1945-1950: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1945 (Majority) def: Winston Churchill (Conservative), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Ernest Brown (National Liberal)
1950-1954: Anthony Eden (Conservative)†
1950 (Majority) def: Clement Attlee (Labour), Clement Davis (Liberal)
1954-1959: Oliver Lyttelton (Conservative)
1955 (Majority) def: Clement Attlee (Labour), Frank Byers replacing Clement Davis (Liberal)
1959-1968: Alfred Robens (Labour)
1959 (Majority) def: Oliver Lyttelton (Conservative), Frank Byers (Liberal)
1963 (Majority) def: John Profumo (Conservative), Frank Byers (Liberal)
1968-1973: Anthony Nutting (Conservative)
1968 (Majority) def: Alfred Robens (Labour), Eric Lubbock (Liberal), Stan Newans (ILP)
1972 (Majority) def: James Callaghan (Labour), Eric Lubbock (Liberal aligned with New Agenda)
1973-1976: Airey Neave (Conservative)
1976-1977: Peter Tapsell (Conservative)
1977-1985: Peter Shore (Labour)
1977 (Majority) def: Peter Tapsell (Conservative), Eric Lubbock (Liberal aligned with New Agenda), Jeremy Thorpe (Centre)
1981 (Majority) def: Geoffrey Rippon (Conservative), Hilary Wainwright (Liberal-New Agenda), Jeremy Thorpe (Centre)
1985-: Peter Walker (Conservative)
1985 (Majority) def: Peter Shore (Labour), Hilary Wainwright (New Democrats), John Stonehouse (Centre)
Eden was the man who would bring the Tories out of the Wilderness, a disciple of Skeltonism and a believer in the possibility of state intervention and a fairly Liberal idea for the Tory ideals, Eden would find himself well suited to take the leadership after Churchill had another stroke that put him out commission permanently. Eden would beat Attlee in 1950 and ushered in another Conservative Majority on a message of essentially being better than Labour at providing the power of the state.
Of course, Eden had to drive a devils bargain with the Magic Circle to get to the position he wanted. Oliver Lyttelton was a fairly business minded individual, connected to the City of London and banking in general, Lyttelton would be Eden’s Chancellor, the Old Tory Guard’s way of keeping Eden from being too Radical.
Eden’s time would be mildly transformative and see the continuation with much of the Attlee policies and ideas, though this would be combined with a slow withdrawal from the Empire and the denationalisation of some assets here and there. But then he would die, a simple surgery would end up giving Eden two weeks of immense pain before he would die of his injuries, causing a nation to mourn.
Lyttelton who had quietly been running the Treasury in the background, found himself thrust into the position of Prime Minister and initially would continue the policies that Eden had pushed for, easily winning him the 1955 election as Labour failed to impress and the Liberal’s had to rapidly change leader when Davis’s Alcoholism became too much for him, saved by Byers (who just managed to hold on to his Dorset seat thanks to Labour deciding to avoid putting up a candidate).
Lyttelton seeing his fresh new mandate decided that now he could pursue a more business friendly government. Taxes Cuts, harsher treatment against Trade Unions and Public Spending cuts would be the order of the day, and whilst Britain definitely didn’t see the return to the 1930s as some thought, it definitely left a bad taste in the countries mouth. This combined with continued conflict in Kenya, Cyprus and Malay lead to people erring against Lyttelton. Talks of a potential leadership coup being mounted by Harold Macmillan or Rab Butler would lead to both being flung out of the cabinet and Lyttelton would surround himself with yes men.
In early 1959 a miners and coalers strike over pay disputes and colliery closures would nearly cause the whole of Britain to blackout, as regions were plunged into darkness. Lyttelton decided that he should pursue an election as an Anti-Socialist Crusade against Communist subversion and Labour Radicalism. Hopes this would inspire Britain to reject the remains of Attlee would lead to the opposite happening.
Alfred Robens came into No10 as the future of the Left and left it as it’s greatest betrayer. Having been the Left ‘Anti-Morrison’ candidate in the 1955 Leadership Election after Gaitskell and Bevan declined to bring about a coronation, Robens was dealt a great hand by Lyttelton’s aggressive austerity policies and just as aggressive deals with Trade Unions. Robens presented himself as the man who could not only finish what Attlee has started but also would ensure a healthy balance between Trade Unions, Market and Government.
A combination of Robens youthful energy, a Liberal surge under Byers and the Conservative’s just being incredibly exhausted is what lead to Robens win. His first several years of office were mainly continuations of what had been proposed in the Attlee Government, the Industrial Democracy Bill was a watered down attempt to administrate the various vying Trade Unions under an all encompassing Bill, Welfare Spending was increased and assets that hadn’t previously been Nationalised were Nationalised.
Robens would also pursue a foreign policy that would ensure Britian still had a front seat in Global Affairs. The Yugoslavian-Britain Trade Pact was one of the first serious attempts to include Yugoslavia into the Global Economy, Robens would get on well with the bullish Texan LBJ and it was decided to finish withdrawing from the Empire...with American help. This would be one of Robens first big mistakes, as the price for ensuring American support for decolonisation was Britain had to help America in there own affairs.
It was thought that Britain's relative success in Malaya could work out for America in Vietnam. This rapidly turned out to not be the case, as dealing with the Vietcong and NVRA would turn out to be bloody slog for all countries involved. Robens would rapidly become unpopular with the youths being conscripted to fight the war as part of Robens revival in national service.
Another mistake was Robens and much of his Cabinet had little clue on how to deal with the economy. Early on they had been saved by Lyttelton ruthlessly austerity causing a pot of money and a cooled down economy to be there when Robens was in office. But Robens would ignore NEDY as the economy began to heat up again as the 60s rolled on. Additionally Robens would refuse to join the burgeoning EEC as he viewed the Commonwealth and other friends overseas and Britain’s main trading partners.
Whilst Robens would win a substantial majority in the 1963 election against a scandal filled John Profumo, it became apparent that 1968 would be more difficult affair. The Liberals having regained stability under Byers, had now looked for a new leader to pushing them through into the new decade. Eric Lubbock was a fairly radical Liberal and seen as not likely to win, until the front runner Thorpe had to step down for personal reasons. Seeing a potential gain to be had, Lubbock would appeal to the Radical students and youth movements popping in the wake of the Vietnam War and National Service.
Whilst this was happening Robens would see a split caused by Stan Newans over Britain’s continued involvement in Vietnam. Whilst not enough to cause a collapse in his Majority, the whole affair and it’s impact would be embarrassing for Robens.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Robens decided to lean further Rightwards, with electoral campaign loaded with so many racial dogwhistles it would have made Morrison and Churchill blush. This would prove to have an opposite effect than anticipated, as numerous individuals found the racism involved making them vote either the moderate Conservative’s or the Liberals. Robens would voted out of office and rapidly find himself sulking on the benches of the Lords.
Anthony Nutting wasn’t like Lyttelton or Profumo and campaigned on a return to the type of politics that Eden had proposed. Friendly with Trade Unions, the EEC and the increasingly Liberalising Britain, Nutting wasn’t going back to the aggressiveness of Lyttelton any time soon. Nutting would oversee the withdrawal from Vietnam, helped by President Rockerfellar and Britain would join the EEC in 1971 helped by President Alain Poher.
But the economy which had became to inflate and overheat during the Robens years would begin to rear it’s ugly head again. Whilst it wasn’t an issue in 1972, as Labour battled a revive Liberals who had united with the Radical Libertarian Left Party accidentally started by Richard Acland and Tom Driberg in 1968 as a Christian Socialist Machine to find themselves doing well in the cities of Britain.
But things would go badly for Nutting in 1973 when investors noticed that Britain’s economy was beginning to slump. A run on the pound would lead to the near collapse of the British economy as it drove headlong into recession. Unemployment exploded and government expenditure shrivelled up. Nutting would resign, as it the damage became apparent.
Airey Neave represented the revival of the Conservative Right under a new face, Populist and Nationalistic, Neave was a person who spoke to Middle England and told them that ‘Yes, we will crush the scary Communist Unions, the Marxist IRA, Michael X and the criminal elements in Britain’. But things would turn out to be more complicated than that, and sending riot police to beat up students or pictures of bloodied soldiers in Northern Ireland left many feeling gloomy. The economy didn’t recover, crime was rampant and Michael X would remain a semi-prominent figure in British politics.
This feeling of getting nowhere would lead Neave down some dark paths. A investigative journalist would reveal all this in 1976, that Neave had plans prepared to deal with a ‘Trade Union insurrection’ and a ‘Northern Irish Rebellion’ which essentially amounted to assassinations, bribery and coup plans. Neave would resign, disgraced before fleeing to Mexico to escape prosecution.
His successor, Peter Tapsell was a bullish Keneysian Right Wing Populist but his beliefs didn’t little when faced with the actual realities of Britain. Tapsell tried to essentially out Shore, Peter Shore in the incoming election but appeared fruitless as he went about on offensive tirades and weird speeches on English Nationalism. In the end most Conservative voters fled to the new Centre party, a loose coalition of Tory Moderates, Liberal Localist Populists, Labour Rightwingers and John Stonehouse lead by the eccentric but charismatic Jeremy Thorpe, who hoped he could become the next Prime Minister.
This didn’t happen, instead Peter Shore would become Prime Minister. Charismatic, Radical but also a mild Conservative, Shore would be a man of numerous contradictions, a man who would decentralise power across Britain through his ‘Council Boards’ and ‘A Democratic Industry’ schemes But was firmly against Regional Assemblies and attempts to enforce stronger trade union regulation. A firm British Nationalist, he would try and drag Britain out of the EEC (and would eventually gain the ‘Shore Solution’ of a separate trading pact) and the man who would bring Britain back into the forefront of Anti-Communist activities (helped by President Scoop Jackson).
Ushering in essentially a very English form of Social Democracy, one that was incredibly autarkic in nature, in an increasingly globe world, but seemed to get the job done. Shore’s Left Wing Populism would run it’s course when the Conservative’s finally found a leader who could easily combat it.
Peter Walker was the Moderate Peter Shore, a State Interventionist, nonplussed on the EEC and a man liberal enough to reform the economy but not liberal enough to implode the welfare state, Walker would oversee the ‘Second British Boom’ as it’s called. As Labour pondered on who next (with choice being narrowed down between the Welsh Shoreite or the New Zealand Shoreite or that weird Ashdown fella), the New Democrats began to increasingly lean into further Left Libertarianism and Ecologically ideas (with the party more frequently turning to the works of Murray Bookchin over Ralph Miliband) and the Centre Party having died a very natural death under John Stonehouse, it seems that forty years since Churchill’s stroke, Britain may finally get a Conservative Prime Minister with two full terms under his belt...
Well if that ‘Slater Bust Scandal’ that seems to coming up to the surface doesn’t bite Walker in the arse.