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NEW RELEASE: You've Always Had It This Good

Really good book.Glad to see it finished.

I like the idea that after almost 29 years of Supermac,Carrington will most likely be PM til the 2010's.Also a lot of phresh stuff,like NATO forces trying to pacify Northern Ireland and fight the Unionist extremists,China taking over Hong Kong,Andronomics and the Royal Health Commission.Kinda worried about the Soviets sorta winning the Cold War economically tho.

Still-great writing.
 
I got a massive kick out of the many, many, many ways to keep Supermac as Ubermac even when he wanted out, I was half-expecting "the dead fluids are poured over him - MACMILLIAN, 1985 - FOREVER: Dark Judge"

The Hong Kong kick-off was very unexpected (and a nice bookend to Suez)
We figured the only way to keep a nonagenarian in power was W A R L E A D E R at that point. Glad you liked it!
 
I loved reading it over Saturday! I love all the shades of blue on the cover. I was surprised at the means taken to ensure MacMillan stayed in power after 1968. I did say to my Dad when the P.R. China invaded Hong Kong that MacMillan was really unlucky that he had to stay in power just a bit longer. Expecting thrilling descriptions of brutal urban fighting between the British and allies against the Chinese, but had to suffice with thousands of dead on the beaches of Taiwan.
I did catch the reference to "Finlandisation"!
 
@Meadow and @Lord Roem - I'm deeply impressed by this, having just finished it - you've both taken what could have been a ridiculous scenario 'Emperor Macmillan on the Golden Throne' and actually turned into an engaging and often uncomfortably probing query into British politics and the glaring issues of political ossification.

I would dearly love to see this expanded upon, however unlikely it is; it seems like the perfect universe to have an anthology based out of - from 'Jack 'n' Mac' to British Vietnam to what, exactly, Eternal Macmillanism means to a country that hasn't had a meaningful Left Opposition in half a century. Not to mention the cunning hints that the Soviets didn't collapse as in OTL.

As an aside, I don't think any one paragraph has made me laugh out loud as much as this has in recent times:

The thirty-four minutes of George Thomas saying the word ‘Macmillan’ over and over again probably ranks as the best encapsulation of British politics from the 1950s through to the 1980s

Also, do me a favour, as it's killing me at the moment - what is (“Captain Mountbatten is still alive” continues to be the highlight of German festive television) a reference to?
 
Also, do me a favour, as it's killing me at the moment - what is (“Captain Mountbatten is still alive” continues to be the highlight of German festive television) a reference to?

I believe that's a dual reference to 'General Franco is Still Alive' being repeated so regularly on Spanish news while he was ill that Private Eye has been using 'General Franco is Still Dead' on and off ever since, and Dinner for One, that slightly dull English comedy about the dinner party where the butler's pretending to be all the dead friends of his lady and getting very drunk which the Germans love and show every New Year for some reason.
 
I could make a baseball joke about Macmillan being good against left-handed batters.

Basically it's a reference to players like Jesse Orosco, who has the record for most games played in by a pitcher. He started as a solid conventional relief pitcher, but lengthened his career by coming to pitch to only one or two left-handed opposing batters (who he was great against) and then being replaced again.
 
I could make a baseball joke about Macmillan being good against left-handed batters.

Basically it's a reference to players like Jesse Orosco, who has the record for most games played in by a pitcher. He started as a solid conventional relief pitcher, but lengthened his career by coming to pitch to only one or two left-handed opposing batters (who he was great against) and then being replaced again.
I love you so much right now.
 
Downloaded and speed-read this on Friday evening, after reading its initial iteration in the old country. Really felt it got worldbuilding right outside the UK where we hear just enough to whet our appetite (Vietnam War ending with Doctor Manhattan nuclear weapons, the Berlin Wall falling the other way, Andronomics, Jesse Jackson as the implied American Gorbachev) whilst not being too distracting or removing attention away from the main focus of the work. Have to admit given the somewhat Japanese turn in UK politics was wondering if we would see some cultural developments of British equivalents of anime, chanbara, or kaiju. Interesting turns to keep Mac in No. 10, and like others have said the fact his successor is Carrington implies his sort of tenure might be the new norm.
 
I could make a baseball joke about Macmillan being good against left-handed batters.

Basically it's a reference to players like Jesse Orosco, who has the record for most games played in by a pitcher. He started as a solid conventional relief pitcher, but lengthened his career by coming to pitch to only one or two left-handed opposing batters (who he was great against) and then being replaced again.
Ah, the infamous LOOGY.

Other good examples of baseball longevity, in different ways, would be Jamie Moyer and Nolan Ryan.
 
I believe that's a dual reference to 'General Franco is Still Alive' being repeated so regularly on Spanish news while he was ill that Private Eye has been using 'General Franco is Still Dead' on and off ever since, and Dinner for One, that slightly dull English comedy about the dinner party where the butler's pretending to be all the dead friends of his lady and getting very drunk which the Germans love and show every New Year for some reason.

I’m such a fucking hack I hate myself.
 
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