Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom since 1945 In A World Where Superpowers and Super Science are Real (From the Goose Green 'Verse or Mavel-1982):
1946-1951: Clement Atlee (Labour). The Atlee Government presided over the rebuilding of a Wartorn Country, Continent and World. Widespread military usage of enhanced, gifted or otherwise superhuman individuals on the battlefield translated into their use at home-with the institutional adaption of superstrength for construction, psychic foretelling guiding policy, biomanipulation for the new National Health Service and ferromancers to work on Britain's infant atomic weapons program. The New Jerusalem was here, heaven on Earth via science, rational planning and metahuman ability. The arrival of the Empire Windrush marked the beginning of mass Caribbean immigration, beginning an ongoing cultural shift. Internationally, the full and formal Independence of Commonwealth of India marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire, whilst the establishment of the League of Democratic States with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a founding member marked a new point in international affairs. As new cities arose from the atom bomb blasted ruins of Dresden and Nuremberg, and the Norwegian Government tried to figure out what to do with the wreck of the Tirpitz, dangerously radioactive, Atlee felt confident to go the polls, having secured prosperity at home and security abroad. But the electorate was in a mood for a change, and the energetic leader of the revitalised Conservatives offered a stark alternative to the increasingly tired Labour Party.
1951-1955: Antony Eden (Conservative). The Death of Nikolai Bukharin shortly after the detonation of the Soviet's first atomic weapon, "Little Nicky", sent shock ways round the world. The ascension of Lavrentiy Beria, the shadowy head of the Soviet Security Service to the position of General Secretary as part of a troika with war hero Mikhail Tukhachevsky and the ageing revolutionary giant Inessa Armand, along with some lightening of Soviet rule over its puppet governments in Poland and East Germany proved to be an only temporary thaw. Whilst no Great Terror, the Targeted Terror of the Beria years left its mark. Conversation and dissent weren't so much depressed-they just simply didn't happen. The murder of Leon Trotsky in 1952 brought this program of repression to the wider world, and a pattern of overseas dissidents dying suddenly emerged. Most were Russian or Soviet exiles, but not all. The British military had not atrophied in the Atlee years, but the Eden government marked the first build-up since the Second World War-all this whilst the British Empire transitioned, slowly and painfully into the British Commonwealth. A strong economy, a tense but still peaceful international situation and his own personal popularity should have assured Eden another majority when he called an election for 1955. His party won one-but Eden was by this point no longer leading it.
1955-1960: Rab Butler (Conservative). Anthony Eden walked with a cane-the result of a close encounter with a German V-2 attack. This was known. His addiction, ever-growing, to opioids, was not. Technically, he was still Prime Minister after the election-but only de facto, and only for hours. Addled by pain, and zoned out on painkillers, it fell to his ally and friend Rab Butler to kiss the King's hand and assume the Premiership, and leadership of the Party. The grubby skullduggery was an inauspicious beginning, and Rab Butler's time as Prime Minister would continue in that vane. Northern Irish Catholics, inspired by the 2nd Civil Rights Movement in the United States which sought to do away with the lingering vestiges of Jim Crow where it survived, took to the streets and polls for rights, jobs and basic decency. The crisis in the North brought the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Ireland, flush with American money and equipment, to the brink of war. It was the stress of this standoff that ended up killing King George VI, monarch of both states, in 1959-exasperating cancer that had only partially been treated by both physical medicine and biomanipulation. Only American diplomacy and the deployment of the Commonwealth Monitoring Force prevented the collapse of the situation any further and resulted in a new settlement being reached in Northern Ireland. The site of the Commonwealth coming to secure peace in the Metropole, and the multiracial, multiethnic makeup of this "New Commonwealth" peacekeeping group, could have salvaged something for the Butler Government. But the American planes they arrived in, the American money that in part funded it, and the American diplomacy that enabled it could not be hidden. Shortly after the coronation of Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor as Queen of the British and Northern Irish, a Vote of No Confidence forced a humiliated Butler to go to the polls. The outcome was never really in doubt.
1960-1966: Harold Wilson (Labour). For a Government defined by modernity and a common-sense approach to the world, Harold Wilson always seemed slightly out of place mingling with metahumans, physicists and astronauts. A famous photo of the Prime Minister almost sinking into his chair next to American astronaut Jerrie Cobb became the subject of much gentle mockery, but the fact the he met her and honoured was a major break from the stuffy formality of the Eden and Butler years. "White Heat" might not have been all it was cracked up to be, and it didn't deliver utopia. But Anglo-French nuclear power, League of Democratic States solidarity and a general sense that the world was in some ways getting better, all contributed to the British "swinging sixties"-all aided by the liberal reforms of Roy Jenkins at the Home Ministry. Britain never had it so good, economically, socially or internationally, where the Targeted Terror of the Beria years came to an end and the popular Marshal Zhukov came to power in the Soviet Union in 1961-he would end up remaining in office for another seven years. But as the first of the Queen Elizabeth class Carriers came into service, a potent symbol of British industrial power and fiscal security, despite the blip in Northern Ireland, Wilson grew tired. Equality he had striven for, and in large ways achieved. But this new, more liberated Britain moved too fast for him. Still personally popular, he led his party to victory in 1965-and remained in office until the summer of 1966, when on a warm August day, his successor secured, he resigned his position. He would go down as one of Britain's greatest Prime Ministers, alongside the wartime martyr Winston Churchill and the great reformer Shirley Williams.
1966-1970: Barbara Castle (Labour). An abortive attempt at major constitutional reform and a narrowly dodged coup marked the major events of Barbara Castle's time in office in terms of domestic affairs, although a little-noticed piece of legislation reforming trade unions would have major long-term benefits. Her status as first female Prime Minister would guarantee she'd always be remembered, if for that if nothing else. But it was her planned abolition of the House of Lords and a written constitution which would strip away what little power the monarchy had left which proved a major turning point-and nearly brought centuries of civilian government to an end. Conservative elements in the security services and military, motivated by a combination of social reaction, a loathing for economic radicalism and for some, even a sincere belief that only by their efforts could the British Constitution be saved-albeit it seemed by destroying it in practice. A network emerged, men were recruited and strategies planned. On June 14th, 1968, the plotters broadcast their message, and loyal (or otherwise brought) paramilitaries took position in key locations. But the Army remained in its barracks, the police remained a police service and not a force of occupation. Discontent amongst a handful senior reactionaries did not translate into widespread anti-democratic tendency within the Armed Forces-the faction of serving officers within the military who supported the coup attempt found themselves vastly outnumbered in a service whose ethos was by and large opposed to getting involved in politics. A wave of arrests followed of the so-called "Gang of 68", aided and abetted by a simultaneous American crackdown on far-right elements within its security services and military that sort to undermine the program of "Land Reform and Liberal Republicanism" that had formed the backdrop of "Constructive Engagement". Later events would show the crackdown had not gone far enough, as the yet minor "SHIELD" organisation went by undetected and unexamined. The abortive coup was, however, taken off the front pages by the Sino-Soviet War of 1969. As Vladivostok burned and hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops died of radiation poisoning, China ceased to exist in a barrage of thermonuclear weaponry. The optimist brought on by the Zhukov Thaw, the Soviet and American Lunar Landings and the fact that British democracy had endured what had amounted to a farcical threat died, and the country went to the polls with Barbara Castle optimistic of success, but a tired and far less confident woman than before. But the country was in the mood for a change, with “White Heat” and the promise of technology dying as rockets exploded in East Asia.
1970-1976: Reginald Maudling (Conservative). Reginauld Maulding's Government did not break the post-war consensus, but things certainly changed. With Labour torn apart by factional infighting regarding just what Britain's constitution should be, and if the issues that had led to the "Gang of 68" had truly been resolved, Maudling's Government found itself a small but comfortable majority. Rolls-Royce, The Rover Group, British Telecom and British Aerospace found themselves privatized, and rail cargo likewise. The Jenkin's liberal reforms were not rolled back, but no major liberal reforms in terms of social rights were passed in this period. Environmentalism came to the fore as nuclear autumn set in, and the promised utopia provided by metahumanity and technology floundered in the cold. Even the Soviet and American Lunar bases and the establishment of the Commonwealth Space Station "James Cook" to join the America Liberty and Soviet Mir did little to ease the national miasma. The rise of metahuman terrorism both in Britain and abroad did little to stop the climate of fear, and Britain's own superheroes, the mysterious "Blue Angel" and "Green Knight" amongst the most famous of them became targets of scorn, not admiration. The Blue Angel, Daphne Kane, coming out in 1975 was a watershed moment for the fledgeling British LGBT movement, but for a still mostly vaguely conservative population, the idea of metahumans as allies started exiting the public discourse. Far-right and far-left groups started engaging in activates ranging from protests that resembles riots to full-blown terrorism, in response to a domestic and international system that seemed increasingly atrophied, afraid and unresponsive as a global recession bit. The bombing of a crowded Gay Bar by the "Brothers of Faith" in 1974, a far-right religious group with its origins in Ulster-based extremist Protestanism shook the country, as did the connections to fringe elements within the Conservative Party itself. Civil unrest gripped the country, and by the time things had calmed down and the campaign of letter bombings and random shootings were reduced by a combination of state action and exhaustion, it was 1976. The temporary and extraordinary extension to the Parliamentary Term would never be repeated, and a country that was very different in spirit, more sombre and subdued went to the polls. Maudling didn't run, and his party was being torn apart by the factional disputes caused by the Brothers of the Faith and other such groups, as well as Maudling’s dynamic, forceful leadership. Labour had put themselves back together as the "Democrats, but it would be a while before they could contest elections across the country again. Into the void stepped a third party, and its new dynamic leader.
1976-1980: Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal). Subsequent elections to held under the County PR system. Jeremy Thorpe's Liberal Party won its first election in decades, but not by much. Conservative implosion and the emergence of the Democrats produced a Liberal Party only one short of a majority-and it ended up in coalition with the newly emerged National Party of Scotland which had won a surprising six seats. Thorpe's government was marked by devolution to the 4 Countries of the United Kingdom, the introduction of a new voting system formally known as "County Organised Multiple Member Representation" but more commonly known as "County PR" and the establishment of the Anglican Church. The Environment Act of 1978, passed with Labour support, sought to recapture some of the old grandeur of "White Heat", combining environmental protection with green technology to modernise and revive the economy-matching the Green New Deal of the Kennedy Administration and other such work across the League of Democratic States. Internationally, the establishment of the Commonwealth of Canton in the area surrounding Hong Kong, the Belize Intervention and the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaties marked a return to a sort of international stability, as the tide of Post-War refugees became a more organised and internationalized stream of migration out of China-these were the years that marked the establishment of the Ulster Chinese Community, as tens of thousands of people settled in Northern Ireland. The Year of Lead was a harsh memory, but despite the occasional incident, some of which damaged property but none of which killed, it remained a memory. In the end, it was a scandal that brought down Thorpe and his Government. A married man, throughout the latter half of his time in office rumours, swirled and circulated about Jeremy Thorpe being homosexual. This wasn't illegal, of course, and the country had grown more accepting of such-the Brothers of the Faith's murderous homophobia backfiring on them. But Thorpe was a married man and had always at best avoided answering questions on his sexuality on the grounds of privacy. But when half a dozen openly gay men came forward to the press claiming they had had sexual relations with Thorpe, and offered dates and locations, rumours gave way into something more solid. In South Africa when the story broke, celebrating the formal end of segregation and the first truly universal election in that country, Thorpe returned home in a fog of scandal. He had done nothing illegal, and his televised coming out is perhaps his most famous moment. But he had lied-to his wife, and to the country. He resigned, the SNP withdrew its support and an election was needed. The last 10 years had seen major shifts in Britain and abroad, and the deaths of hundreds of millions in war. As 1980 broke, nothing was the same anymore.
1980-1988: Shirley Williams (Democrat). Shirley Williams ended up being the third of the “Great Transformers” of British Post-War politics. Maudling’s Free Economy and Thorpe’s New Federalism had thrown much into the air, and it was William’s Government which had to fit the pieces together as the 21st Century drew ever closer. Calm and moderate, Williams offered a reassuring presence as the stock market was carefully deregulated, nuclear power plants sprang up like mushrooms, North Sea Oil wealth poured in and the coal industry went into an irrecoverable decline. Whilst in many respects continuing the legacies of her predecessors in office, Williams was really the first Prime Minister to deal with the effects of a changing world and changing economy on the average British citizen-pouring money to re-educate out of work miners, supporting the growth of the British computing industry and generally making sure the general ideas of a prosperous and free society could continue in an ever more interconnected and globalised world. Internationally, Williams struck up a famous friendship with American President George H. W. Bush-the war hero patrician and the British intellectual got along well, despite their different ideological heritages. Bush was, for all that he was the leader of an increasingly right-wing party, came across as remarkably non-partisan in his time in office. Whilst the more statist parts of the Green New Deal were rolled back or semi-privatised, the network of regional “Authorities” remained, and were even expanded as Bush’s technocratic approach to Government overrode his own ideology. Bush believed in smaller Government then Kennedy had, but he also believed in effective Governance, and this made him an ally of Williams, who sort to cut through red tape and unleash the potential of the British people. In her second term, again winning a comfortable majority, international affairs dominated. Arthur joined James Cook, Mir and Liberty in orbit, and British engineers were instrumental in building the American “Inner Planets Craft” known as Anson, which took an international crew from across the LDS on a tour of the Inner Planets of the Solar System. Her second term also marked the start of the Scutum Project-the international project that would eventually result in the Ballistic Missile Defence system that currently covers the LDS and other friendly states. At home, mundane and metahuman medicine found itself dealing with the HIV/AIDs crisis-the famous “Ignorance Kills” campaign only the most dramatic example of the Government’s response. Yet for all her successes at home and abroad, Williams would end up serving her full second term. Always somewhat autocratic and distant in office, by 1988 she was becoming increasingly unpopular within her party, seen as promoting her faction at the expense of all others. Whilst this faction was dominant, this was no problem. But as by-elections and resignations for various reasons whittled her based in the Party away, she became isolated politically. Eventually, backed into a corner, she decided to resign as Prime Minister and leader of the Democrat Party. The Party would remain in power, but under new management.
1988-1990: John Smith (Democrat). John Smith had been a popular and effective Chancellor of the Exchequer, and had achieved international acclaim for his shuttle diplomacy which had prevented war between Iran and India in 1987. But he was doomed to be an ineffective Prime Minister. His Party had done well in Office, but success after a decade of absence, and with some lingering wounds from the Castle Ministry (and it’s aftermath) meant that by the time of the 1990 election, Smith was left with a party which really seemed that it hated being successful. The emergence of the superheroine known as the “Grey Guardian” in this period provided a stark contrast to the Government’s series of gaffes and misjudged policies-particularly her one-woman crusade against those who victimised women and children-leading to the convictions of Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville amongst others. So, when the country went to the polls in 1990, they had a choice of rewarding the party for what it had done, or punishing it for what it happened. Since the introduction of “County PR”, British politics was a much more competitive affair, with safe seats a thing of the past. It was a vibrant, competitive system-and it would end up with John Smith no longer Prime Minister.
1990-1997: David McLetchie (Unionist). David McLetchie would spend seven years running the country, but not accomplishing much beside remaining in power. His first Government was a majority one, but the newly branded Unionists only had a small majority, and the internal culture since Maudling resisted “Presidentialism” as he and Williams had done. A Europeanist, the McLetchie years saw the construction of the mighty four-track Dublin-Belfast-Carlisle-Liverpool-London-Paris & Antwerp Railway, connecting four countries across two seas into a single rail system-although planning had begun all the way back in the Thorpe era. The European-Commonwealth Strategic Resources and Planning Committee was established-bringing together big business and government in an international manner, whilst also serving to crack down on tax havens and fiscal hideaways. Critics raised the cry of corporatism and state capture-defenders that of increased revenue, job retention and international development. Some raised the idea there was something Soviet about the whole project, but no one really knew what that meant anymore. Alexander Rutskoy, a military man who had made a name for himself by his bravery and moral conduct in what used to be Northeast China, now absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Manchurian SSR, had risen rapidly to become at 43 the youngest Soviet General Secretary in history. But his relative youth and vigour in comparison to the old tyrants before him merely changed the form of the system, not it’s substance. And rumours began at this time that there was something distinctly odd going on behind the scenes in the USSR. Still, Cold War tensions were as normal as they ever were, and the McLetchie Government found success in amongst other things providing material, moral and diplomatic support to France regarding its brief war with Brazil. At home though, economic downturn and sluggish performance hurt the country-and Unionist public infighting hurt the Party. The 1995 election left the Party a minority, and the next two years were a painful slog, although the British (minor) contribution to the American Mars landing of 1996 was a cause for much celebration and talk of the continued alliance between the two states. Still, the Unionist infighting continued, their Minority position only exacerbating the split in the Party. The eventual Vote of No Confidence was a no brainer, and the country went to the polls with the Unionists split and the Democrats still recovering from the recent death of John Smith, the Liberals, this time under a young and scandal-free leader saw their opportunity.
1997-2005: Tony Blair (Liberal). Blair’s time in office was, and is to this day, seen of one of reacting rather than acting. Name three things that happened in those eight years, and four things will come up-six should, but the fact that only four are remembered is important. The Indoor Smoking Ban and the legalisation of Same-Sex Marriage brought relief and happiness to a great many people, whilst the Millennial Centre in London proved a triumphant celebration of Britain’s past, present and future; a wave of new universities being established, the first major expansion since the Castle Government part of securing that future. Overseas, the intervention of British forces as part of a UN operation to prevent genocide in the mixed German-Slavic region of Hungary called Sokovia should be a more rated part of his legacy of peacekeeping, which included election monitoring in the Gambia and anti-piracy operations in South East Asia. At home, the discovery of vast goldfields across the Southern Uplands of Scotland sparked years of negotiations between Westminster, Holyrood, local authorities, private citizens, gold companies and the environmentalist organisations-the fact that the exploitation of the region’s resources is today being conducted in such an environmentally friendly manner is a miracle of modern technology and applied ferromancy. Discovered shortly before the 2000 election, Scottish Gold reinvigorated Scottish nationalism-and brought the NPS back to power in the Scottish Parliament. Though a Scot by birth, Blair was seen by many to be a very English Britain, and it became quite clear that he resented the devolution of powers Thorpe’s Federalism had caused. Though the Liberals under his leadership were famed for their internal discipline, with none of the factional infighting that had torn apart the Smith and McLetchie Governments, Blair himself was increasingly unpopular within his Party. His overbearing micromanagement came to infest the Liberals, and whereas Blairism was once synonymous with calm, collected leadership, by 2005 it had connotations of control, of busybodies. In the run-up to and during the 2005 General Election, Blair's control of his Party slipped, and any semblance of unity slid away. There was no landslide defeat, but the Liberals were firmly booted out-Blair losing his seat amongst them. Blair now divides his time between the United Nations as Special Envoy for Central Africa, and his role as Chief Editor of the Guardian.
2005-2010: Gordon Brown (Democrat). Gordon Brown Premiership was dominated by the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2008. A Supply and Confidence Deal between the NPS and the Democrats had been based upon such a Referendum taking place-the fact that Brown was campaigning as a unionist notwithstanding. Gold, oil, the Commonwealth and the European Confederation dominated the debate, and the Prime Minister, known for his calm stoicism burst into active energy, giving barnstorming speeches about Scotland’s place in the Union, and the Union’s place in Scotland-and as an active, proud Scotsman, he was perhaps perfectly positioned to counter the nationalist rhetoric. When the result came, Remain won with a resounding 60% of the vote. It was a vindication for Brown, and his belief in a uniquely Scottish role with a social-democratic Britain. But it came at a cost-the NPS naturally withdrew their support from Brown’s Ministry. A deal with the Liberals, empowered under new leadership resulted in continued governance and no need for an election, but by and large the Brown Government costed on-lacking the majority to do much of anything. However, it was in Brown’s term in office that Scutum came on line across the League of Democratic States, and a permanent British section was added to the Jamestown Lunar Colony-although this had come after a joint Commonwealth and European Confederation section had been added. But it was the continued expansion of a little know branch of the security services known as MI-7 that proved, quite accidentally, to be Brown’s biggest legacy. When the General Election was called, Brown hoped that preserving the Union would secure him a majority-but whilst he kept his seat and has done to this day as a respected backbencher, voters saw little reason to reward 5 years of mostly stupor with a chance to “get it right this time” in the unfortunate words of one Democrat candidate.
2010-2015: Karan Bilimoria (Unionist). The world changed dramatically during Karan Bilimoria’s time as Prime Minister. The first BAME British Prime Minister, a child of post-war immigration and of the Commonwealth, his time in office saw the emergence of the Avengers as the worlds most powerful alliance of superheroes, first contact with multiple alien species, the disintegration of the United Arab Republic, Iranian troops pouring into Iraq and an attempt by a fascist cult to take over the world. At home, space and computer technology dominated the headlines, with the Skylon/BAE Space Sabre the darling of school children and air forces alike-whilst quantum computing was starting to revolutionise the world of business. It was during Bilimoria’s Premiership that the fact that the Soviet Union was defacto controlled by an AI known as the Central Planning Computer (TKP, to give the Russian acronym) became common knowledge in Government circles, and the first examples of powered armour entered service with the British Armed Forces. “Arc Reactor” fusion power started entering the energy grid and in 2009 Britain became the second country in the world to have an entirely carbon-free energy grid-fusion, fission and renewables providing every Watt of electricity the country needed. Domestically, his Premiership coincided with the “Our History Too” movement, in which celebrated British figures like Churchill were critically reassessed in view of their opinions on, for example, India. Whilst several obnoxious statues were removed-most famously the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol was unceremoniously chucked in a river, a large number of brass plaques went up on or near statues-written by mixed teams drawn from the general public and historians, and of diverse backgrounds. This ended up tied into the “Black Lives Matter” campaign across the world, which tackled the sadly still extant prejudices that the 3rd Civil Rights Movement had been unable to combat, particularly regarding policing. The image of Luke Cage, the Indestructible Hero for Hire, leaving a bunch of bent and broken police pistols in a pile behind him, became a meme almost instantly. In Britain, police misconduct and the discussion surrounding it took a different shape-except in Northern Ireland. There, the Royal Northern Irish Constabulary was still seen as a bastion of Loyalist sentiment, and the debate their rapidly became intertwined with still lingering issues from the late 50s-particularly regarding joint Citizenship and role of the Irish language in the education system. In the end, it took the disbandment of the RNIC and the formation of the new Northern Irish Police, along with the replacement of about a third of its frontline personal to prevent the rioting and protests from descending into full-blown anarchy. But It did not prevent the death of Queen Elizabeth the Second. Distraught by the tribulations of Northern Ireland, the sovereign passed her away in her sleep in the middle of the Ulster Crisis, on August 10th, 2013. It was later said that the shock of her passing was what it enabled the new settlement, but it became the story of the year and probably the British story of the decade. Her funeral was the most viewed television event in history up to that point, only exceeded by the American *Permanent Return to Mars* in 2018. Internationally, the attempted Hydra Coup of 2014 was mostly an American affair, although affiliates caused chaos in Britain and France-including the bloody occupation of Edinburgh which was only ended when Edinburgh Castle itself was bombed by the RAF and stormed by loyal troops. The ’68 reforms had worked-the Unionists had no connections with the Hydra Cult, and no military personal had any connections to it either. However, businessmen connected to the Party had, and the rapid expansion of MI-7 in response to the ever-increasing number and variety of metahumans was seen, in retrospect, to have been reckless and ill-throughout. When Bilimoria took his Party to the polls in 2015, his decisive and effective leadership during years of crisis had to be contrasted with the reality of the crisis and the extent to which he and his party had been responsible for them in the first place. Again, there was no landslide, but the verdict of the public was no matter how noble his conduct had been, the Unionist Party was, as had been in the seventies, hanging out with the wrong crowd. Today, Karan Bilimoria is an international businessman and public speaker, dividing his time between Britain, India, Burma and Singapore, where he has extensive interests.
2015-Present: Ed Davey (Liberal). Ed Davey had been a quiet voice in the background during the latter part of the Blair years-on the left of the Liberals, and generally well regarded. During his years in opposition, he had garnered a name for himself a firm defender of civil liberties-this in a party that had made itself famous as the party of said liberties. He had a reputation as a bridge-builder between the European Internationalist faction and the Commonwealth Internationalist faction-to the extent that a satirical article in Private Eye saying that the Commonwealth should adopt the European Confederation’s Euro came to be closely associated with Davey-it is common amongst some circles to this day to attitude the article as a serious piece written by him. Succeeding Vince Cable in 2010, Davey became famous for the “National Privacy Act”, which over the strong objections of the security services and policing establishment, placed qualitative and quantitative limits on private data that could be gathered by the Government on British citizens-although he was vindicated by the Hydra Rising. His position of a prophet goes some way to explaining the Liberals success in the election-that a comprehensive post-Blair detox that Vince Cable’s time had been unable to accomplish. The introduction of a comprehensive modern tax system, the trial of a Universal Basic Income is the most economically deprived areas of the country and further reforms to what remained of the House of Lords dominated the first year of Ed Davey’s time in the office-the international situation had stabilised to something resembling normal in an environment where humanity was spreading throughout the solar system, superpowers were ever more common and the existence of vampires had recently become public knowledge. But the domestic focus was shattered by the Argentine Invasion of the Falkland Islands. The economic uncertainty in Argentina itself motivated the attack-as did the ill-conceived idea that Britain would not respond as it did. The deployment of the Eagle Carrier Battle Group and the Powerful Marine Battle Group, the destruction of the Argentine Navy, the Tomahawk strikes and brief but bloody battles across the Islands are not for detailed examination, but Britain emerged victorious-and Ed Davey had shown calm, collected and confident leadership. No immediate General Election was called, by a year later the 2017 returned the Liberals with an increased majority. The new tax system had increased revenue whilst generally decreasingly taxes except for the top percentiles, the UBI experiment had shown promise and digital communication, video conferencing and online workshops were starting to make their impact know on the academic and white-collar professions. For Ed Davey and the Liberals, the future looked bright.
That is, until March 28th 2018, when an alien spaceship for the second time in a decade, attacked New York City.