DBWI: A social democratic party supplants the British Liberals?

[Lilitou]

I know this is a bit of an out there prompt, but thought it'd be fun to go over; what would British (and world) politics be like if the Liberals were replaced as the main opposition party to the Unionists by some sort of historic social democratic party? It might seem a little far-fetched, but ofc Britain is kind of the outlier in northwestern Europe for having the main centre-left party be of a liberal rather than social democratic bent.

Also, I'm not talking about the Socialist Party here, or the Communists; it has to be specifically historic social democratic parties from the turn of the century until the end of the Danzig Emergency.

There's obviously quite a few social democratic projects that made it into Parliament OTL, but I wonder if there might have been something particularly in the Independent Labour Party, or even in some of the more obscure parties like the Labour Representation Committee (Ramsay Mac's outfit before he jumped ship). Could any of these have risen to the heights of parties like the SPD or SFIO in Europe?

Anyway, yeah, what do you guys think? Is this a possible POD or is it a bit too far-fetched?

 

[OwenM]

The LRC are a fascinating bunch actually - you describe them as a party Ramsay Mac jumped ship from, but really it's questionable whether they were ever a separate party at all as opposed to an organised grouping of Liberals with union links.
I think at their first meeting there was a discussion about linking up with groups like the ILP and the Fabians rather than just the unions, which might have given them a bit more independence, and they could maybe go further if that was the case. The later emergence of the Co-Op Political Action could also then maybe feed into them rather than the Liberals?
That said though, I'm not sure if them ousting as dominant a party the Liberals is that realistic - however the Unionists were in a real state in that period and struggling to stay united... especially if PR had been introduced alongside universal suffrage as was discussed, I can easily see them splitting between the last-ditchers like De Broke and more moderate modernising figures like Chamberlain and then not being able to reach out to the newly enfranchised working class, with this Social Democratic Alliance or whatever (I doubt they'd keep a name like the LRC if they were more extensive) emerging as the main opposition to the Liberals by default - with the Liberals then instead of moving left as OTL moving right to absorb the Chamberlainites.

 

[Halton]

Are there any other social Democratic parties other than the Australian “Democratic Labor Party”? I know Canada has a populist-agrarian party which was led by David Orchard for like 30 years until fairly recently but the party isn’t really Social Democratic.

 

[Lilitou]

Are there any other social Democratic parties other than the Australian “Democratic Labor Party”? I know Canada has a populist-agrarian party which was led by David Orchard for like 30 years until fairly recently but the party isn’t really Social Democratic.

West of Calais it is liberalism that dominates, yeah. The Liberal Party in Britain and Canada, the Republicans (particularly the Progressive caucus) in the United States. But across the Channel it's always been the social democrats that dominate; SPD and SFIO as I mentioned in the OP, but also I think you could count the SRs if you wanted to be broad about it.

The LRC are a fascinating bunch actually - you describe them as a party Ramsay Mac jumped ship from, but really it's questionable whether they were ever a separate party at all as opposed to an organised grouping of Liberals with union links.
I think at their first meeting there was a discussion about linking up with groups like the ILP and the Fabians rather than just the unions, which might have given them a bit more independence, and they could maybe go further if that was the case. The later emergence of the Co-Op Political Action could also then maybe feed into them rather than the Liberals?
That said though, I'm not sure if them ousting as dominant a party the Liberals is that realistic - however the Unionists were in a real state in that period and struggling to stay united... especially if PR had been introduced alongside universal suffrage as was discussed, I can easily see them splitting between the last-ditchers like De Broke and more moderate modernising figures like Chamberlain and then not being able to reach out to the newly enfranchised working class, with this Social Democratic Alliance or whatever (I doubt they'd keep a name like the LRC if they were more extensive) emerging as the main opposition to the Liberals by default - with the Liberals then instead of moving left as OTL moving right to absorb the Chamberlainites.

This would be an interesting scenario for sure. I didn't know the LRC looked at linking up with the Fabians... seems unlikely that would work out given their closeness to the Unionists but can't fault them for trying! Liberals drifting to the right rather than left feels plausible, given that they're just a natural party of government at the end of the day and can move whatever which way!