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Alternate Wikibox Thread

Warning, this wikibox is gross.
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(This is what happens to Scotland in Time for Real Change. Sturgeon announces her resignation after leading the SNP to another loss of seats and nearly loses the popular vote. Cherry, then an MP successfully runs to succeed her and becomes First Minister five days later. In the interim period, Cherry's appointed deputy, Joan McAlpine, is the leader of the SNP in the senate. Sturgeon then resigns from the Scottish Parliament five days after that, and Cherry runs in the race to succeed her. The election is delayed due to the coronavirus, and is coincidentally held on the 1st anniversary of Corbyn's landslide. Eventually Cherry wins by an absolutely tiny margin, comparatively, and then Cherry resigns from the House of Commons, triggering the 2021 Edinburgh South West by-election. Richard Leonard is leading the polls, and Labour are expected to take the seat, the first time a governing party has gained a seat since the Conservatives in 2017. Cherry's leadership sees transphobia become even more rampant in the SNP than it already is, and Cherry signs off on a lot of transphobia herself while in the First Minister's office, as she did outside it. This has caused several high profile defections to the Scottish Greens, most notably MP Mhairi Black.)

Friggin monkey paw!
 
The election saw significant gains for the governing Scottish National Party (SNP), led by First Minister Alex Salmond, who won 62 seats in total, falling just three short of an overall majority. When combined with the two seats won by the Scottish Green Party, the parties in favour of Scottish Independence from the United Kingdom won a total of 64 seats. Whilst this represented the highest total since the Scottish Parliament’s creation in 1999, it was also one seat short of achieving the separatist majority that the SNP claimed would give a mandate for an independence referendum.

Nice choice for a PoD but one small thing to note is that Margo MacDonald would provide an Indy majority here presuming she holds her seat as per OTL, which the wikibox would seem to indicate.
 
Sorry if you've mentioned it elsewhere but is there a specific PoD for time for real change or is it just a thought experiment on what a 2019 Corbyn victory would look like?
There isn't really, it is mainly a thought experiment but the idea is that literally everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and Corbyn doesn't shit the bed during Salisbury.
 
Nice choice for a PoD but one small thing to note is that Margo MacDonald would provide an Indy majority here presuming she holds her seat as per OTL, which the wikibox would seem to indicate.
Ah yes, should have remembered to account for that. If I were doing it again, I'd allocate one more seat to SLab or one of the other unionist parties.
 
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

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The Mississippi Constitution of 1890 initially set the terms of all state official at two years each, with no chance of consecutive re-election. A constitutional amendment passed in 1934 allowed the Governor to serve up to consecutive two terms maximum, with Menelaus “Pappy” O'Daniel, elected in 1935, being the first Governor seek immediate re-election.

O'Daniel, a flour businessman, represented the rural and commercial elements of the Mississippi Democratic Party. Despite his incumbency, his wide-reaching radio show The Flour Hour, and his support from many state planter elites, there was immense dissatisfaction among the general public. He was widely believed to be corrupt, with various opponents accusing him of taking money from saloons, granting licenses to businesses that supported him, selling pardons, appointing people who were either incompetent, family, or both, and, worst of all to white Mississippians, being lax on the issue of miscegenation.

Few people openly challenged O'Daniel, even fewer knowing how to run against an incumbent Governor. Eventually one emerged, reform candidate Homer Stokes. Campaigning around the state as the “friend to the little man,” based on an anti-planter, anti-elite, anti-corruption, anti-black, pro-reform, platform, Stokes was able to capture the hearts and minds of poor white voters, putting O'Daniel's re-election campaign at risk.

Despite an early blaze of popularity, with many newspapers being convinced he would triumph over Governor O'Daniel in the Democratic primary, a disastrous campaign dinner destroyed Stokes' chances of victory. Not only had Stokes announced himself as a Klan member (something that had fallen out of favor in the late 1930's, even among white Mississippians), and had even denounced his own entertainment of the night, (the then-immensely popular band, Soggy Bottoms Boys), but Governor O'Daniel was able to storm the party, endear himself to Stokes' voters, and get the endorsement of the Soggy Bottom Boys.
 
Hell Yes, We Can Pt.2
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The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first general election to be held at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day.

It saw the Conservative Party once again emerge as the largest party in a hung parliament, led by incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron. This was in spite of polls and commentators previously predicting that the outcome would see the opposition Labour Party win the most seats, possibly with an overall majority. Having governed in coalition with the Liberal Democrats for the past five years, the Conservatives won 299 seats and 34.1% of the vote share, slightly below the totals they achieved at the previous election in 2010. The Liberal Democrats, led by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, had their worst result since their formation in 1988, holding just 18 out of their previous 57 MPs, with Cabinet ministers Danny Alexander and David Laws losing their seats.

The Scottish National Party enjoyed their best ever result at a Westminster election, taking 29.0% of the vote in Scotland, and doubling their seat total from 6 to 12 to become the fourth largest party in the House of Commons. UKIP came third in terms of votes with 14.0%, but won only three seats; Clacton, Thurrock, and South Thanet, where party leader Nigel Farage was elected to parliament for the first time. The Green Party won its highest-ever share of the vote with 3.4%, and retained its only seat.

The arithmetic of the new parliament complicated the process of government formation considerably, as neither the Conservatives or Labour were able to command a majority in the Commons without the support of more than one smaller party. Talks on a renewed coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats fell apart within three days, with Clegg citing the Conservative insistence on holding a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union as a key reason for the breakdown, as well as the potential inclusion of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland in order to achieve an overall majority.

Following this development, talks began on a ‘rainbow coalition’ arrangement between Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the ‘progressive alliance’ of the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the single Green MP, Caroline Lucas. On the 19th May, it was announced that these parties had reached an agreement to support a Labour minority government. Subsequently, Cameron’s resignation was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II, who then invited Ed Miliband to become Prime Minister. Miliband became the third Labour Prime Minister in eighteen years, and the first of Jewish descent since Benjamin Disraeli.

After the ascension of the new government, Clegg announced he would be stepping down as Liberal Democrat leader. Despite initial attempts to remain in post, Cameron ultimately resigned as leader of the Conservative Party after narrowly winning a vote of confidence on June 1st. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party returned to the Commons with two MPs after a five-year absence, while the Alliance Party lost its only seat despite an increase in total vote share.
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The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 59 seats were contested under the first-past-the-post electoral system. It saw Labour maintain their dominance of Scotland at Westminster elections, winning 39.1% of the vote. Although this was a lower figure than at the previous election in 2010, they were still able to win one extra seat, with gains of Edinburgh West and East Dunbartonshire from the Liberal Democrats compensating for the loss of Ochil and South Perthshire to the Scottish National Party (SNP).

The Liberal Democrats, who had been the second largest party in Scotland at every election since 1997, saw a significant reversal in fortunes, falling to fourth place, with their vote share more than halved, and losing 9 out of their 11 MPs, including Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander. The Secretary of State for Scotland, Alistair Carmichael, and the former party leader, Charles Kennedy, were notable as the only remaining Liberal Democrat MPs from Scotland in the new parliament.

The SNP, who had governed Scotland at devolved level since 2007, saw a significant increase in their total vote share to 29%, but were only able to win a total of 12 seats, with these gains primarily coming at the expense of the Liberal Democrats in the west of Scotland and the Highlands. Nevertheless, this still represented a doubling of their previous tally of 6, and the party’s best ever result at a Westminster election. The Conservatives were also able to benefit from the Liberal Democrat collapse to increase their number of Scottish MPs from 1 to 3, gaining both West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, as well as Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.

I'd love to see more of this. A Miliband minority /prog govt would be really interesting
 
Hell Yes, We Can Pt.3
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The 2015 Conservative Party leadership election occurred as a result of former Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation as leader following the ousting of the party from government at the 2015 General Election. Although Cameron had initially indicated his desire to remain in place for an indefinite period, opposition to this among Conservative MPs soon built to the point that a vote of no confidence of his leadership was triggered, and was held on the 1st June. Although Cameron was able to win this, the narrow margin of 156 votes to 142 was widely seen to have made his position untenable, and he subsequently announced his decision to stand down, after nearly ten years as Conservative leader.

Commencing the following week, Conservative Members of Parliament began voting to determine which two candidates would go forward to a nationwide ballot of Conservative Party members for the final decision. Six Conservative MPs put themselves forward as candidates: the former Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne, former Home Secretary Therese May, former Defence Secretary Liam Fox, Former Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, Sajid Javid, and the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who had been recently re-elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 Election as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

The first round ballot showed the race to be a close three way race between Osborne, Johnson, and May, with each of these three winning the support of between twenty and thirty percent of MPs. Javid was eliminated on the first ballot, with Greening and Fox withdrawing later that day. Shortly thereafter, Osborne announced that there was no longer a realistic path to him placing in the top two, and withdrew from the race, confirming that the run off would be between May and Johnson.

Major themes in the campaign included Conservative support for a referendum on the UK’s membership of leaving the European Union, which both Johnson and May pledged strong support for, as well as how the Conservative Party could expand it’s appeal to blue collar voters through increased support for economic interventionism, repudiating elements of the coalition’s austerity agenda, and adopting a stricter immigration policy.

Although polling initially showed a close race between May and Johnson, a string of perceived gaffes by May and her campaign saw Johnson build a clear lead during the course of the campaign. On the 7th August, it was announced that the general membership had elected Johnson to become the new Conservative leader, and by extension, Leader of the Opposition, defeating May by a margin of over 20%.
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The 2016 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.

The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the Additional Member System used to elect MSPs was originally implemented to prevent any party achieving an overall parliamentary majority. The Scottish National Party (SNP) won a landslide of 69 seats, the most the party has ever held at either a Holyrood or Westminster election, allowing leader Alex Salmond to remain as First Minister of Scotland for a third term.

Scottish Labour lost fourteen seats, and suffered their worst election defeat in Scotland since 1931, with huge losses in their traditional Central Belt constituencies and for the first time having to rely on the regional lists to elect members within these areas. They did, however, remain the largest opposition party. Party leader Johann Lamont announced her resignation the following morning. The disappointing result was attributed partly to long term issues within Scottish Labour, as well as the broader decline in popularity that had been witnessed since the party’s national leader, Ed Miliband, became Prime Minister at the head of a minority government with support from the Lib Dems and the SNP following the 2015 General Election.

The Scottish Conservatives, led by Ruth Davidson, had a strong election that saw them win twenty-two seats-their highest total since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The Scottish Liberal Democrats saw little change in support, and finished with five seats; the same total they had won at the previous election in 2011.

Of the 129 MSPs elected, seventy two represented a party that favoured Scottish independence from the United Kingdom. This was significant, as it allowed Salmond to claim a mandate for an independence referendum, which was subsequently granted by Prime Minister Ed Miliband, and subsequently held in September 2019.

During the campaign, the four main party leaders engaged in a series of televised debates, as they had in every previous general election. These key debates were held on 29 March (STV), 1 May (BBC), and 3 May (STV). The results of the election were broadcast live on BBC Scotland and STV, on the night of the election.

It was the fifth general election since the devolved parliament was established in 1999 and was held on the same day as elections to the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as English local elections.
 
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Hell Yes, We Can, Pt. 4
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A referendum took place on Thursday 19 September 2019 on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side won with 2,035,259 (60.5%) voting against independence and 1,328,916 (39.5%) voting in favour. The turnout of 77.2% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since 1992.

The Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2018 set out the arrangements for the referendum and was passed by the Scottish Parliament in November 2013, following an agreement between the devolved Scottish government and the Government of the United Kingdom. The independence proposal required a simple majority to pass. All European Union (EU) or Commonwealth citizens residing in Scotland age 16 or over could vote, with some exceptions, which produced a total electorate of over 4,300,000 people. This was the first time that the electoral franchise was extended to include 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland.

Yes Scotland was the main campaign group for independence, while Better Together was the main campaign group in favour of maintaining the union. Many other campaign groups, political parties, businesses, newspapers, and prominent individuals were also involved. The campaign was dominated by the fallout of the sexual misconduct allegations against Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, the leading campaigner for a ‘Yes’ vote. Despite maintaining his innocence, in September 2018, Salmond announced he would be temporarily stepping aside from leading the devolved government in order to ‘avoid unnecessary distractions’ for the pro-independence campaign. He was replaced by Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on an interim basis. In January 2019, Salmond was arrested by Police Scotland. This event combined with the growing popularity of Sturgeon to create a growing leadership crisis within the Scottish National Party (SNP), as well as an increasingly public feud between supporters of Salmond and Sturgeon. In March 2020, over half a year after the referendum result, Salmond was cleared of all charges, and returned to the post of First Minister on a full time basis.

An exit poll revealed that the perceived divisions and incompetence that existed within the Scottish government was the biggest factor for those who voted ‘No’, with other motivating factors including questions over the currency an independent Scotland would use, public expenditure, EU membership, and North Sea oil. "Disaffection with Westminster politics" was rated as the deciding factor for those who voted Yes.
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The 2020 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 18 June 2020. The Labour Party, which had previously governed as a minority under Prime Minister Ed Miliband, won an overall majority of fifty seats in the House of Commons. This was the fifth election out of the previous six to result in a Labour government.

The election was defined by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which had placed significant pressure on the UK health care system, and had forced large swathes of the economy to shut down, or make significant adjustments in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Miliband and the Labour government won widespread public approval for their response to the crisis. In contrast, the Conservative Party, led by Boris Johnson, were roundly criticised for their initial opposition to lockdown measures, and for their subsequent lack of clarity in how they would respond to the pandemic.

These factors were perceived to the biggest driver of Labour’s remarkable turnaround in fortunes in the months leading up to the election. Having trailed in almost every national opinion poll since 2015, they gained a clear polling lead for the first time in the parliamentary cycle in March 2020, ultimately winning the popular vote by a margin of two and a half million, and reducing the Conservative Party to 254 Seats in the new parliament.

Besides the pandemic, major issues debated in the campaign how the government should respond to the concurrent economic crisis, future levels of public spending and taxation, and climate, following the UK’s commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Labour manifesto was notably more radical than it's 2015 predecessor, pledging to create one million jobs through government investment in the green economy, to expand employee rights in the workplace, and to increase taxation on high earners and large companies as a means of alleviating the debt burden taken on during the pandemic. The Conservative Party's campaign focused heavily on highlighting the perceived extremism of these proposals, as well as calls for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

The Liberal Democrats achieved a small increase in vote share over their historically poor performance in 2015, but nevertheless experienced a net loss of seats, in part due to the retirement of several incumbent MPs. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) suffered a poor result, losing all three of the seats they had won five years previously. This was partly attributed to their 2015 voters migrating to the Conservatives following their shift towards a more eurosceptic stance under Boris Johnson, as well as the party’s strong opposition to lockdown, which polls showed to be a position only endorsed by a small minority of the British public.

Following the previous year’s independence referendum, the Scottish National Party (SNP) were able to win a slightly higher proportion of the vote in Scotland than in 2015, but lost two seats, in part due to the strong performance of Scottish Labour, who were able to win a total of 42 seats.

Notable MPs to lose their seats included UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg-both of whom lost to Labour candidates. Following the result, Johnson, Davey, and Farage, all announced they would resign from the leadership of their respective parties.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, campaigning was severely limited, with few large-scale rallies or public events, and limited canvassing from party activists. Voters were actively encouraged to vote by post rather than at a polling station, resulting in a record of over 14 million postal ballots being cast.
 
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Gonna start posting more here methinks

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The Orbital Transit Authority is the Agency responsible for managing the Three Space Elevators currently in operation on Earth and in Earth Orbit. The OTA was established in the late 2000s after the SpaceRise, the conglomerate constructing the first Space Elevator, faced bankruptcy. They were bailed out by a coalition of the East African Federation, People’s Republic of China, the United States, and EU, at the cost of losing control over the end product, the great Clarke Elevator. Since then the OTA has overseen the construction of two more Space Elevators, García Márquez in Ecuador, and Hwang in Indonesia, which brought more countries into the Authority.

The OTA operates the three Space Elevators on Earth, as well as the stations at the base and top of each Elevator. Most of the elevator space is taken up by materials being shipped too and from orbit, and mining, manufacturing, and import-export concerns make up much of the SpaceRise Consortium. Restaurants, stores, and other amenities are mostly run by service companies that make up the rest of the Consortium. The OTA however manages the sleeping cars and other similar areas on the elevators.

The OTA also manages a series of “Space Busses” that can carry passengers, and limited cargo, to orbit much faster than the Elevators. The OTA has terminals at various international airports dedicated to these Buses. All arrive at the 3 Space Stations atop the Space Elevators. The OPA also invests in transit to and from the Elevator Bases.

2 Members of the Authority are appointed by members of the SpaceRise Consortium, 2 by each of the EAF, EU, PRC, and USA. The “host countries” of Ecuador, Indonesia and the EAF each get 1 appointee. Other countries with more minor investments get 1 collective appointment, as do the Unions involved in the OTA (mostly the Longshoreman, Teamsters, and Pilots). From these 15 Members, a Chair is Elected. The current chair, Maria DuPont, is the former Vice President of the Congo.
 
Benedict Arnold was one of the ranking Generals of the Continental Army, instrumental in both the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and the Province of Quebec. The latter achievement was the reason for the Congress Promoting him to the second-senior position in the Army, Commander of Continental Forces in the North, second only to General Washington himself. The Hero of Quebec would finish out the war without any further notworthy contributions. However he would pass into the history books when he was accidentally shot while negotiating with mutineying Continentals in Philadelphia, starting the time of the Third Continental Congress off on a bad foot.
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Justice remains a controversial program the world over. The exemptions carved out in French law for the show do not exist elsewhere. Many a pan-European broadcasting agreement was scuttled by the stubborn French refusal to drop the program from TF1. It is the only show not from a dictatorship or terrorist group banned in the United States as ‘dangerous propaganda’. Even in France some activists have called for the program’s cancellation, although there is an internal divide over what about the show makes it objectionable. However Justice remains one of the most watched shows in France, drawing millions on the first Thursday of each month.”

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Justice remains a controversial program the world over. The exemptions carved out in French law for the show do not exist elsewhere. Many a pan-European broadcasting agreement was scuttled by the stubborn French refusal to drop the program from TF1. It is the only show not from a dictatorship or terrorist group banned in the United States as ‘dangerous propaganda’. Even in France some activists have called for the program’s cancellation, although there is an internal divide over what about the show makes it objectionable. However Justice remains one of the most watched shows in France, drawing millions on the first Thursday of each month.”

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No idea what this is a reference to.
 
No idea what this is a reference to.
Ok, so I was going for “leaving the terrible thing unsaid to make it worse” but I seem to have been a bit too obtuse.

What is something that the French did a the Place de la Concorde a lot, was widely attended, utilized a guillotine, and absolutely would not fly on television in western democracies?
 
Ok, so I was going for “leaving the terrible thing unsaid to make it worse” but I seem to have been a bit too obtuse.

What is something that the French did a the Place de la Concorde a lot, was widely attended, utilized a guillotine, and absolutely would not fly on television in western democracies?

Oh, OK, I thought it was a reference to some show that had this program (with the whole defictionalization contest going on in AH.com).
 
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