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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Hope you like academically sourced PODs.

'An act of sabotage against the party'[1]: If Hattersley had lost 1988

Leaders of the Labour Party

1983-1989: Neil Kinnock [2]
1989-1999:
Bryan Gould [3]
1999-2019: Peter Hain

Deputy Leaders of the Labour Party

1983-1988: Roy Hattersley
1988-2000: John Prescott
2000-2010: Joan Ruddock
2010-2019: Paul Boateng

[2] The TGWU's decision to endorse Benn/Prescott on a knife edge vote in June 1988 [2.1] following Kinnock's 'something for nothing' comments on unilateralism, turned what had previously been seen as a frustrating and futile distraction for the party leadership into a serious threat to the 'Dream Ticket''s very authority and future. Initial warnings that Hattersley's majority within the party was too close to comfort declined into a very real fear that he would lose completely. While Benn and Heffer's challenge was a non-starter either among MPs, trade unions or naturally loyal party members, Prescott appeared the viable, 'friendly' challenger, claiming no ill-will towards Kinnock, but nevertheless acting as a vessel for covert discontent towards the party leaders' march to the right, authoritarian style of party management, and now perceived desire even to abandon the semi-religious totem of unilateral nuclear disarmament. While the TGWU's 1.25 million vote endorsement of Benn and Prescott would not be enough to seal the fate of either Kinnock or Hattersley, it would mark just a trickle of discontent both among the smaller transport unions and disillusioned CLPs.

The final result was a humiliation for the party leadership. While Kinnock cruised to an easy victory on 79% of the vote, 8 points higher than his initial victory in 1983, Hattersley fell short in nail-biting fashion at the final hurdle, winning 47.4% to Prescott's 52.6% on the second ballot. [2.2] Almost immediately the right wing press drew comparisons to 1981, with similar judgements that the party had just signed its own electoral death warrant. In scenes reminscent of the chaos of 1985, Kinnock sat brooding on the conference stage, refusing to acknowledge his new Deputy or shake his hand. Long gone was the cross-party fraternal hand-holding of the Dream Ticket.

Plunged once again into a bitter depression that had hounded Kinnock since 1984, he decided to make good on his private ultimatum that if the party voted out Hattersley they would also have to find a new leader. In a short and profoundly bitter speech on the conference floor the next day, Kinnock announced that the party had ceased to take itself seriously, [2.3] and had concluded that he had better things to do with his forties and fifites than try and rehabilitate a party that had no interest in changing. The resignation sent shock waves throughout the party, causing celebration among the Bennite left and existential dread among the soft left who had voted Prescott as a protest not meant to have real, tangible, political consequences. But while Benn had hoped that this was just a beginning in Labour's long march back to socialism, the result was perceived by many to be a counter-revolutionary over-correction.

[3] Under the ever effective fixing of NUPE's deputy General Secretary Tom Sawyer, [3.1] Bryan Gould, a Kinnock loyalist and growing hero of the soft left, was thrust into the limelight as candidate for leader, squaring off against the right's ordained champion, and rumoured former anti-Kinnock plotter, John Smith. While Gould had certainly little friends within the Bennite camp, not least through his insistence that Labour had to appeal to southern suburban voters who had 'done very well' out of Thatcherism, he never the lest possessed a radical flair that convinced enough members of the Campaign Group (perhaps most surprisingly Ken Livingstone) [3.2] to join an impressively diverse coalition of the soft and hard left along with many old right Eurosceptics. In a mix of lingering loyalty to Kinnock as well as harnessing soft left discontent, Bryan Gould took the party leadership by whisker in March 1989.

Within just three years, with Kinnock's parting condemnation of a party which had ceased to take itself seriously, but had set about a course of destructive self-sabotage, still ringing in people's ears... Labour would form its first government for twelve years.

The rest, from the Maastricht referendums to the Super Ministries of Trade and Industry, the dot-com boom to the Euro-Dollar crisis, is history.

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

1979-1991: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1979 (Majority): James Callaghan (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1983 (Majority): Michael Foot (Labour), Roy Jenkins/David Steel (SDP-Liberal)
1987 (Majority): Neil Kinnock (Labour), David Owen/David Steel (SDP-Liberal)

1991-1999: Bryan Gould (Labour)
1991 (Majority): Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (SLD), David Owen (SDP)
1992: Maastricht Treaty Referendum: No
1993: Second Maastricht Treaty Referendum: Yes
1995
(Majority): Michael Heseltine (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (SLD), David Owen/Peter Shore (No To Europe)
1999: European Dollar Referendum: Yes

1999-2009: Peter Hain (Labour)
2000 (Coalition with SLD): Peter Lilley (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (SLD), John Mills (Save the Pound)
2004 (Coalition with SLD): John Barron (Conservative), Paddy Asdown (SLD), Lee Hurst/Virginia Ironside (Save the Pound)

2009-2016: John Barron (Conservative)
2009 (Coalition with Save the Pound): Peter Hain/Evan Harris (Labour-SLD: 'Britain In Europe' Electoral Alliance), Virginia Ironisde (Save the Pound)
2011: European Dollar Referendum: Leave
2013: (Coalition with Save the Pound): Peter Hain/Evan Harris (Labour-SLD: 'Britain In Europe' Electoral Alliance), Natascha Engel (Save the Pound)

2016: European Union Membership Referendum: Remain
2016-2019: Peter Hain (Labour)
2016 (Britain In Europe Coalition): John Barron/Natascha Engel (Conservative-Keep the Pound: Alliance for Britain)


[1]Handwritten note from Neil Kinnock regarding John Prescott's proposed deputy leadership challenge (January 1988).
[2.1] In OTL, the vote was only against nominating anyone, pushing back the final decision till September. Ultimately, despite the fact the left had a majority on the TGWU executive, General Secretary Ron Todd's decision to turn the vote into a motion of confidence in his own leadership forced the left to nominate Kinnock/Hattersley. While the chances of Prescott's challenge had already significantly declined by September, a huge surge of momentum following the endorsement of the TGWU would have likely trickled down into the decisions of other unions and of course that of CLPs. See: L. Minkin, The Contentious Alliance (1990).
[2.2] Real computer projection from during the campaign.
[2.3] 'I made it known that if he [Prescott] beat Hattersley they’d have to find another leader. Because… you know regardless of the vote for me then, it would have meant that the Labour Party wasn’t taking itself seriously and by that time I thought the least I could do was to ask the bloody party to be serious about itself' - Neil Kinnock.
[3.1] In OTL, Sawyer personally suggested Bryan Gould prepare to contest the party leadership during one of Kinnock's bouts of depression in 1989. See: B. Gould, Goodbye to All That (1995).
[3.2] Ken Livingstone and Bryan Gould developed a good working relationship during the Policy Review (1987-89). See: B. Gould, Goodbye to All That (1995).



Appendix: The First Gould Ministry

Prime Minister: Bryan Gould
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Employment: John Prescott
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Robin Cook
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: John Smith
Secretary of State for Home Affairs: Gordon Brown
Secretary of State for Defence: Denzil Davies
Leader of the House of Commons: Gerald Kaufman
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry: Michael Meacher
Secretary of State for Education: Tony Blair
Secretary of State for Health: David Blunkett
Secretary of State for Energy: Frank Dobson
Secretary of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Jack Straw
Secretary of State for Transport: Robert Hughes
Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Ken Livingstone
 
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Putting that research to good use @AlfieJ - Bryan Gould often gets used (including by me) but in a sort of handwavy 'this happened, shut up' sort of way when it didn't seem that plausible, so good you've found a POD that works.

Many thanks, it was a very fun collection of documents I found at the Kinnock archive that pointed me towards this as well as Minkin's very imaginative study of what has often been a very very overlooked leadership election. The rest is just a bit of fun of what happens afterwards, but Gould does have an incredibly short moment of being 'the next Labour leader' in the eyes of many people and for very different reasons. By 1989 when he has parted ways with Kinnock over a number of policy issues any potential for him as a successor is likely lost, but 1987-88 was a real sweet spot of influence and popularity within the party.
 
[2.3] 'I made it known that if he [Prescott] beat Hattersley they’d have to find another leader. Because… you know regardless of the vote for me then, it would have meant that the Labour Party wasn’t taking itself seriously and by that time I thought the least I could do was to ask the bloody party to be serious about itself' - Neil Kinnock, interview with the author.

A L F I E
 
President Rowling is Retiring

rowling_by_lordroem_d8otb1j-fullview.jpg

Image and timeline stolen lovingly from @Lord Roem and @Meadow - who have been living rent-free in my head with this since 2015

2015-2019: Joanne Rowling (Labour)
2015: William Legge (UKIP) Michael Portillo (Conservatives Now) Joanne Rowling (Labour) Sir Menzies (Liberal Democrats) Charles Windsor (Green Party) Peter Tatchell (Red-Green Platform for Change) Carol Vorderman (William V Rex) Nicola Sturgeon (New Deal)
President Rowling was elected with Conservative votes in what many considered to be an establishment stitchup. The Conservatives were forced, following this, to offer a referendum on EU membership as a way to avoid polling collapse. They went on to form a government, and despite their campaign, leave won comfortably.

2017 EU Referendum: Leave (56.2%) Remain (43.8%)

Following the referendum and the appointment of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister he called a snap election. Labour campaigned on a platform of claiming to offer a harder leave than the Tories, and failed to move forwards. Following the election, and the resignation of Ed Balls as Labour leader, the party lurched unexpectedly to the left, under John McDonnell.

2019: Joanne Rowling (Labour) David Davies (Conservative) Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrats) Nigel Farage (Grassroots Out!) George Monbiot (Green Party) Jack Monroe (Red-Green Platform for Change) Joanna Cherry (New Deal) Gerard Batten (UKIP) Richard Littlejohn (William V Rex)

Rowling maintained her lead by appealing largely to remainers while Farage split the leave vote, she won with a hung electoral vollege once again and votes from Jo Swinson and Joanna Cherry, securing forever the elections reputation as being the Three Scottish Jo's Election.

September 2019-January 2020: Joanne Rowling (Liberal Democrats) defection

Never happy in the McDonnelite Labour party, Rowling defected shortly after the election, citing the importance of Lib Dem votes to getting her elected and Labour's policy change. McDonnell had originally supported leave only after a People's Vote but switched to supporting Leave if Boris Johnson offered a soft Brexit.

McDonnell's change in policy was strategically useful because it further split Boris from those in his party who couldn't countenance a hard brexit. However it also caused difficulties for the Labour Party. In Setember 2020, during conference season, moderates in Labour (along with some Tories and two Lib Dems) defected to form the Democracy Movement, under David Miliband.

January 2020-October 2021: Joanne Rowling (The Democracy Movement) defection

Rowling gave two justifications for defecting once again - she felt the need to support a friend and political ally, and, privately, she expressed strong distate at the Lib Dem opinion of gender self-ID.

Over the summer of 2019 (largely as a sop to moderates like Penny Mordaunt and Theresa May) the Conservatives engaged in a consultation on an LGBT action plan which included Gender self-ID. The issue proved to be intensely divisive in the feminist community and caused great distress for Rowling within the Lib Dems.

Two things killed the new centrist party - Brexit finally went through in January 2020 when Boris Johnson was replaced with David Cameron, who was more amendable to compromise with his party's moderates. Secondly, from March to July the country was placed under lockdown, the new centrist party was unable to organise and unable to fundraise. Some 50,000 people had joined in September, but only 5,000 renewed in October, most saying they'd never so much as heard from the party.

Similarly, political divisions over Black Lives Matter pushed people towards either Labour or the Conservatives. Labour offered enthusiastic support for Black Lives Matter spearheaded by Diane Abbot. while the Conservative view was that proactive measures were needed to prot strict stance on the issue, or the Conservative Party's hard stance on punishing protestors - that "for too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will eave you alone". Between these two extremes, David Miliband with his discussion of the Black Lives Matter "moment" got lost in the noise.

President Rowling became a thorn in the side of her party. While they were willing to go along with her on cancelling gender self-ID her habit of getting into twitter spats with trans people and retweeting people with racist and homophobic views such as Baroness Nicholson, caused embarrassment in the party. In August 2020 internet activists uncovered what became known as Rowling's "kook account" - a sockpuppet username that she used on twitter to discuss trans consiracy theories and troll trans people.

In the end David Miliband had a quiet word with her, and this caused her final break with the party. She expressed her absolute disgust that a man would try to silence her on a feminist issue, and she refused any apologies from the party on the matter.

October 2021-2023: Joanne Rowling (Independent) defection

As an independent, Rowling's views became increasingly irratic. Sometimes this was funny - for instance in December 2021 she tweeted that wizards in the 19th century magically vanished their poos rather than using the toilet. Sometimes it was disturbing - like when she accidentally interrupted a tweet to a child with a lengthy description of trans male's genital surgery.

Rowling became a key ally for Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister. And following the 2022 "Bathroom Bill" she played a key role in preventing the EU and US from issuing travel warnings for trans people thinking of visiting the UK. She particularly built a good relationship with President Kamala Harris.

Her obsession with trans issues extended gradually into other areas - initially she intervened in laws concerning sex education and supported new anti-porn regulations, but she also became increasingly hostile to Black Lives Matter, the New Green Movement, and a range of other culture issues. Often her views on these issues aligned conveniently with the government, but her reasons her agreeing with the government were often unusual and her opinion rating decreased gradually in the face of a confused population.

2023-20XX: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative)

2023: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative) Diane Abbot (Labour) Gina Miller (Liberal Democrats) Joanne Rowling (Independent) Joanna Cherry (New Deal) Caroline Lucas (Green Party) Rene Eddo Lodge (Red-Green Platform for Change) Sandi Toksvig (Equality)
Rees-Mogg was a surprise pick from the presidential primaries of 2023. His key policy is the abolition of the presidency. It is not clear, as yet, whether he can persuade Liz Truss to call for a referendum on the restoration of the monarchy and the coronation of William Windsor as King. Time will tell.
 
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Rees-Mogg was a surprise pick from the presidential primaries of 2023. His key policy is the abolition of the presidency. It is not clear, as yet, whether he can persuade Liz Truss to call for a referendum on the restoration of the monarchy and the coronation of William Windsor as King. Time will tell.
#ReferendumNow #WilliamV #PresidentialFailure

Anyway, terrifying story.
 
Absolutely love concepts like this. Have had that piece on my mind for a while as well so really happy to see someone put some welly into taking it further. Only issue - wasn’t Rowling elected for a single ten-year term in the original version?

Was she? Oh dang. This is what I get for skipping doing a re read.

In honesty I like the midpoint election. It could easily be removed and Rees-Mogg pushed back to 2025 I guess
 
Driving headlong into the Centre: A Prime Minister of Great Britain List:

1974-1976: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1974 (Majority) def: Ted Heath (Conservative), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1975 Conservative Leadership Election Keith Joseph def: Ted Heath, Geoffrey Howe
1976-1978: Micheal Foot (Labour)
Labour Leadership Election 1976: Micheal Foot def: Tony Benn, Denis Healey, Peter Shore
Liberal Leadership Election 1976: John Pardoe def: David Steel
1978-1982: Keith Joseph (Conservative)
1978 (Majority) def: Micheal Foot (Labour), John Pardoe (Liberal)
Labour Leadership Election 1979: Bill Rodgers def: Peter Shore, David Owen, Eric Heffer

1982-1990: Bill Rodgers (Labour)
1982 (Majority) def: Keith Joseph (Conservative), John Pardoe (Liberal), Eric Heffer (Socialist Labour)
Liberal Leadership Election 1983: David Penhaligon def: John Pardoe, David Steel

Socialist Labour Leadership Election 1985: Pat Wall def: Derek Hatton, Terry Fields
1986 (Majority) def: Keith Joseph (Conservative), David Penhaligon (Liberal), Pat Wall (Socialist Labour)
Conservative Leadership Election 1986: Micheal Heseltine def: Geoffrey Howe, Margaret Thatcher
1990-1994: Ann Clywd (Labour)
Labour Leadership Election 1990: Ann Clywd def: Chris Smith, Bernie Grant
Socialist Labour Leadership Election 1990: Derek Hatton def: Lesley Mahmood
1990 (Majority) def: Micheal Heseltine (Conservative), David Penhaligon (Liberal), Derek Hatton (Socialist Labour)

Conservative Leadership Election 1990: Chris Patten def: Ken Clarke
Socialist Labour Leadership Election 1991: George Galloway def: Derek Hatton, Arthur Scargill
Liberal Leadership Election 1992: Alan Beith def: Ming Campbell
1994-1999: Chris Patten (Conservative)
1994 (Majority) def: Ann Clywd (Labour), Alan Beith (Liberal), George Galloway (Workers)
Labour Leadership Election 1994: Tony Lloyd def: John McDonnell, Sue Slipman, Charles Kennedy
1999-2004: Tony Lloyd (Labour)
1999 (Coalition with Liberals) def: Chris Patten (Conservative), Alan Beith (Liberal), George Galloway (Workers)
Conservative Leadership Election 2002: Emma Harriet Nicholson def: Chris Patten
2004-2011: Emma Harriet Nicholson (Conservative)
2004 (Majority) def: Tony Lloyd (Labour), Alan Beith (Liberal), George Galloway (Workers)
Labour Leadership Election 2004: Barry Gardiner def: John McDonnell, Paddy Tipping, Frank Dobson, Sue Slipman
Liberal Leadership Election 2004: Ming Campbell def: Mark Oaten
2008 (Majority) def: Barry Gardiner (Labour), Ming Campbell (Liberal), George Galloway (Workers)
Labour Leadership Election 2009: Barry Gardiner def: Alan Johnson, Oona King
2011-2016: Barry Gardiner (Labour)
2011 (Coalition with Workers) def: Emma Harriet Nicholson (Conservative), Ming Campbell (Liberal), George Galloway (Workers)
Liberal Leadership Election 2011: Steve Gilbert def: Mark Oaten, Ed Davey
Conservative Leadership Election 2012: Liz Truss def: Andrea Leadsom, Anne Widdecombe
2016-2020: Liz Truss (Conservative)
2016 (Coalition with Liberals) def: Barry Gardiner (Labour), Steve Gilbert (Liberal), George Galloway (Workers), Anne Widdecombe (National)
Labour Leadership Election 2016: Karen Lee def: Emma Hardy, Dawn Butler, Emily Benn
Workers Leadership Election 2017: Frances Curran def: Laura Pidcock, Cat Boyd
2020-: Karen Lee (Labour)
2020 (Majority) def: Liz Truss (Conservative), Steve Gilbert (Liberal), Frances Curran (Workers), Anne Widdecombe (National)

Simple idea really, Foot and Joseph being Prime Ministers one after another sours the British public on the ideas of ‘extreme’ Left/Right ideas which Bill Rodgers capitalises on with his Centrist vision of a Modern Mixed Market Economy. Of course this requires reducing the power of the Unions which angers some of the more Left Wing MPs of Labour who create the Socialist Labour Party. Luckily for Rodgers the Left Wing votes he loses he gains back with Centrist votes.

The 80s are a time of change towards Rodgers vision and a popular Labour Government whilst the Tories descend into infighting. Eventually they get Micheal Heseltine as there candidate but the problems are still there and they lose a third election, this time to the Soft Left Ann Clywd who implements some slightly more radical ideas (but not too radical). Ann loses 94 to Chris Patten helped by George Galloway reviving the Socialists Labour Party (which nearly collapsed under Derek Hatton) into a more Populist Left Wing organisation which succeeds in the places which have felt left behind from Rodgers reforms.

Patten is a competent Prime Minister, but a small recession in 1996 ruins his chances at a second term. Tony Lloyd gets into power in 1999 but due to the Worker’s party fails to gain a majority. His coalition with the Liberals is a competent affair with increased devolution and a number of assemblies appearing but attempts to implement Alternative Voting fail and a reformed Conservatives under Emma Harriet Nicholson beats down Lloyd.

Nicholson enjoys seven years of power, bringing in her idea of the ‘New Society’ a series of Neoliberal reforms that allows the Government to replace public spending with private in certain sectors and to run Britain ‘like a business’. Things go as okay as they can, with continued support for the EU and much more until a worldwide recession in 2010 causes the wheels to fall of the Nicholson train.

Barry Gardiner, the Soft Left superstar takes over and despite advice not to, pursues a coalition with the Workers Party. This doesn’t go well as accusations of Communist infiltration, Anti-Semitism and Eurosceptism run rampant. This leads to Gardiner’s government to collapse and Liz Truss to come in. But the Tories have had there own problems as Anne Widdecombe breaks of from the Tories and creates a National Populist Right Wing Party which saps the Tory vote in a variety of places. Truss is forced to create a coalition with the Liberals but her opinions on Transgender issues and her failed attempts to revive the Nicholson ethos caused her to lose to a revived Labour Party.

Karen Lee, Lincoln MP and one of the members of the revived Socialist Campaign Committee won the leadership election against a field of awkward Soft Lefties and Blairites. Deflating the Workers Party’s hold and bring about an idea of Socialism for the 21st Century, Lee won the 2020 election by a significant majority. Now she’ll have to keep her aim of reviving British Socialism as the future beckons.
 
Sometimes it was purely upsetting - for instance her long and eventually successful campaign to hound Munroe Bergdorf out of public life. Munroe would take her own life in 2022 following years of being inundated with death threats.
I’ve been umming and ahhing about whether to post this comment, and I’ve decided I ought to, but before I do want to preface this by saying I love the list otherwise and don’t say this in order to attack or insult you (which I hope you know I wouldn’t anyway).

Anyway, here goes. I think this bit of this list is a little distasteful. I fully understand and agree with your disdain for Rowling, but I think this slightly weird fantasy of her driving someone to suicide is a bit weird and left a bad taste in my mouth. Now I might have missed something totally in which case please do tell me to fuck off, but if not this just feels a bit gross to me. Maybe it is plausible, but I still feel weird about someone (and particularly someone like you who I respect so much) posting stuff like that.
 
I’ve been umming and ahhing about whether to post this comment, and I’ve decided I ought to, but before I do want to preface this by saying I love the list otherwise and don’t say this in order to attack or insult you (which I hope you know I wouldn’t anyway).

Anyway, here goes. I think this bit of this list is a little distasteful. I fully understand and agree with your disdain for Rowling, but I think this slightly weird fantasy of her driving someone to suicide is a bit weird and left a bad taste in my mouth. Now I might have missed something totally in which case please do tell me to fuck off, but if not this just feels a bit gross to me. Maybe it is plausible, but I still feel weird about someone (and particularly someone like you who I respect so much) posting stuff like that.

No, I get that. It's a difficult balancing act with these things. Munroe was talking just yesterday about the impact that the Baroness Nicholson situation has had on her, and how her achievements have been won through each one costing a little bit of her. She was in fact saying it in a letter to Baroness Nicholson in response to her saying "it would be fun" to meet with Munroe Bergdorf. It got into my head how there is a cost, even (or maybe especially) for the big names in these discussions. It's something I think is often lost.

The real reality is that if you put someone with one of these weird obsessions into a position of power they will use it to continue their twitter vendettas. It won't be pretty. There are multiple ways this can go. Aimee Challenor had her boyfriend's Twitter hacked and filled with confessions of sexual attraction to children, Lily Madigan was accused of having an old twitter where she advocated for and celebrated rape. After these attacks both of them dropped out of politics. It's unfortunately a feature of our current political system that trans people are driven from politics. I initially considered something along these lines, a faked rape claim, a series of hit pieces, being accused of some form of crime. While this is the real most likely consequence of TERFs in power going after enemies out of power, I try not to make specific accusations of crime, even untrue-in-the-story ones, in AH, I tried to tone down my thoughts and massively under-toned down said thoughts.

It's a weirdness, writing these sorts of transphobes win in some way TLs, they keep going round my head because in various ways I am always considering what happens if TERFs win in this way or that and how to respond. It's not a pretty thought, but microfic is a way to exorcise some demons. I evidently need to work on then keeping said demons off the page, and I am sorry for not doing that well enough.
 
President Rowling is Retiring
.​

This one also circles round in my head far more that it ought to. It really is bizarre how, of all the SLP published books, this time line is the one that has become most dated/horrific in hindsight - and in a way that is no fault of and could not possibly be forseen by the original authors.

Like Boristopia still holds up in broad strokes, and that was far more explicitly Coalitionpunk, and so prone to being overtaken by events. The tropes of 'Progressive Majority' and 'the SNP are a left wing progressive party' are core 2015 at heart, but having both JK and Joanna Cherry becoming explicit counterarguments in human form would feel too on the nose in a work of fiction.

Was there anything of Rowling's subsequent descent and radicalisation into online extremism apparent in the spring of 2015? From memory she was just the author who couldn't stop retconning her own work, and initially even that began as some clumsy progressive pinkwashing. The "they just poo themselves and magic it away" weirdness came later.

There lots of cool little AH details in this that shouldn't be overlooked either - Cameron replacing Boris as a safe pair of hands, Theresa May as a high profile 'moderate', David Milliband as the Steer Calmer Control Group.

The systematic exclusion of trans women from politics is definitely something about which it will be possible to write history books in years to come.
 
Was there anything of Rowling's subsequent descent and radicalisation into online extremism apparent in the spring of 2015? From memory she was just the author who couldn't stop retconning her own work, and initially even that began as some clumsy progressive pinkwashing. The "they just poo themselves and magic it away" weirdness came later.

Arguably some of her interventions of Scottish Independence gave a flavour of her political allegiance, I imagine looking through cybernat threads on the topic from 2014 would induce future nostalgia. But the terrain was so different, and she was so much more careful, that things were not the same.

And yeah, President Ashdown is Retiring is a brilliant story for just pure 2015 vibes. To be fair to them, @Meadow and @Lord Roem were like poets of "it's 2015 and things are a bit shit but there's nothing anyone can do about it". Just dipping into it again a small bit was fun.

In terms of the AH elements, yeah, the traditional response on President Rowling has been that the PM would have a quiet word. It never quite sat right with me, and I think recent events have shown why the quiet word approach wouldn't work. Rowling sees her transphobia as a justified response to the sexual and domestic violence she experienced at the hands of cis men. No man, no matter how well intentioned, would get a good response from telling her to tone it down.

Best case with President Rowling is, I think, that she is less bored and therefore gets less weird.
 
Best case with President Rowling is, I think, that she is less bored and therefore gets less weird.

The concept of 'the President so awful that it makes the public wonder what the problem was we had with the monarchy anyway' is a fascinating one.

Especially if the lack of establishment means Andrew's been actually hung out to dry by the direct line of succession.
 
The concept of 'the President so awful that it makes the public wonder what the problem was we had with the monarchy anyway' is a fascinating one.

Especially if the lack of establishment means Andrew's been actually hung out to dry by the direct line of succession.

A direct in-universe sequel set around this would be fascinating.

"The Second Referendum: Prince William is Returning"
 
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