AHC/WI: successful National Democratic & Labour Party?

[Lucon50]

In 1918, George Barnes established the NDLP as a ‘right-wing socialist’ group in parliament. However, within five years the party was no more.

My question is, how could it survive and prosper? Would the UK need a different electoral system, or could it make a breakthrough some other way?

Within this context, which figures and policies might come to define the fledgling party?

National Democratic and Labour Party - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Time Enough]

My question is, how could it survive and prosper? Would the UK need a different electoral system, or could it make a breakthrough some other way?

Two points, there was discussions to change Britain to a STV in 1918 as part of it’s transference to Universal Suffrage, the idea being that STV would weaken parties like Labour etc. but it would also give the room needed for the NDLP to thrive.

Another consideration is a National-NDLP Alliance, there was talk of the two joining together in an alliance but I believe it fell through and the National Party folded back into the Tories.

Within this context, which figures and policies might come to define the fledgling party?

The main problem with the party is a lot of it’s supporters were rather old so there’s that problem when picking potential candidates. I think a Proto-National Labour of Social Conservative Social Democracy would probably be the order of the day.

 

[Uhura's Mazda]

Gonna have to pour cold water on this one: the NDLP was a party without a sustainable ideology, without an electoral base, and without a genuine organisation.

Ideology-wise, we're not talking about a proto-Blue Labour thing, we're quite simply talking about a group of people united by their support for the war (which couldn't outlast the end of the war by very long as a rallying cry), by desire for Government office, and in almost every case by not really being Labour or 'socialist' at that point in time - as evidenced by the fact that so many of them disappeared seamlessly into the Liberals. After all, if you want Labour but without the radicalism and without the knee-jerk hatred of Toryism, you're probably going to vote for the Liberals.

In terms of organisation, again, the British Workers Union was a body owned and operated by the Liberals, and you only have to look at how many of the NDLP candidates were Tories and Liberals standing under a flag of convenience to realise that the well of talent was not particularly deep.

It's possible for parties like this to be kept alive as adjuncts to larger parties (e.g. National Labour), but one factor to consider is that, unlike in the 1930s, at this point the Liberals still want to be considered as a repository for working class votes - and having the NDLP around in the long term would be an admission of failure.