Michael Chong (Progressive Conservative)
2010-2017: David Miller (New Democratic)

2010: Michael Chong (Progressive Conservative), Christopher Porter (Liberal)
2014: Jim Prentice (Progressive Conservative), Christopher Porter (Liberal)

2017-: Elizabeth May (Progressive Conservative)
2017: David Miller (New Democratic), Tanya Granic Allen (Liberal)

Pretty much what it says on the tin. The zeitgeists of the mid eighties come true: The Tories establish a new hegemony over Canada and Quebec, the NDP supplants the Liberals on the left, and after Chretien loses his seat in '93 the party quickly disintegrates, hijacked by economic nationalists and eventually by socially conservative activists alienated by what has become of the Tories, now the party of Meech Lake, NAFTA, same-sex marriage and the Carbon Tax.
 
The Hanged Man or The Slow Rise Of British Communism

1916-1922: David Lloyd George (National Liberal)
1918 (United Coalition with Conservatives and NDLP) def. Eamon de Valera (Sinn Fein), H.H. Asquith (Liberal), Arthur Henderson (Labour), John Dillon (Irish Parliamentary)
1922-1923: David Lloyd George (United Reform majority)
1923-1925: Austen Chamberlain (United Reform)
1923 (Majority) def. George Lansbury (Labour), H.H. Asquith (Liberal), Henry Page Croft (National)
1925-1935: Winston Churchill (United Reform)
1926 (Coalition with National-Liberal Alliance) def. George Lansbury (Labour), John Simon (National-Liberal Alliance), David Lloyd George (Radical)
1931 (Coalition with National-Liberal Alliance) def. Fenner Brockway (Labour), John Simon (National-Liberal Alliance), David Lloyd George (Radical)

1935-1943: Oswald Mosley (United Reform)
1936 (Coalition with National Liberals) def. Fenner Brockway (Labour), John Simon (National Liberal), David Lloyd George (Radical)
1940 (Unity Government with National Liberals and Radicals) def. James Maxton (Labour), Winston Churchill (Peoples')

1943-1955: Winston Churchill (Peoples')
1946 (Coalition with Labour and Centrists) def. Tom Wintringham (Labour), Leslie Hore-Belisha (Centre), Waldron Smithers (National)
1950 (Coalition with Centrists) def. Tom Wintringham (Labour), Leslie Hore-Belisha (Centre), Waldron Smithers (National)
1954 (Coalition with Centrists) def. Konni Zilliacus (Labour), Leslie Hore-Belisha (Centre), A.K. Chesterton (National), Honor Balfour (Action)

1955-1960: Anthony Eden (Peoples')
1956 (Coalition with Nationals and Centrists) def. Konni Zilliacus (Labour), Bernard Montgomery (National), Mark Bonham Carter (Centre), Honor Balfour (Action)
1960-1963: William Douglas-Home (Peoples')
1960 (Coalition with Action and Centrists) def. Konni Zilliacus (Labour), Bernard Montgomery (National), Honor Balfour (Action), Mark Bonham Carter (Centre)
1961
(Coalition with Action) def. Konni Zilliacus (Labour), Honor Balfour (Action), John Baker White (National), Mark Bonham Carter (Centre)
1963-1965: Selwyn Lloyd (Peoples')
1963 (Coalition with Nationals and Centrists) def. T. Dan Smith (Labour), Honor Balfour (Action), William Sidney (National), Peter Bessell (Centre)
1965-1970: Duncan Sandys (Peoples')
1968 (Coalition with Nationals) def. T. Dan Smith (Labour), William Sidney (National), John Baker (Action)
1970-1975: Reginald Maudling (Peoples')
1972 (Coalition with Labour and Action) def. T. Dan Smith (Labour), John Gouriet (National), John Baker (Action)
1975-1991: Cyril Smith (Peoples')
1975 (Coalition with Ratepayers') def. Denis Healey (Labour), Oliver Smedley (Ratepayers'), John Griffiths (Action), Oswald Mosley (New Movement)
1980 (Coalition with Ratepayers') def. Denis Healey (Labour), Margaret Roberts (Ratepayers'), John Griffiths (Action), Andrew Fountaine (New Movement)
1984 (Coalition with Ratepayers') def. Denis Healey (Labour), Margaret Roberts (Ratepayers'), Peter Hain (Action), Roy Painter (New Movement)
1988 (Coalition with New Movement and Ratepayers') def. Denis Healey (Labour), Peter Hain (Action), Patrick Moore (New Movement), Margaret Roberts (Ratepayers')

1991-1993: Rhodes Boyson (Peoples'-New Movement-Ratepayers' coalition)
1993-1998: Derek Simpson (Labour)
1993 (Coalition with Action) def. Patrick Moore (New Movement), Peter Hain (Action), Rhodes Boyson (Moralitarian), John Redwood (Neo-Liberal), Norman St John-Stevas (One Nation)
 
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)
 
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)
For those who were interested in this, I’ve started a TL following the same outline I had in mind for its footnotes!
 
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)

Macmillan as De Gasperi?
 
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Prime Ministers of New Zealand
1931-1935:
Gordon Coates (Reform)
1931 def: Harry Holland (Labour), George Forbes (United), Harold Rushworth (Country)
1935-1940: Michael Joseph Savage (Labour)
1935 def: Gordon Coates (Reform), George Forbes (United), Harold Rushworth (Country), Eruera Tirikatene (Ratana)
1939 def: Adam Hamilton (Reform), William Polson (United), Arthur Sexton (Country)

1940-1945: Peter Fraser (War Government: Labour and Reform)
1943 def: Keith Holyoake (Reform), Sidney Holland (United), John A. Lee (Democratic Soldier Labour)
1945-1951: Peter Fraser (Labour)
1947 def: Keith Holyoake (Reform), Sidney Holland (United)
1951-1959: Sir John Ormond (Reform)
1951 def: Peter Fraser (Labour), Sidney Holland (United)
1955 def: Arnold Nordneyer (Labour), Sidney Holland (United)

1959-1967: Arnold Nordmeyer (Labour)
1959 def: Sir John Ormond (Reform), Ralph Hanan (United), Saul Goldsmith (Liberal)
1963 def: Tom Shand (Reform), Ralph Hanan (United)

1967-1971: Arnold Nordmeyer (Labour-United coalition)
1967 def: Tom Shand (Reform), Robert Muldoon (United), John O’Brien (Country)

As the United Government of New Zealand puttered to a standstill in 1931, Gordon Coates had a choice: either he could replace Labour as their governing partner in a very split Parliament, or he could force an election and gain power in his own right.

As Coates was not a complete buffoon, he selected the latter option. The Reformers shellacked the Uniteds in the polls, although Labour continued its threatening march towards power - frightened by the onslaught, Coates governed even more 'socialistically' than he had done in his first term, 1925-8, and used the resources of the state to provide work for the unemployed and to supply them with rent-free land to subsist on. By 1935, the country was well on the road to recovery from the Depression, but the voters had merely had their appetites whetted for Socialism, and Reform went down amid vote-splitting from United, which retained the services of NZ's only competent election organiser, Albert Davy.

The First Labour Government is remembered for many things: the beginnings of the welfare state, the building of thousands of state houses, the Lee Affair, the partnership with the Ratana Church, etc. Not so much terrifying Communists as they were believers in Applied Christianity, the Labour Party lost its menace in the eyes of the middle class electorate, and most of them even supported Reform's Hamilton and Coates in participating in the War Cabinet - although the free-marketeer defector from Reform, Sid Holland, lowered the tone by condemning their co-operation with Labour against the Nazis.

No Government can survive forever, though, and Fraser lost power amid the direst waterfront strike (or lockout) since the events of 1913, almost dropping to third place as Kiwis put their trust in a reassuring patrician from a political dynasty - not Holland, of course, but John Ormond. Ormond was a born-to-rule runholder from Hawke's Bay with a brusque manner and a chequered political past. He had opposed Coates' drift to the left, even going as far as to dabble with the quasi-Fascist NZ Legion and to stand for the Uniteds in 1935, but he mellowed with experience and by now was a stalwart proponent of co-operative enterprise and state control of export marketing. Even his critics now agree that he was the right man at the right time, his premiership coinciding with the British accession to Europe. His blunt barracking of the British negotiators was instrumental in securing the phased reduction in primary produce quotas, while his socialistic introduction of bonuses and penalties for farmers, depending on how much of their produce went to new markets, may well have saved New Zealand's colonial economy from catastrophe.

Unfortunately for Ormond, a collapse in the butter price engendered a balance of payments crisis at the end of his second term, and Clifton Webb's Black Budget went down in history as a foul imposition on the ordinary Kiwi bloke. The wave of discontent brought the generous leftist Arnold Nordmeyer in at the head of a stupendous majority (although this was partly down to the collapse in the third-party vote as the Uniteds split between social liberals and market liberals upon the death of Sid Holland). The member for Oamaru had defeated Walter Nash in the post-Fraser leadership election in a backbench revolt against the inner circle, and Nordmeyer's domed head shone out from television screens across the nation for the next two decades.

Nordy's firm beliefs were no match for his pragmatism, and in Government he was incremental in building the welfare system, weaning the rugby fans off their Springbok tours, establishing a state-owned shipping line, etc. In 1965, though, it all went horribly wrong when the wool price collapsed, while simultaneously the new United leader, Rob Muldoon, proved to have much more of a common touch than the intellectual Nordmeyer. In fact, Labour was only saved from complete disaster in 1967 by the fact that Reform's vote was split by Muldoon's appeal in the provinces and by the splitting off of the monetary reform wing of the Reformers, rendered desperate by the wool situation.

Labour remained the largest party, which gave them more of a mandate than a hypothetical 'coalition of the losers' - which would in any case have been immediately thrown into chaos by the unexpected death of Tom Shand. So Muldoon reluctantly took his party into coalition, taking the Finance portfolio. His campaign-trail free-market rhetoric dissolved upon contact with power, and after restraining inflation in his first couple of years, he threw caution to the wind and passed some ludicrously steep wage orders. Although the coalition co-operated well on economic matters, though, social issues were more fraught, with Rob's Mob marching against the legalisation of homosexuality. Foreign policy also proved contentious: Muldoon put Nordmeyer under strong pressure to join the anti-Communist efforts in Vietnam and to turn a blind eye to nuclear testing in the Pacific.

This period of NZ's history, which established four year terms and a unicameral Parliament; a two-and-a-half party system with Labour as the natural party of Government; a big state and co-operative enterprise; a primary sector hungry for new markets while protected industries had free rein over the domestic market, was probably one of the most formative in our country's history. Although the market has liberalised, there is still a huge section of our political situation which can be traced back to the developments of 1931-71. Modern politicians would do well to remember this.
 
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