- Pronouns
- He/Him
Inspired @Oppo list from earlier;
The Trap: The Continued Decline of Britain in the 60s and 70s
1963-1966: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)
1964 (Majority) def: Harold Wilson (Labour), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
It seems Alec was the man to do it, by a slim margin Alec Douglas-Home would manage to salvage 6 seats out of the 1964 election. Harold Wilson would slink back to the Labour Party and after a tumultuous year and half he would resign as George Brown tried to bring about a Labour Right Coup against him, which would lead to James Callaghan getting the top job in time.
But things quickly turned out to be not good for the Douglas-Home premiership, the previous premier’s Macmillan’s policies had lead to an overheating economy and as growth stagnated and unemployment began to raise, Britain started becoming restless. Additionally the policies and ideals of South Rhodesia were beginning to cause the Commonwealth to push Britain to do something about them. Douglas-Home’s series of talks with Ian Smith didn’t particularly produce any resolution and compounded within nations like India that Britain didn’t care about the majority populations concerns.
1966 was where things would tumble down for Alec Douglas-Home. As the economy continued to overheat, discussions about implementing devaluation and austerity measures to combat began apace. Home would agree to the measures causing Reginald Maudling to resign (many guessing that he realised how unpopular these measures would be), and so the new Chancellor Ted Heath would be the one to take the plunge on these measures.
Whilst the economy did manage to stabilise, the increase in unemployment didn’t help Douglas-Home’s popularity. Compounding matters was that a series of public owned companies would be forced to sell assets off to companies like Slater-Walker leading to hushed whispers of corruption. Finally things would come ahead with Rhodesia’s UDI and Alec Douglas-Home declaring British support for the Vietnam conflict.
Over the ‘Red Summer of 66’ strikes and protests would rock the British establishment. A prelude to the chaotic 68’ across Europe, the British Policing reaction to dealing with the strikers, young students, Anti-War protestors and Marxist agitators was a blanket use of violence and intimidation. Across the television screens ordinary people watched the police heavy handed response as a series of documentaries created by journalists like Ray Gosling and David Dimbleby would examine the protesters and give them room to air there grievances.
In the end it would be the much delayed Saffron Waldron by-election of September that year in which Labour gained the seat of the retiring Rab Butler and the Conservative Majority fell to 2 that finally did it in for Alec Douglas-Home. He would resign a week later and become a renowned nature writer in time.
1966-1967: Reginald Maudling (Conservative Majority, then Minority)
Reginald was elected in the first Conservative Leadership election of the Twentieth Century, easily beating out Enoch Powell and Iain MacLeod for the job. But Maudling’s tenure wouldn’t see much done, although the economy beginning to recover, unemployment was still high, and though Maudling was able to gain peace with the various nationalised industries the feelings between Unions and Government was tense. In the end what would do in Maudling’s chance at rebuilding the fledgling party’s popularity was Enoch Powell resigning from the Conservative Party as Maudling conceded to sending a detachment of British troops over to Vietnam in the Spring of 1967. Maudling lead a minority and about a week later he would be calling an election.
1967-1973: James Callaghan (Labour)
1967 (Majority) def: Reginald Maudling (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal), Enoch Powell (Freedom)
1972 (Majority) def: Peter Thorneycroft (Conservative), Richard Wainwright (Liberal), Bernadette Devlin (Unity)
James Callaghan success was mainly down to his relatively affable and sunny carefree image he cultivated. In the wake of Wilson’s defeat he pitted himself as a uniting force who would reach out to the Bevanites whilst adhering to the ideals of Gaitskell, in the wake of the various Conservative scandals he was the image of good times ahead and in the face of a collapsing Empire, the man who said he could keep British influence East of Suez without the Empire.
Of course this would hide a ruthless pragmatism that Callaghan could wield on occasion. Labour unification with the NI Labour Party, causing it to be steeped in the problems of Ireland was done entirely to ensure that Labour would have a sturdy majority next election. Callaghan stood aside as the scandal prone George Brown was pushed out of from the Shadow Cabinet and Callaghan would allow individuals like Peter Shore to modernise and be even more friendly with media corporations like the Mirror Group (one of Callaghan’s first acts would be Cecil King begrudgingly being given a life peerage).
Callaghan is often positively remembered for a legacy of reforms not particularly supported by him, as homosexual would be partially decriminalised in England and Wales in 1969, abortion legalised and divorce would reformed to be more equal. Additionally his time in government was a time of economic high points for Britain with strikes and industrial strife being low though a slight economic slump in 1970/1 would briefly pause the perceived good times.
He’s less fondly remembered for his support of President Smathers and the continuation of support for the Vietnam War (the economic support coming in to help support the building of a British Social Democracy was what kept Callaghan begrudgingly supporting Smathers).
Additionally his reaction to the riots and sectarian strife in Northern Ireland was sending in troops to awkwardly help police the area, with the main IRA scaling back from fighting back much due (though ‘self defence’ actions would still take place) to a mixture of Marxist ideologue and a lack of guns, the Civilian Defence Associations would become there own little communes supported by hungry Republicans and the Charles Haughey’s gun smuggling operation. The rioting and civil disobedience would plague the beginning of the 70s as individuals like Bernadette Devlin would become the face of Left Wing Nationalist resistance.
Callaghan would delay the second election to 1972 due to a brief economic downturn, this would play into his favour as the economy would start to climb up again and the brief slump seemed to have ended, causing Thorneycroft’s Campaign ideas of campaigning on better fiscal restraint seemed ludicrous. The 1972 election would see the Unity party make substantial gains in Northern Ireland and the Liberals deal with there’s internal squabbling between the Young Liberals and the Party establishment blunting any growth. Callaghan seemed ready to tackle another term, but by now much of his Cabinet was retiring or wanting better positions, in the end a bout of bad health and the death of Richard Crossman would convince Callaghan to resign. He would do it just in time.
1973-1977: Peter Shore (Labour Majority)
Peter Shore would win the party leadership on the message of finally completing what Harold Wilson had originally set out to do. But Shore’s plans would be almost immediately put on hold, the Arab-Israeli war would see the price of oil raise which would cause the British Stock Market, kept afloat by the asset stripping entrepreneurs who had become part of Government strategy to modernise and reform British industry to crash.
Shore’s reaction would be him flexing off his Kenyesian based economic ideals and he would attempt to pump money into the economy in order to help deal with the oncoming recession. But Shore’s attempt to autarky his way out of Britain's economic woes wouldn’t prove viable as new interconnected nature of economic system would disrupt any of his plans. The remainder of Shore’s time in office would produce great highs and lows.
Additionally Shore’s Anti-Communism would cause an awkward moment for his government as President Reagan tried to support the Ian Smith and Portuguese Governments against the Revolutionary forces in there domains. Shore’s lack of condemnation and attempts to broker a ceasefire between the Smith Government and the Revolutionary forces would anger many student radical and leftists in the Labour Party who began proclaiming there support for the Unity party in Ireland.
Shore’s problems would be compounded by the emergence of the Centre Party, a venture created by a combination of Conservative, Labour and Liberal MPs lead by Jeremy Thorpe supported by the former venture capitalists who had found Shore’s and Davie’s ideas on economic controls worrisome who proclaimed Populist ideas on how to fix the economy (including joining the EEC). The popularity of the Centre party rapidly out shone the old paternal images of Labour and the Tories and the the polls would begin to see both being hit by the raising Centre party.
The delaying of the election to 1977 was a hope that another 1972 would occur. Instead a Miners strike over pit closures would give Labour a deficit they couldn’t couldn’t recover from.
1977-1979: John Davies (Conservative)†
1977 (Majority) def: Peter Shore (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Centre), Bernadette Devlin (Unity), Richard Wainwright (Liberal)
John Davies was a Tory Moderate leading mainly a cabinet of Tory Right Wingers as several prominent moderates had defected to the Centre party. Davies’s mission statement in the election was to make Britain Great Again, but abruptly became apparent that this was a hard task.
The economy was in shambles and so Davies would support the use of austerity measures to battle Britain’s ballooning amounts of debt caused by Shore. Additionally Davies despite campaigning on issuing controls on banking would find himself giving the go ahead to allow some mild deregulation of the banks and stock markets in Britain.
Davies though had campaigned on a tough on crime manifesto and Airey Neave would find himself leading the charge against strikers, student radicals, Civil Defence associations and gangsters with an equal degree of toughness. Davis would help President Regan create a ceasefire in Rhodesia that would benefit the Smith Government and the Portuguese and Spanish would see any attempt at Left Wing Democratic Reform stymied by the support for the Centre-Right parties who campaigned on keeping Fascist era constitutions.
By 1979, the economy was somewhat rebuilding itself, Crime had seen significant drops (though the amount of deaths in police custody had increased) and Britain seemed like they would dominate the early 80s in a manner not seen since the 1950s. Then Iran would have a revolution and Islamic Socialists would take control, followed not long after by the assassination of King Khalid Al Saud by Islamic Fundamentalists. Suddenly the price of oil rose sharply, followed by the British Stock Market once more crashing.
Davies’s reaction to this sudden chaos was to have a massive heart attack. Though rushed rapidly to hospital, Davies would be pronounced dead less than a day later.
1979-: Airey Neave (Conservative Majority)
The idea of making a man famous originally for having to step down from frontline politics due to heart problems replacing a man dead from heart failure seemed odd, but Neave promised he was healthy and fit and anyway, there were pressing issues at hand.
The Miners found themselves in position of power not seen since the early 70s, protests over living standards were on the raise, the stock market was sluggish and the IRA finally had the resources to declare an ‘Anti-Imperialistic War’ against the British and Irish establishment. Neave’s brand of Right Wing Populism and Tough on Crime rhetoric seemed to be the ideal for the current situation.
But it’s now 1980, in America the Democratic Candidate Fred Harris seems to be on the way to winning the Presidency over John Connolly, the Mediterranean countries are embracing Euro-Communism as there Centre-Right Governments wobble and fail, the old Warsaw Pact Nations are seeing the first tentative steps towards Liberalisation as Breznhev begins to breath his last. In Britain the Labour Party after many years has finally elected a Left Wing Candidate in the form of Ken Coates who seems to have captivated the youth in a manner not seen before.
Of course Neave won’t go down without a fight, and secret discussions with David Stirling and financiers like Tiny Rowland may give Neave an opportunity he can’t resist to ensure continued power.
The Trap: The Continued Decline of Britain in the 60s and 70s
1963-1966: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)
1964 (Majority) def: Harold Wilson (Labour), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
It seems Alec was the man to do it, by a slim margin Alec Douglas-Home would manage to salvage 6 seats out of the 1964 election. Harold Wilson would slink back to the Labour Party and after a tumultuous year and half he would resign as George Brown tried to bring about a Labour Right Coup against him, which would lead to James Callaghan getting the top job in time.
But things quickly turned out to be not good for the Douglas-Home premiership, the previous premier’s Macmillan’s policies had lead to an overheating economy and as growth stagnated and unemployment began to raise, Britain started becoming restless. Additionally the policies and ideals of South Rhodesia were beginning to cause the Commonwealth to push Britain to do something about them. Douglas-Home’s series of talks with Ian Smith didn’t particularly produce any resolution and compounded within nations like India that Britain didn’t care about the majority populations concerns.
1966 was where things would tumble down for Alec Douglas-Home. As the economy continued to overheat, discussions about implementing devaluation and austerity measures to combat began apace. Home would agree to the measures causing Reginald Maudling to resign (many guessing that he realised how unpopular these measures would be), and so the new Chancellor Ted Heath would be the one to take the plunge on these measures.
Whilst the economy did manage to stabilise, the increase in unemployment didn’t help Douglas-Home’s popularity. Compounding matters was that a series of public owned companies would be forced to sell assets off to companies like Slater-Walker leading to hushed whispers of corruption. Finally things would come ahead with Rhodesia’s UDI and Alec Douglas-Home declaring British support for the Vietnam conflict.
Over the ‘Red Summer of 66’ strikes and protests would rock the British establishment. A prelude to the chaotic 68’ across Europe, the British Policing reaction to dealing with the strikers, young students, Anti-War protestors and Marxist agitators was a blanket use of violence and intimidation. Across the television screens ordinary people watched the police heavy handed response as a series of documentaries created by journalists like Ray Gosling and David Dimbleby would examine the protesters and give them room to air there grievances.
In the end it would be the much delayed Saffron Waldron by-election of September that year in which Labour gained the seat of the retiring Rab Butler and the Conservative Majority fell to 2 that finally did it in for Alec Douglas-Home. He would resign a week later and become a renowned nature writer in time.
1966-1967: Reginald Maudling (Conservative Majority, then Minority)
Reginald was elected in the first Conservative Leadership election of the Twentieth Century, easily beating out Enoch Powell and Iain MacLeod for the job. But Maudling’s tenure wouldn’t see much done, although the economy beginning to recover, unemployment was still high, and though Maudling was able to gain peace with the various nationalised industries the feelings between Unions and Government was tense. In the end what would do in Maudling’s chance at rebuilding the fledgling party’s popularity was Enoch Powell resigning from the Conservative Party as Maudling conceded to sending a detachment of British troops over to Vietnam in the Spring of 1967. Maudling lead a minority and about a week later he would be calling an election.
1967-1973: James Callaghan (Labour)
1967 (Majority) def: Reginald Maudling (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal), Enoch Powell (Freedom)
1972 (Majority) def: Peter Thorneycroft (Conservative), Richard Wainwright (Liberal), Bernadette Devlin (Unity)
James Callaghan success was mainly down to his relatively affable and sunny carefree image he cultivated. In the wake of Wilson’s defeat he pitted himself as a uniting force who would reach out to the Bevanites whilst adhering to the ideals of Gaitskell, in the wake of the various Conservative scandals he was the image of good times ahead and in the face of a collapsing Empire, the man who said he could keep British influence East of Suez without the Empire.
Of course this would hide a ruthless pragmatism that Callaghan could wield on occasion. Labour unification with the NI Labour Party, causing it to be steeped in the problems of Ireland was done entirely to ensure that Labour would have a sturdy majority next election. Callaghan stood aside as the scandal prone George Brown was pushed out of from the Shadow Cabinet and Callaghan would allow individuals like Peter Shore to modernise and be even more friendly with media corporations like the Mirror Group (one of Callaghan’s first acts would be Cecil King begrudgingly being given a life peerage).
Callaghan is often positively remembered for a legacy of reforms not particularly supported by him, as homosexual would be partially decriminalised in England and Wales in 1969, abortion legalised and divorce would reformed to be more equal. Additionally his time in government was a time of economic high points for Britain with strikes and industrial strife being low though a slight economic slump in 1970/1 would briefly pause the perceived good times.
He’s less fondly remembered for his support of President Smathers and the continuation of support for the Vietnam War (the economic support coming in to help support the building of a British Social Democracy was what kept Callaghan begrudgingly supporting Smathers).
Additionally his reaction to the riots and sectarian strife in Northern Ireland was sending in troops to awkwardly help police the area, with the main IRA scaling back from fighting back much due (though ‘self defence’ actions would still take place) to a mixture of Marxist ideologue and a lack of guns, the Civilian Defence Associations would become there own little communes supported by hungry Republicans and the Charles Haughey’s gun smuggling operation. The rioting and civil disobedience would plague the beginning of the 70s as individuals like Bernadette Devlin would become the face of Left Wing Nationalist resistance.
Callaghan would delay the second election to 1972 due to a brief economic downturn, this would play into his favour as the economy would start to climb up again and the brief slump seemed to have ended, causing Thorneycroft’s Campaign ideas of campaigning on better fiscal restraint seemed ludicrous. The 1972 election would see the Unity party make substantial gains in Northern Ireland and the Liberals deal with there’s internal squabbling between the Young Liberals and the Party establishment blunting any growth. Callaghan seemed ready to tackle another term, but by now much of his Cabinet was retiring or wanting better positions, in the end a bout of bad health and the death of Richard Crossman would convince Callaghan to resign. He would do it just in time.
1973-1977: Peter Shore (Labour Majority)
Peter Shore would win the party leadership on the message of finally completing what Harold Wilson had originally set out to do. But Shore’s plans would be almost immediately put on hold, the Arab-Israeli war would see the price of oil raise which would cause the British Stock Market, kept afloat by the asset stripping entrepreneurs who had become part of Government strategy to modernise and reform British industry to crash.
Shore’s reaction would be him flexing off his Kenyesian based economic ideals and he would attempt to pump money into the economy in order to help deal with the oncoming recession. But Shore’s attempt to autarky his way out of Britain's economic woes wouldn’t prove viable as new interconnected nature of economic system would disrupt any of his plans. The remainder of Shore’s time in office would produce great highs and lows.
Additionally Shore’s Anti-Communism would cause an awkward moment for his government as President Reagan tried to support the Ian Smith and Portuguese Governments against the Revolutionary forces in there domains. Shore’s lack of condemnation and attempts to broker a ceasefire between the Smith Government and the Revolutionary forces would anger many student radical and leftists in the Labour Party who began proclaiming there support for the Unity party in Ireland.
Shore’s problems would be compounded by the emergence of the Centre Party, a venture created by a combination of Conservative, Labour and Liberal MPs lead by Jeremy Thorpe supported by the former venture capitalists who had found Shore’s and Davie’s ideas on economic controls worrisome who proclaimed Populist ideas on how to fix the economy (including joining the EEC). The popularity of the Centre party rapidly out shone the old paternal images of Labour and the Tories and the the polls would begin to see both being hit by the raising Centre party.
The delaying of the election to 1977 was a hope that another 1972 would occur. Instead a Miners strike over pit closures would give Labour a deficit they couldn’t couldn’t recover from.
1977-1979: John Davies (Conservative)†
1977 (Majority) def: Peter Shore (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Centre), Bernadette Devlin (Unity), Richard Wainwright (Liberal)
John Davies was a Tory Moderate leading mainly a cabinet of Tory Right Wingers as several prominent moderates had defected to the Centre party. Davies’s mission statement in the election was to make Britain Great Again, but abruptly became apparent that this was a hard task.
The economy was in shambles and so Davies would support the use of austerity measures to battle Britain’s ballooning amounts of debt caused by Shore. Additionally Davies despite campaigning on issuing controls on banking would find himself giving the go ahead to allow some mild deregulation of the banks and stock markets in Britain.
Davies though had campaigned on a tough on crime manifesto and Airey Neave would find himself leading the charge against strikers, student radicals, Civil Defence associations and gangsters with an equal degree of toughness. Davis would help President Regan create a ceasefire in Rhodesia that would benefit the Smith Government and the Portuguese and Spanish would see any attempt at Left Wing Democratic Reform stymied by the support for the Centre-Right parties who campaigned on keeping Fascist era constitutions.
By 1979, the economy was somewhat rebuilding itself, Crime had seen significant drops (though the amount of deaths in police custody had increased) and Britain seemed like they would dominate the early 80s in a manner not seen since the 1950s. Then Iran would have a revolution and Islamic Socialists would take control, followed not long after by the assassination of King Khalid Al Saud by Islamic Fundamentalists. Suddenly the price of oil rose sharply, followed by the British Stock Market once more crashing.
Davies’s reaction to this sudden chaos was to have a massive heart attack. Though rushed rapidly to hospital, Davies would be pronounced dead less than a day later.
1979-: Airey Neave (Conservative Majority)
The idea of making a man famous originally for having to step down from frontline politics due to heart problems replacing a man dead from heart failure seemed odd, but Neave promised he was healthy and fit and anyway, there were pressing issues at hand.
The Miners found themselves in position of power not seen since the early 70s, protests over living standards were on the raise, the stock market was sluggish and the IRA finally had the resources to declare an ‘Anti-Imperialistic War’ against the British and Irish establishment. Neave’s brand of Right Wing Populism and Tough on Crime rhetoric seemed to be the ideal for the current situation.
But it’s now 1980, in America the Democratic Candidate Fred Harris seems to be on the way to winning the Presidency over John Connolly, the Mediterranean countries are embracing Euro-Communism as there Centre-Right Governments wobble and fail, the old Warsaw Pact Nations are seeing the first tentative steps towards Liberalisation as Breznhev begins to breath his last. In Britain the Labour Party after many years has finally elected a Left Wing Candidate in the form of Ken Coates who seems to have captivated the youth in a manner not seen before.
Of course Neave won’t go down without a fight, and secret discussions with David Stirling and financiers like Tiny Rowland may give Neave an opportunity he can’t resist to ensure continued power.
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