• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

An expansion of an old list back on AH.com I called Blast from the Past

Basic Basis: Lisa Murkowski gets electorally capped by a certain cursed figure from our not too distant past, the same year Trump literally shits himself to death at mara-lago and Biden's average approval ratings reach 46% at the highest.


2021-2025: Joe Biden (Democratic)
(With Kamala Harris)
2020: Joe Biden/Kamala Harris (Democratic) [51.3%/306 EV] Def. Donald J. Trump/Mike Pence (Republican) [46.9%/232 EV] and Various Others

2025-2027: Sarah Palin (Republican)
(With Ron DeSantis)
2024: Sarah Palin/Ron DeSantis [46.37%/282 EV] Def. Kamala Harris/Ed Markey [46.43%/256 EV] and Justin Amash/Larry Sharpe (Libertarian) [5.4%/0 EV] and Various Others
2027: "Bermuda Triangle Incident"; Disappearance of Air Force One, President Palin, Vice President DeSantis


2027-2029: Kevin McCarthy (Republican)
(With Jeanean Hampton)

2029-20xx: Karen Carter Peterson (Democratic)
(With John Sarbanes)
2028: Karen Carter Peterson/John Sarbanes (Democratic) [52.6%/351 EV] Def. Kevin Mccarthy/Jeanean Hampton (Republican) [31.7%/187 EV] and Lauren Boebert/Micheal Flynn Jr. (THE TRUTH) [13.6%/0 EV] and Various Others
Ooh some interesting ideas
 
Ooh some interesting ideas

ill be frank, i recreated this list entirely so that i could put the idea of sarah palin becoming president and then getting lost in the fucking Bermuda Triangle, with the specific caveat that the reaction of her supporters would be both a. terrifying but also b. one of the funniest spectacles ever seen by mankind, out into the universe lmao
 
@Qaz_plm reminded me of this list so I'll do an update

More Things Change, More They Stay The Same

1945-1956: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1945 (Majority) def. Winston Churchill (Conservative), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Ernest Brown (Liberal National), Rajani Palme Dutt (Communist)
1950 (Majority) def. Harold Macmillan (Conservative), Clement Davies (Liberal), John Maclay (Liberal National), Harry Pollitt (Communist), Richard Law (Democratic National)
1953 (Majority) def. Rab Butler (Conservative), Clement Davies (Liberal), Richard Law (Democratic National), Rajani Palme Dutt (Communist), Michael Traynor (Sinn Fein)

1956-1958: Herbert Morrison (Labour majority)
1958-1964: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)
1958 (Coalition with Liberals) def. Herbert Morrison (Labour), Jo Grimond (Liberal), Peter Thorneycroft (Democratic National), Rajani Palme Dutt (Communist), Michael Traynor (Sinn Fein)
1962 Workers self-management referendum, NO 55%, YES 45%
1963 (Majority) def. George Brown (Labour), Jeanne Hoban (Communist), Jo Grimond (Liberal), Peter Thorneycroft (Democratic National)
1964 EEC & EDC membership referendum, ENTER 52%, REMAIN 48%

1964-1967: Priscilla Buchan (Conservative)
1965 (Minority, with DNP confidence and supply) def. Fenner Brockway (Labour), Jeanne Hoban (Communist), Richard Wainwright (Liberal), Margaret Thatcher (Democratic National), Michael Traynor (Sinn Fein)
1967-0000: Randolph Churchill (Conservative)
1967 (Majority) def. Fenner Brockway (Labour), Jeanne Hoban (Communist), Violet Bonham Carter (Liberal), Margaret Thatcher (Democratic National), Bernadette Devlin (Sinn Fein)
 
Last edited:
ill be frank, i recreated this list entirely so that i could put the idea of sarah palin becoming president and then getting lost in the fucking Bermuda Triangle, with the specific caveat that the reaction of her supporters would be both a. terrifying but also b. one of the funniest spectacles ever seen by mankind, out into the universe lmao

Death by accident is something that needs to appear in more lists, even if it's a bit weird that it doesn't happen often OTL--Harold Holt is the last real high-profile example in the Anglosphere.

The conspiracy theories of this TL are going to get real Galaxy Brain real quickly. Maybe with one of their big obsessions responsible for the death of a POTUS, you might see UFOlogists getting more politically active?
 
“Filofax Wielding Modernisers”:
1990-1993: John Major (Conservative)
1991 (UUP Confidence & Supply) def: Neil Kinnock (Labour), Paddy Ashdown (Lib Dems)
1993-1995: John Smith (Labour)
1993 (Majority) def: John Major (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (Lib Dems)
1995-2000: John Prescott (Labour)
1995 (Majority) def: John Redwood (Conservative), Paddy Ashdown (Lib Dems)
2000-2009: Stephen Dorrell (Conservative)
2000 (Coalition with Lib Dems) def: John Prescott (Labour), Simon Hughes (Lib Dems)
2002 PR Referendum: No 67%, Yes 33%
2004 (Majority) def: Alan Milburn (Labour), Simon Hughes (Lib Dems), Caroline Lucas-Lynne Jones (Green & Reds)

2009-2015: Ian Willmore (Labour)
2009 (Majority) def: Stephen Dorrell (Conservative), Evan Harris (Lib Dems), Caroline Lucas-Tony Clarke (Green), David Campbell-Bannerman (UKIP)
2013 (Majority) def: William Hague (Conservative), Evan Harris (Lib Dem), David Malone-Alexandra Phillips (Green)

2015-2021: Steve Rotheram (Labour)
2017 (Majority) def: Esther McVey (Conservative),Sarah Teather (Lib Dems), David Malone-Rachel Maskell (Green)
2021-: Amber Rudd (Conservative)
2021 (Majority) def: Steve Rotheram (Labour), Sarah Teather (Lib Dems), Rachel Maskell-Benali Hamdache (Green), Angela Constance (SNP)

So John Major calls a snap election in the Autumn of 1991 and whilst he's still the largest party in Parliament he's forced into a confidence and supply situation with the UUP. Meanwhile Kinnock buggers off and John Smith takes over in a leadership that isn't surprising in the least. As his popularity slides down after the chaos of Black Monday, Major's attempts to deal with the Troubles and Northern Ireland eventually lead to the UUP withdrawing there support leading to a 1993 election which John Smith wins on a message of Cautious Social Democracy. Smith isn't able to enjoy his Premiership for long, as a heart attack puts him out of commission and whilst surviving he's too ill to lead Britain. Prescott comes in on a platform of Continuity Smithism as Blair and Brown fight over the Moderniser scraps and Margaret Beckett suffers from the problem of being a woman and a bit Leftie. Meanwhile the Conservatives have engaged in a battle for king of the scraps and with the Labour and Prescott enjoying positive polling, John Redwood becomes the sap sent in to bat for the Conservatives. The 1995 election is a Prescott walkover as the dull and awkward Redwood isn't able to bring the same support on a platform of Dry Economics and Euroscepticism.

The remains of the 1990s is Prescott continuing the Social Democratic consensus that Smith started but the Modernisers continue to strain and fight against the Right and Left in the internal battles. Prescott meanwhile is a walking time bomb of a politician, his attitude, odd sense of speech and past misdeeds a treasure trove of material for hack comedians everywhere, Prescott clings to the Premiership throughout, even battling Blair a couple of times over it.

The 2000 election occurs after a year of chaotic polls, mainly the polls suggest a continuing Lib Dem surge started by Paddy Ashdown. But in the end no matter all the papers that discussed the possibility of a Lib Dem Government, it was never going to be. Instead Labour collapses and the Conservative’s under the Moderate image of Stephen Dorrell manage to gain enough MPs to hash out a coalition deal with Simon Hughes Lib Dem’s, after promises that discussion on PR will occur. PR doesn't happen for General Elections after a referendum but STV is implemented for Council elections and the emerging London and Yorkshire Assemblies (remnants of Prescott's term in office). Dorrell mainly implements a One Nation Conservative Britain with Ken Clarke as his Chancellor, the NHS and the Railways remain nationalised, though with Market Reforms implemented on them, attempts to make more Pro-Market occurs and Britain becomes more friendly to the EU (though not as much as Clarke would want as Dorrell doesn't join the Euro).

The 2004 election see's Dorrell win a majority as the Labour Party's ramshackle Modernisation under Milburn goes poorly as several Left Wing MPs defect to the Greens and Dorrell's bland competence beats Milburn's attempt at smooth charm. Dorrell continues his bland One Nation antics, even as a Eurosceptic voice in the form of UKIP begins to raise against the Conservatives. When the Finical Crisis comes to Britain's shores in 2008, Dorrell's reaction is to be like the other European nations, austerity is the course for the Conservatives. This goes down poorly with the public and allows the Labour Party to regain it's footing again under Ian Willmore whilst UKIP manages to gain the Right Wing vote as the Conservatives is squeezed.

Ian Willmore becomes Prime Minister on a Union backed Left Wing Populist platform, having become an MP in 1991 and appeared in the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet a number of times, this mildly eccentric reformer famous for writing Ron Todd's classic line about those 'Filofax wielding modernisers' manages to form a coalition of the Soft Left, Unions and the Old Guard of the party into a viable movement. Ian Willmore reverses austerity and tries to forge a new economic path, no longer tied down to the fiscal dryness of Smith, Prescott and Dorrell. He also seeks for reforming how Britain is run, the Civil Service becomes a completely independent organisation, divorced from Government, a number of services are reformed into a more Industrial Democratic direction. The attempt to try and turn Britain into a Social Democratic state goes fairly well, though worries about the power of the Unions and the dreaded word of Socialism lingers over Willmore.

He wins 2013 as the Conservative's incredibly Eurosceptic Right Wing Populist campaign scares off it's One Nation supports to the Lib Dems and Willmore's Labour is seen as having done a competent job (the middle classes aren't taxed high and austerity hasn't been implemented so people are fine with the new state). But after two years, Willmore leaves due to health issues and the Trade Unions back Steve Rotheram who manages to win the 2017 easily against Esther McVey who continues the William Hague ideas (which does proceed to ground UKIP into dust once and for all) though a Lib Dem and Green surge occurs as both offer things that the other parties aren't able to do. By now though the Willmore coalition is starting to splinter, a revived Left lead by Cat Smith tells Rotheram to go further in Democratic Socialist reform, whilst the Trade Unions are content to stay where they are and a revived Soft Left lead by the Labour Now grouping of Jo Platt, Léonie Mathers and Sarah Owen question the cautious nature of the Government and demand a Soft Left Modernisation project. Further problems when accusations of Anti-Semitism occur leading to some to some high profile deselections and chaos within the Labour party.

Not even a brief poll surge to Rotheram's handling of the SARs crisis can save him from a revived Conservatives, with Amber Rudd leading a rather firmly wet Conservatives, the Greens offering a Left Wing alternative to Labour and the SNP experiencing a slight surge under Angela Costance having finally taking the SNP out of the awkward Swinney years. As discussions over who would be the next Labour leader continue, the Unions may have found there perfect candidate; a Female Red Headed Union representative and long time MP, Karie Murphy will be the perfect leader for the Labour Party they say as another in the background is able to gain on the discontent in Labour for her own advantage.
 
I think I have a nice mixture of Hipster and Conventional choices in this list. Ian Willmore is a very unused althist character in British history despite being a fairly prominent member in the trade unions and was a candidate several times and was a lead campaigner for the smoking ban.

He’s perfect for a Union Dominated Social Democratic Labour Party.
 
Death by accident is something that needs to appear in more lists, even if it's a bit weird that it doesn't happen often OTL--

originally when i wrote the og timeline back on AH.com, i wanted to write an entire TLIAW surrounding a post-Trump Palin Administration and the basis of it was always that she was somehow going to just mysteriously disappear, it just depended on how. the plane disappearance over the Bermuda Triangle that i eventually settled on while recreating the list was based on the disappearance of another President in W3L, who also disappeared during a plane voyage across the Atlantic, although in this case it specfically had the be the Bermuda Triangle that she disappeared in for the extra "Oh god the Palinheads are going to go absolutely fucking nuts when they hear about this" factor.

and honestly, like you said, the possibility of that happening in real life isn't to far off. surprised it hasn't happened yet tbh lmao

Maybe with one of their big obsessions responsible for the death of a POTUS, you might see UFOlogists getting more politically active?

December, 2028: Street Shootouts begin between supporters of President Palin and members of the "Comrades of the Atom" Posadist group begin en masse
 
Realms of White Ships

Henry I of England, r. 1100-1131

William III of England r. 1131-1160

William IV of England, r. 1160-1171

Edward I of England, r. 1171-

this irks me not just because william adelin is a chud but because in most timelines post-conquest I feel like Edward deserves to be about as current a regnal name as Ethelbert is
 
Last edited:
Vague idea I had based on halfhearted analogisms (you have to ignore or wave away the 22nd amendment):

List of Presidents and Vice Presidents of the USA
1977-1981: Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1976 def: Gerald Ford / Bob Dole (Republican)
1981-1983: Ronald Reagan† / George Bush (Republican)
1980 def: Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1983-1989: George Bush / Henry Kissinger (Republican)
1984 def: Walter Mondale / Geraldine Ferraro (Democratic)
1989-1993: Edsel Ford II / Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Republican)
1988 def: Mario Cuomo / William J. Clinton (Democratic)
1993-2001: Geraldine Ferraro / Ann Richards (Democratic)
1992 def: Edsel Ford II / Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Republican)
1996 def: Nancy Kassebaum / Ted Turner (Republican)

2001-2005: Geraldine Ferraro / Ralph Nader (Democratic)
2000 def: Ross Perot / Dennis Hastert (Republican)
2005-2005: Geraldine Ferraro† / Mel Carnahan (Democratic)
2004 def: Mitt Romney / John Kasich (Republican)
2005-2013: Mel Carnahan / Steve Beshear (Democratic)
2008 def: Mitt Romney / George Deukmejian (Republican), David Duke / Steve King (America!)
2013-2021: David Petraeus / Ted Cruz (Republican)
2012 def: Adlai Stevenson IV / John Bel Edwards (Democratic)
2016 def: Adlai Stevenson IV / Barack Obama (Democratic)


There were probably a lot better choices for some of these but hopefully you get the idea. My starting thought was how few people in 1920 would have picked out Cox's running mate as someone who would dominate the country for over a decade. I've ignored long periods of the vice-presidency being vacant because this wouldn't be the case in the era in question.
 
Last edited:
Vague idea I had based on halfhearted analogisms (you have to ignore or wave away the 22nd amendment):

List of Presidents and Vice Presidents of the USA
1977-1981: Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1976 def: Gerald Ford / Bob Dole (Republican)
1981-1983: Ronald Reagan† / George Bush (Republican)
1980 def: Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1983-1989: George Bush / Henry Kissinger (Republican)
1984 def: Walter Mondale / Geraldine Ferraro (Democratic)
1989-1993: Edsel Ford II / Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Republican)
1988 def: Mario Cuomo / William J. Clinton (Democratic)
1993-2001: Geraldine Ferraro / Ann Richards (Democratic)
1992 def: Edsel Ford II / Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Republican)
1996 def: Nancy Kassebaum / Ted Turner (Republican)

2001-2005: Geraldine Ferraro / Ralph Nader (Democratic)
2000 def: Ross Perot / Dennis Hastert (Republican)
2005-2005: Geraldine Ferraro† / Mel Carnahan (Democratic)
2004 def: Mitt Romney / John Kasich (Republican)
2005-2013: Mel Carnahan / Steve Beshear (Democratic)
2008 def: Mitt Romney / George Deukmejian (Republican), David Duke / Steve King (America!)
2013-2021: David Petraeus / Ted Cruz (Republican)
2012 def: Adlai Stevenson IV / John Bel Edwards (Democratic)
2016 def: Adlai Stevenson IV / Barack Obama (Democratic)


There were probably a lot better choices for some of these but hopefully you get the idea. My starting thought was how few people in 1920 would have picked out Cox's running mate as someone who would dominate the country for over a decade. I've ignored long periods of the vice-presidency being vacant because this wouldn't be the case in the era in question.

Ferraro-as-FDR is great in a way that demonstrates the limits of stricter analogies (Cruz-as-Nixon is also almost too good, honestly) and makes a fun story just in itself.

The only real rough patches, to my eyes, are Kissinger and Edsel Ford, both of whom are deep cuts without matching all that well; Dawes got the Nobel but was essentially an unpolished midwestern banker, while Hoover was a renowned humanitarian who had come from nothing as opposed to just a rich guy - Perot (or Iacocca?) would probably fit well there. Obama isn’t really a deep cut but the connection to Kefauver does escape me.
 
2020-2024:Ivan Lestrade(Conservative)
2024-2036:Hamish Watson(Labour)

2024:Ivan Lestrade(Conservative),Layla Moran(Liberal)
2028:Bertie Wooster(Conservative),Layla Moran(Liberal)
2032:Billy Bunter(Conservative) ,Carter Blake(Liberal)

2036-2042:Basil Wright(Labour)
2037:Billy Bunter(Conservative),Todd Young(Liberal)
2042-2049:Micheal Rimmer(Conservative)
2042:Basil Wright(Labour),Alex More(Liberal)
2047:Owen Jones(Labour),Alex More(Liberal)
2049-2056:Bryan Doldy(Conservative)
2052:Robert "Uncle Bob" Mycoft(Labour),Richard Cale(Liberal)
2056:Sir A.B. Sullivile Saxton(Labour)
2056(Progressive Alliance)
:Bryan Doldy(Conservative),Alan Dabbers(Liberal)

Bwes said:
Oh god Sully the bully time
Riding_a_Bike said:
Sullivile Uber Alles
Essex is crap said:
Looks like we're getting an American in Downing Street
better than Doldy ofc
Wex said:
who ya thinking he's gonna fuck first Dabbers ,Anne Moreau,or Markie ? 🤔
Oppo said:
I guess when I made him PM in No Easy Answers I was looking into the future lol.
Ow(en Jones)O said:
someone make a Ron Paul DOOM meme but with Owen Jones saying something about expelling Sullyboy.
Spaceythewannabe said:
The Corpse Leader speaking on Channel 4
Indy said:
Should of stayed expelled tbh
great having pm Dabbers
me said:
Indy said:
great having pm Dabbers
The Alliance is only elections you moron
Kiidunhidsiuhdsfh said:
I'm ashamed no one has posted the Chairman Sullivile picture yet
AEEE said:

lix said:
MOD POST: We get that this is a wild night but please keep it civil
Kung-pow-wow said:
Lori Meyers is going to be in demand for the foreseeable future
Red_Christmas said:
Conguartions @numbah_too have fun being the chancellor of the Exchequer <^^>
Light said:
An Bastard Sully the Tory in power now just great!!!
Robert_Lowe said:
I forgot Charles Acharya was a member of this site
@numbah_too should of been you mate
numbah_too said:
I can't post something long rn(I will tomorrow but clearly I am going to be less active on here lol)
Thank you to all the Labour & Liberal supporters who made tonight possible!
 
Last edited:
2020-2024:Ivan Lestrade(Conservative)
2024-2036:Hamish Watson(Labour)

2024:Ivan Lestrade(Conservative),Layla Moran(Liberal)
2028:Bertie Wooster(Conservative),Layla Moran(Liberal)
2032:Billy Bunter(Conservative) ,Carter Blake(Liberal)

2036-2042:Basil Wright(Labour)
2037:Billy Bunter(Conservative),Todd Young(Liberal)
2042-2049:Micheal Rimmer(Conservative)
2042:Basil Wright(Labour),Alex More(Liberal)
2047:Owen Jones(Labour),Alex More(Liberal)
2049-2056:Bryan Doldy(Conservative)
2052:Robert "Uncle Bob" Mycoft(Labour),Richard Cale(Liberal)
2056:Sir A.B. Sullivile Saxton(Labour)
2056(Progressive Alliance)
:Bryan Doldy(Conservative),Alan Dabbers(Liberal)
Glad to see my predictions paying off for once! also got to love Owen Jones and Layla Moran existing in multiple universes
 
ill be frank, i recreated this list entirely so that i could put the idea of sarah palin becoming president and then getting lost in the fucking Bermuda Triangle, with the specific caveat that the reaction of her supporters would be both a. terrifying but also b. one of the funniest spectacles ever seen by mankind, out into the universe lmao
this is one of the realest things i’ve ever read
 
Ferraro-as-FDR is great in a way that demonstrates the limits of stricter analogies (Cruz-as-Nixon is also almost too good, honestly) and makes a fun story just in itself.

The only real rough patches, to my eyes, are Kissinger and Edsel Ford, both of whom are deep cuts without matching all that well; Dawes got the Nobel but was essentially an unpolished midwestern banker, while Hoover was a renowned humanitarian who had come from nothing as opposed to just a rich guy - Perot (or Iacocca?) would probably fit well there. Obama isn’t really a deep cut but the connection to Kefauver does escape me.
Thanks. You're right about Kissinger and Ford, they were weaker analogies. Obama deliberately doesn't fit because it's not a comparison to Kefauver - it's that he's the next FDR in the endless cycle of this TL. (This is less obvious because, to match Ferraro, he's the veep candidate for the second election into a period of Republican dominance rather than the one where it begins).
 
Busy as a Bee
Leaders of the New Party
1930-1932: Oswald Mosley
1932-1934: John Strachey
1934-1936: Frank
Horrabin
1936-1948: Nye Bevan
1948-xxxx: Harold Macmillan

---------------------------------
Seventeen Labour MPs Join "New Party" of Oswald Mosley!
Is This The End For MacDonald?

---Daily Sketch headline, 6 December 1930 (neglecting to mention the three Conservatives who also joined)​
----------------------------------

...but while Mosely might have created the party, he was also in danger of destroying it. His autocratic tendencies, ranging up from the manifesto down to the party militia's uniform, were making him enemies within left and right. Perhaps this could have been forgiven if he was a good leader. He was not. With increasingly skewed priorities relative to the party base, seemingly believing that voters would prefer a flashy rally and 10,000 banner bearers to a well-formulated and comprehensible version of the party's key policy. Increasingly aggressive in conversational tone, egocentrically attributing every success from the Ashton-Under-Lyne by-election onwards to himself alone, and distracted by niche political panaceas--Mosely had to go so that the party could live.

With the general election approaching, it was necessary to push Mosley out as swiftly as possible. Luckily, Moseley had allowed other people to do the boring work of drafting a party charter while he got on with his stunts and speeches. After a swift vote of no confidence at the Party conference, Mosley was officially no longer leader, and expelled from the party by Strachey for good measure--another power Mosley had insisted be given to the leader. Here, many histories of the New Party take time to detail his subsequent biography. If the reader wishes to to know about the subject, they can read those books; for my part I will merely note that Mosley's campaigning on behalf of the Social Credit Party to try and unseat Strachey was the last time he was relevant to the party he founded. By the time he died in Italy, fighting his erstwhile comrades in the International Brigades on behalf of Mussolini, he bore little resemblance to the dashing young author of the memorandum. In turn, the party forgot about him as well.


Strachey was a perfect interim leader--vaguely personable, willing to work with others, good at organisation--with the one fault that he now had to fight an election. Many future historians have damned him for a fool, with the near-collapse of the National Government over the Conservatives' unwillingness to accept unorthodox measures being perfect ground for the party that had been promoting Keynesianism before now. However, this analysis is fundamentally rooted in the modern day, where the New Party is a political fixture. To Strachey, leader of a fragile new party which had just lost 2 MPs alongside its leader in a well-publicised split, and with much less money than the other well-established parties, retaining over half their seats was a victory in and of itself.

A year after the election, a dog-tired Strachey stepped down for the party's first actual leadership contest. Admittedly, "contest" is overselling it. While Nicolson performed admirably, his vision of a paternalistic Toryism-rooted Socialism was incoherent and off-putting to the members. Indeed, it is possible that if Horrabin had faced literally anyone else, he would have lost. While good at written propaganda (one satirical magazine joked that with Strachey the editorialist and Horrabin the cartoonist, the New Party was an ploy to boost the launch of the New Times as a paper) he was never a good public speaker, and his one attempt at grabbing headlines--an invitation for Trotsky to take exile in the UK--generated more bad press than good. Luckily for all involved, a nasty case of bronchitis caused Horrabin to step down, leaving the way open for the heir apparent...

It had been a long time coming. From a miner's lodge in Tredegar, to the frontlines of the General Strike, to a hundred aggressive speeches in Parliament, warring with Macdonald and with Mosely, always fighting for what he though was just, would help the common man. Now he was sitting in the driving seat, and, as the most popular MP in the Party, few wished to take it from him. The day was Nye's.

On the leadership of Bevan I will not dwell--it is far and away the most chronicled period of the party's history, as hundreds of historians try to capture the giddy joy of relevancy and movement forwards after years of slow stagnation. The conflicts between "Biff Boys" and "Bevan Boys", the Second Memorandum's thunderbolt-like impact, the dawn of the Popular Front--all these things have passed into political legend. The best was still to come. With the War Government forming up in opposition to the invasion of Poland, the New Party held the reins of power for the first time. Even if they were technically junior partners, the war's demands of total mobilisation against the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact meant that measures that once looked ridiculous--self-sufficiency, public works, centralised technocratic power--were suddenly completely necessary. Many lament that Bevan never got into government; I contend that the War was when he got in, and we are all better off for it.

Even after returning to the opposition benches, Bevan could have fought on as leader forever. It was not to be. The challenge to his leadership after a dismal performance in the Wolverhampton West by-election was initially a surprise to the leadership, but was an inevitability in hindsight. While Bevan's socialist views still held cachet among the members, the new generation of hawkish Keynesians who saw the Memorandum as an end, not a means, were rising. These Young Bucks (admittedly not much younger than the rest of the party, but with the air of youth) were ready to make a new Britain from the New Party. No-one before them rose so high. No-one before them fell so low.

Where does their story begin? It begins at the Memorandum, but like any story of a party, this is bigger than Mosely or Bevan or any one leader. This story begins at Stockton, where a bright young MP decided to follow his hero and be a man of action. This story starts at 10 Downing Street, where that once-young man clasped hands with Douglas Jay and his party entered government of its own free will, not as part of a broader war. This story starts in a dirty flat in Hackney, where another one of the Young Bucks would become part of a sordid underbelly that would eventually roll over and knock down a government.

This story, however, is bigger than Macmillan and bigger than Boothby. It is the story of a party--a story we can learn from today. To know where to go next, we need to know where we started.

--Bryan Gould, A New Wind: The New Party in Government, 1958-1964
Busy As A Bee ATLF:
1958-1964: Douglas Jay (Labour)

1958 (Coalition with New Party) def: Anthony Eden (Conservative), Harold Macmillan (New Party), Gwilym Lloyd George (Liberals)
1962 (Coalition with New Party) def: Duncan Sandys (Conservative), Harold Macmillan (New Party), Gwilym Lloyd George (Liberals)

1964-1972: Peter Thorneycroft (Conservative)
1964 (Majority) def: Douglas Jay (Labour), Harold Macmillan (New Party), David Renton (Liberals)
1968 (Majority) def: Anthony Benn (Labour), Tom Driberg-Mick Jagger (New Party aligned with New Agenda), David Renton (Liberals)

1972-1978: Jack Dormand (Labour)
1972 (Majority) def: Peter Thorneycroft (Conservative), Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler (New Party), David Renton (Liberals), Peter Hain (New Agenda)
1976 (Coalition with New Party) def: Peter Walker (Conservative), Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler (New Party), Michael Heseltine (Liberals)

1978-1987: Paul Channon (Conservative)
1978 (Coalition with Liberals) def: Jack Dormand (Labour), Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler (New Party), Michael Heseltine (Liberals)
1982 (Majority) def: Eric Varley (Labour), Richard Douthwaite (New Party), Michael Heseltine (Liberals)

1987-1994: Eric Varley (Labour)
1987 (Majority) def: Paul Channon (Conservative), Richard Douthwaite (New Party), Alan Beith (Liberals), John Peck-Derek Wall (Radicals)
1991 (Coalition with Popular Front) def: Peter Bottomley (Conservative), Richard Douthwaite-Stuart Hall (Popular Front- New Party, Ecology & Radicals), Alan Beith (Liberals)

1994-1999: Tim Rathbone (Conservative)
1994 (Coalition with Liberals) def: Eric Varley (Labour), Richard Douthwaite (New Party), Stuart Hall-Peg Alexander (Radical-Green Alliance), Alan Beith (Liberal)
1999-: John Marek (Labour)
1999 (Coalition with New Party) def: Tim Rathbone (Conservative), Ann Pettifor (New Party), Peg Alexander-Mark Ashton (New Radicals), Susan Kramer (Liberals), Willie McRae (Scottish Democrats)


(This was the second attempt, and yes, No Bryan Gould New Party leader...I'm not that much of a hack).
 
Back
Top