@Time Enough @AH Layard
Something I found it while reading biographies of Chamberlain was that Nev was incredibly paranoid at times and heavily depended on Major Joseph Ball,head of the Conservative Research Department,Deputy of the Security Executive and best known for playing a certain role in creating the Zinoviev Letter forgery.
It cannot be stated how much of a bastard Ball was. Fanatically loyal of Chamberlain,he viewed him as the savior of the nation and was willing to do anything to aid him. He created a whole newspaper with government money just to promote appeasement and bully Jewish people. He illegally financed the pro appeasement movement with numerous criminal schemes, many of which had the backing of Nev and involved people like Lloyd-George’s old pal Maundy Gregory and gold mining tycoon Sir Harry Oakes.
Both of which btw died because Ball always knew how to cover most of his tracks and arranged their murders.
Not to mention spying on all of Nev’s political rivals,not only bugging the phones of Churchill,Eden etc. but also having informants infiltrate their social circles and the Opposition/anti appeasement organizations in order to undermine them. By all intents and purposes,because of him Nev knew all of Labour and the Liberals’s plans and policies and the 1935 election was won in no small part because of espionage. The 1938 Oxford by-election was won by Hogg (without him knowing btw) only because Ball tricked the election at Chamberlain’s orders.
In a no WW2 world,Nev would still win the 1940 election because Ball would still be in power and thus able to know every thing the opposition does. In case of emergences,Ball had special files ready to be used as blackmail towards Nev’s rivals.
And note that he did this without MI5 or MI6 knowing or approving of this. By all intents and purposes he and Nev not only broke the law but committed treason repeatedly-especially with the Italians.
Here’s the real kicker though:
In a 1940 election won by the Tories,Nev still dies of cancer and Ball becomes a very awkward problem.
Especially if,distraught by his idol’s death,he doesn’t manage to eliminate some incriminating evidence at time and MI5,wanting to get revenge on him,gets the evidence and shows them to Hoare and the Cabinet.
None of which were previously told anything about this by Nev and would be aghast by Ball and Nev’s actions.
And knowing how naive Sammy was,I do believe this could end up a big scandal.
Something I found it while reading biographies of Chamberlain was that Nev was incredibly paranoid at times and heavily depended on Major Joseph Ball,head of the Conservative Research Department,Deputy of the Security Executive and best known for playing a certain role in creating the Zinoviev Letter forgery.
It cannot be stated how much of a bastard Ball was. Fanatically loyal of Chamberlain,he viewed him as the savior of the nation and was willing to do anything to aid him. He created a whole newspaper with government money just to promote appeasement and bully Jewish people. He illegally financed the pro appeasement movement with numerous criminal schemes, many of which had the backing of Nev and involved people like Lloyd-George’s old pal Maundy Gregory and gold mining tycoon Sir Harry Oakes.
Both of which btw died because Ball always knew how to cover most of his tracks and arranged their murders.
Not to mention spying on all of Nev’s political rivals,not only bugging the phones of Churchill,Eden etc. but also having informants infiltrate their social circles and the Opposition/anti appeasement organizations in order to undermine them. By all intents and purposes,because of him Nev knew all of Labour and the Liberals’s plans and policies and the 1935 election was won in no small part because of espionage. The 1938 Oxford by-election was won by Hogg (without him knowing btw) only because Ball tricked the election at Chamberlain’s orders.
In a no WW2 world,Nev would still win the 1940 election because Ball would still be in power and thus able to know every thing the opposition does. In case of emergences,Ball had special files ready to be used as blackmail towards Nev’s rivals.
And note that he did this without MI5 or MI6 knowing or approving of this. By all intents and purposes he and Nev not only broke the law but committed treason repeatedly-especially with the Italians.
Here’s the real kicker though:
In a 1940 election won by the Tories,Nev still dies of cancer and Ball becomes a very awkward problem.
Especially if,distraught by his idol’s death,he doesn’t manage to eliminate some incriminating evidence at time and MI5,wanting to get revenge on him,gets the evidence and shows them to Hoare and the Cabinet.
None of which were previously told anything about this by Nev and would be aghast by Ball and Nev’s actions.
And knowing how naive Sammy was,I do believe this could end up a big scandal.