Where there is Discord - A UK Election Series (Main Thread)
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Lumine
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« on: October 24, 2020, 12:31:26 AM »
« edited: March 28, 2021, 06:30:14 PM by Lumine »

1

Britain struggles against the stagnation and strife of the 70's

List of British Prime Ministers:

Harold Wilson (III) (Labour Minority): March 1974 - October 1974
Harold Wilson (IV) (Labour Majority): October 1974 - June 1975
Tony Benn (Labour Minority): June 1975 - March 1976
Edward Heath (II) (Conservative-DLP Coalition Majority): March 1976 - September 1980
Edward Heath (III) (Conservative Majority): September 1980 - May 1984
Jim Prior (I) (Conservative Majority): May 1984 - June 1985
Jim Prior (II) (Conservative Majority): June 1985 - January 1989
Geoffrey Dickens (Conservative Majority): January 1989 - Present

Intro:

Yes, back again. Haven't done one of these in a year and a half, and I thought it might be interesting to make another attempt at an interactive TL set in Britain. I'd rather start from zero than pick up The Duel due to how much time has passed, and having ruled out the 19th Century, I've decided to focus in a decade that, while covered by previous interactive TL's, has not been exploited as a starting point itself despite being a fairly complex and difficult time for the United Kingdom. Where there is Discord takes us to the aftermath of the October 1974 General Election, in which Harold Wilson gained the smallest of majorities for Labour to remain in government and which eventually led to the 1974-1979 Parliament. This is a Britain rocked by violence in Northern Ireland, hurt by economic stagnation and decline, conflicted by the rising power of trade unions, tense over the aggressiveness of political discourse, and soon to face a dramatic referendum over its recent membership of the EEC. Starting with the 1975 Conservative Leadership contest and then into the referendum, we will see how your decisions - electoral or not - chart a course for a Britain in which the post-war consensus is in full crisis...

List of Conservative Leaders:

Edward Heath: 1965 - 1984
Jim Prior: 1984 - 1989
Geoffrey Dickens: 1989 - Present

List of Labour Leaders:

Harold Wilson: 1963 - 1975
Tony Benn: 1975 - 1980
Eric Varley: 1980 - 1981
Roy Hattersley: 1981 - 1985
Robert Kilroy-Silk: 1985 - Present

List of Liberal Leaders:

Jeremy Thorpe: 1967 - 1976
Jo Grimond: 1976
Laura Grimond: 1976 - 1985
Michael Meadowcroft: 1985 - Present

List of Democratic Labour Leaders:

Roy Jenkins: 1976 - 1985
Shirley Williams: 1985 - Present

List of SNP Leaders:

Billy Wolfe: 1969 - 1981
Margo MacDonald: 1981 - Present

List of National Front Leaders:

John Tyndall: 1976 - Present

List of Ecology Leaders:

Jonathon Porritt: 1979 - Present

General Election Results by Party:

Labour Party (LAB)
1974 - Feb: 37.2% / 301 seats
1974 - Oct: 39.2% / 319 seats (+18)
1976 - Mar: 30.8% / 251 seats (-58)
1980 - Sep: 10.9% / 67 seats (-184)
1985 - Jun: 5.3% / 16 seats (-51)

Conservative Party (CON)
1974 - Feb: 37.9% / 297 seats
1974 - Oct: 35.8% / 277 seats (-20)
1976 - Mar: 33.2% / 270 seats (-7)
1980 - Sep: 33.8% / 331 seats (+61)
1985 - Jun: 38.1% / 376 seats (+45)

Democratic Labour (DLP)
1976 - Mar: 23.5% / 76 seats (+76)
1980 - Sep: 19.6% / 143 seats (+77)
1985 - Jun: 15.2% / 97 seats (-46)

Liberal Party (LIB)
1974 - Feb: 19.3% / 14 seats
1974 - Oct: 18.3% / 13 seats (-1)
1976 - Mar: 7.0% / 7 seats (-6)
1980 - Sep: 14.4% / 42 seats (+35)
1985 - Jun: 15.2% / 78 seats (+36)

Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP)
1974 - Feb: 2.0% / 7 seats
1974 - Oct: 2.9% / 11 seats (+4)
1976 - Mar: 2.5% / 15 seats (+4)
1980 - Sep: 1.0% / 7 seats (-8)
1985 - Jun: 1.6% / 8 seats (+1)

National Front (NF)
1980 - Sep: 7.2% / 11 seats (+11)
1985 - Jun: 10.8% / 29 seats (+18)

Ecology Party (ECO)
1980 - Sep: 9.8% / 17 seats (+17)
1985 - Jun: 10.8% / 26 seats (+9)
_____________________________
1.) Original Image: Number 10 Downing Street, Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC, Wikimedia Commons, modified for TL purposes.
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Lumine
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« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2020, 12:13:51 AM »
« Edited: January 26, 2021, 10:56:17 AM by Lumine »

1975 Conservative Leadership Election:

Leader:
Edward Heath: 202
Margaret Thatcher: 75

Having lost against Harold Wilson for the third time - only defeating him in 1970 - many wondered if Ted Heath's long tenure as Leader of the Conservative Party had come to an end. With Heath refusing to yield the leadership and asserting his intention to contest an upcoming General Election, an internal challenge rapidly materialized from the right of the party, particularly among the recent converts to economic monetarism. With potential rival Enoch Powell now off in Northern Ireland as a UUP MP (his bridges with the Conservative Party burn at the moment), and with would-be challengers Sir Keith Joseph and Edward DuCann being unable to run due to scandal or logistical difficulties, it was former Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher who took on the job.

Disappointed with Heath following the last two elections, Thatcher threw herself to fight an energetic campaign aided by fellow rival Airey Neave, but the Heathite camp chose to left little to chance. Reorganizing itself under the combined efforts of Heath loyalists Peter Walker and Jim Prior, the Heathies ceaselessly canvassed the parliamentary party warning against a dangerous turn to the right should Heath be toppled. Informed that a private poll of MP's had him in a vulnerable position, Heath himself made a half-hearted effort to downplay his usually abrasive attitude, in the hopes of not alienating Conservative MP's further. In the end, Thatcher's challenge failed to topple Heath, the former Prime Minister securing a commanding lead that allowed him to retain his position for the time being.
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Lumine
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« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2020, 12:04:31 AM »

1975 EEC Referendum:

Results:
NO: 57.8%
YES: 42.2%

Although polls taken at the start of 1975 had suggested that a majority of Britons did indeed favor withdrawal from the EEC, Wilson and Callaghan's subsequent renegotiation, and the formation of a broad Yes Campaign led by members of mainstream parties - with substantial financial and press support - signaled for many that Yes would likely win the referendum and do so strongly after a campaign process in which the divided alternative appeared to be at too great a disadvantage. And indeed, the first few days of the campaign showed a competitive race with Yes in the lead, the political conversation being dominated by issues of sovereignty. But to the horror of the Yes campaign, the rapid and seemingly unstoppable economic collapse of the Wilson administration - with unemployment skyrocketing - dramatically changed the contest.

Adopting a populist tone and switching the discussion into economic issues, both the Labour left and the right-wing anti-marketeers portrayed the Yes Campaign as a collection of establishment figures, collectively guilty of the current national decline. Wilson and Heath were treated to the collective horror of increasing parts of their backbenches switching towards No, and a series of highly successful rallies by the likes of Benn, Powell, DuCann, Castle, Shore and others quickly allowed No to seize the momentum. A disastrous last minute intervention by Wilson and Callaghan, rather than rally the Labour troops, resulted in a virtual stampede. On Election Night, No won a resounding victory with almost 58% of the vote (carrying all four nations, particularly Scotland), an unthinkable result for many leading politicians.

With the Government now forced into a highly complex and difficult process of withdrawal from the EEC, and utterly furious at what he saw as a collective betrayal from the left of his party, Harold Wilson announced his resignation as Prime Minister a week after the vote.
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Lumine
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« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2020, 12:23:15 AM »

The Wilson (IV) Ministry
1974-1975
Labour Majority

Prime Minister: Harold Wilson
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Denis Healey
Foreign Secretary: James Callaghan
Home Secretary: Roy Jenkins

Amidst a harsh economic crisis and despite domestic progress,
Wilson's final ministry collapses over Europe

Having successfully defused the conflict with the miners that had brought Heath down, and having defeated the Conservatives for the second time in the October General Election, Harold Wilson had plenty of reasons to be satisfied. Although the economic outlook was grim, his immediate foes were contained and a road to keep the Labour Party together was available in the upcoming EEC referendum, giving the clever Prime Minister every indication that he'd be able to lead for a couple more years until a voluntary retirement. It was not to be.

By far the most successful area of the fourth and final Wilson ministry was to be found in its domestic agenda in spite of such a small majority. Alongside relative calm in Northern Ireland and with regards to the largest unions, a substantial amount of initiatives were introduced in Parliament to bolster Britain's decaying welfare state, including the expansion of social security benefits, subsidies and pensions, additional benefits for certain unions - particularly the miners - and limited education reform, all of this combined with the repeal of laws from Heath's government such as its controversial industrial relations legislation. This was facilitated by a cohesive behavior from the government benches in the House, the rapidly increasing divisions over Europe, and the strong opposition from the Conservatives and other minor parties overshadowing a more or less effective degree of legislative unity over other issues.

Conversely, the final Wilson administration was perceived as having been doomed by the gloomy economic situation. If at the start of 1975 the government was already wrestling with high inflation (entering its double digits) and a long term recession caused by the 1973 oil embargo, the summer of 1975 saw the economy enter into free fall despite the furious efforts of the government to halt the collapse. With the Labour Party divided over Europe and struggling due to the increasing volatility of the referendum, unemployment surpassed one million and the government started running out of economic resources in a spending crisis. This crisis in turn fueled the anti-establishment No Campaign, denying Wilson a long desired achievement in foreign policy as Britons overwhelmingly voted to leave the Common Market.

Physically exhausted and rather embittered at what he saw as disloyal behavior from many of his former proteges - including Barbara Castle -, Wilson decided he'd had enough. Waiting a few days for the dust to settle, he announced his resignation as Prime Minister after seven non-consecutive years in office. With his departure not free of controversy (due to a dubious Honours List which granted knighthoods to a number of businessmen, later nicknamed the "Lavender List"), Wilson spent his last few days in office watching the crucial leadership election from a distance.
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« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2020, 09:06:17 PM »
« Edited: January 26, 2021, 11:01:26 AM by Lumine »

1975 Labour Leadership Election:

First Ballot, Leader:
Tony Benn: 103
Denis Healey: 66
Michael Foot: 65
Barbara Castle: 47
Roy Jenkins: 37

Final Ballot, Leader:
Tony Benn: 168
Denis Healey: 150

First Ballot, Deputy Leader:
Peter Shore: 150
Shirley Williams: 94
John Silkin: 74

Final Ballot, Deputy Leader:
Peter Shore: 160
Shirley Williams: 158

The surprise resignation of Harold Wilson after the 1975 Referendum quickly led to a mad scramble among Labour MPs for the succession, particularly after Deputy Leader Ted Short and Foreign Secretary Jim Callaghan resigned or were left too tainted by the No campaign triumph. As a result, Tony Benn, Barbara Castle and Michael Foot stood as the Anti-Market candidates, believing the No victory gave them a moral mandate to lead the party against the demoralized Pro-Market wing. For their part, both Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey stood from the right of the party, although on clearly diverging platforms. The first half of the contest was defined mostly by the European question, several MP's choosing to support the anti-Market hardliner candidates in the hopes that the popular majority against the EEC could be harnessed in a future election. This, in turn, led to a shock lead by Tony Benn on the first round, as well as an almost clear victory by Peter Shore for the deputy leadership.

The second and final round - after the rapid withdrawals of Castle, Foot and Jenkins - was fought instead mostly on the state of the economy, due to both Healey and Benn advocating for a hard and rapid withdrawal from the EEC. Whereas Healey favored "economic realism", Benn advocated for his radical and controversial "Alternative Economic Strategy", which greatly alarmed large parts of the Labour right and indeed of the Westminster establishment itself. Soon elements of the right and centre coalesced behind Healey and Williams in a mad dash to "stop Benn", whereas Benn and Shore portrayed themselves as a team to "fulfill the mandate of the people". A brief and difficult campaign allowed Benn to narrowly prevail by absorbing the anti-marketeer vote, and Shore - to his surprise - only barely survived a serious challenge by Williams.
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« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2020, 09:35:23 PM »
« Edited: November 01, 2020, 09:49:09 PM by Lumine »

The Benn Ministry
1975-1976
Labour Minority

Prime Minister: Tony Benn
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Barbara Castle
Foreign Secretary: Peter Shore
Home Secretary: Eric Varley

Benn moves ahead with a radical agenda,
But Labour splits over Europe deadlock

Tony Benn entered Downing Street amidst scenes of gloom and despair by the British establishment, and cries of joy from the Labour left and the trade union movement. However, the instant loss of his majority due to a by-election loss in Woolwich West and the immediate refusal of a handful of MP's to take the Labour whip made his already difficult task immensely more difficult. Devoid of a majority, Benn fully intended to get Britain out of the Common Market within six months as well as implement his Alternative Economic Strategy. It was the start of nine dramatic months.

Forming a powerful troika with Peter Shore (Foreign Office) and Barbara Castle (Treasury), Benn immediately purged the Cabinet from leading Pro-Marketeers, including Roy Jenkins and Reg Prentice, and started work. By far the most successful realm of the new radical administration - much like Wilson - was to be found in domestic policy, as the lack of an actual majority and the steady rate of defections was supplemented through arrangements with the SNP and Plaid Cymru. As a result, the government pushed through an Industrial Democracy Act further empowering the trade unions and bringing them into close collaboration with the government, laid the groundwork for potential decentralization and devolution schemes, ordered the construction of several nuclear power plants, and started a major housing construction programme.

The economic situation, however, remained utterly dire. Chancellor Castle quickly introduced sweeping measures to introduce autarky and put the Alternative Economic Strategy into place, including import controls, rigid price controls, radical tax increases and substantial public spending to combat unemployment. The measures created some temporary relief in so far as they halted the rise of unemployment, but inflation rapidly shot up while Britain both started to run out of currency and was not considered trustworthy enough for foreign loans. And if the economic situation was discouraging, it was in the realm of foreign policy that the Government suffered defeat after defeat. It quickly became clear that Benn and Shore's hardline push for hard withdrawal quickly alienated Britain's European partners, most of which oppposed most British proposals and would not agree to Labour's proposed terms.

This, in turn, led to dramatic scenes in the House of Commons, as legislative attempts to enact the EEC withdrawal were bitterly resisted by a Pro-Market parliamentary majority. Indeed, Conservative leader Ted Heath joined forces with Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal Leader) and Jenkins (now a serial rebel) to block Benn's European proposals at every turn, citing their belief that the government's policy was both reckless and actively harmful the economy. With the government further weakened by a series of high profile scandals surrounding hard-left MPs - and by the extremely hostile relationship to Buckingham Palace -, Benn and his allies attempted to crackdown on the Pro-Market rebels via whip suspension or deselection in their seats in order to force opponents to stand down and allow the government to meet their January 1st target.

With January 1st having passed with Britain still in the EEC, pro-Benn local parties moved to deselect over a dozen rebels in February, including former Cabinet ministers. This led to one of the more dramatic scenes in British political history, as a few days later Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, Reg Prentice and several dozen Labour MP's crossed the floor and joined the opposition. His majority gone, and sensing an imminent VONC to throw him out of office, Benn went to the Palace and asked for an immediate dissolution of Parliament.
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« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2020, 12:29:46 AM »
« Edited: January 26, 2021, 11:03:52 AM by Lumine »

1976 General Election:

Party VotesSeatsChange
Conservative Party (Heath)33.2%270 MP's7
Labour Party (Benn)30.8%251 MP's-58
Democratic Labour (Jenkins)23.5%76 MP's76
Scottish National Party (Wolfe)2.5%15 MP's4
Liberal Party (Thorpe†)7.0%7 MP's6
Others3.0%16 MP's1

Called on a preemptive manner by Prime Minister Tony Benn after the defection of several dozen MP's from Labour's social-democratic wing, the 1976 General Election was a strange and frantic affair for those involved it, featuring a dramatic four week campaign filled with surprises.

Having denied his enemies time to prepare and rapidly filled the candidate vacancies with Bennite candidates, conventional wisdom seemed to suggest Benn would take on Jenkins on a dramatic battle for the soul of the Labour movement, all while the Liberals and the Conservatives would profit from the enemy division. However, the Liberal campaign essentially imploded once a series of rumours implicating Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe in a sordid scandal - Rinkagate - with a former homosexual lover came out in the tabloid press, forcing the once ascendant party into damage control as its Scottish wing essentially cut ties with Thorpe and ran pretty much its own (effective) campaign north of the border. For his part, Heath's passion for Europe did not translate well with an electorate which had massively voted No, forcing the former Prime Minister into a difficult campaign amidst endless sniping from Enoch Powell and other right-wing anti-marketeers.

Establishment talk of a full-blown Labour collapse failed to materialize in full as Tony Benn proved an able and charismatic campaigning, making up for the enormous damage caused by the defections and his own government's unpopularity by attempting to drive up turnout and bring young voters into his camp. Still, it was none other than Roy Jenkins and his "merry band of defectors" who found themselves with momentum behind them. A conscious decision not to seek a pact with the Liberals had proved wise as they weren't implicated in the Thorpe affair, and although commentators rapidly noticed Jenkins was not succeeding in the task of pulling Labour's working class base away from Benn, he was absorbing much of the Liberal vote, as well as middle-class Labour voters exasperated with the leftwards turn of the party.

Election Night was a long and confusing affair, the party system suddenly producing three or four way battles across dozens - even hundreds - of seats across the map. When the smoked cleared, Heath and the Conservatives emerged as the largest party with only limited losses since 1974, whereas Benn lost almost sixty seats by retaining about three quarters of the previous Labour vote. Jenkins, Shirley and Prentice experienced a triumphal night as they shot upwards of 23% and elected 76 MP's, allowing the vast majority of the defectors to retain their seats and to elect new MP's in the south against the Conservatives. The SNP, despite having lost votes, seized on Labour's weakness to net four extra seats, allowing leader Billy Wolfe to enter Parliament at last.

By far the harshest night was experienced by the Liberal Party, losing two thirds of its 1974 vote. Although the Scottish Liberals both held onto their seats and made a couple of gains, these were balanced by an almost complete wipeout in Wales and England, including Thorpe himself and rising starts like John Pardoe, David Penhaligon and Cyril Smith. Heath was subsequently invited to form a government, and after a week of talks with Jenkins - both Benn and Jenkins being unwilling to work with the other - both men agreed to a coalition and a joint programme to handle the EEC withdrawal.

Nine months after the dramatic EEC referendum, Britain had its first coalition government since the war.
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« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2020, 06:29:11 PM »

1976 Liberal Leadership Election:

Leader:
Laura Grimond: 66.7%
David Steel: 33.3%

Held in the aftermath of a disastrous election result and with their former leader Jeremy Thorpe facing a - demoralizing - high profile trial, the Liberal Party had to content with the scalping of much of their more promising crop of candidates and frontbench members across Wales and England, resulting in a contest dominated by the increasingly powerful Scottish wing of the party. This, in turn, resulted in Liberal Chief Whip David Steel announcing his candidacy on a platform of political cooperation, and in turn faced an unexpected challenged by newly elected Laura Grimond MP, wife of renowned former leader Jo Grimond. Although Steel held commanding support from the Liberal MP's, the new electoral process allowed party members to vote, giving Grimond - more critical of cross party cooperation - an edge due to greater activist support. In the end, Grimond prevailed with a commanding margin, becoming the next leader of the Liberal Party.
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« Reply #8 on: November 11, 2020, 07:18:43 PM »

The Heath (II) Ministry
1976-1980
Conservative-DLP Coalition Majority

Prime Minister: Edward Heath
Deputy Prime Minister: Roy Jenkins
Chancellor of the Exchequer: William Whitelaw
Foreign Secretary: Robert Carr, then Geoffrey Rippon, then Francis Pym

Home Secretary: Shirley Williams

Heath and Jenkins preside over growth and devolution,
Europe and Northern Ireland remain serious headaches

Forming the first coalition government since the war, Edward Heath returned to Downing Street 10 after two years in the political wilderness, rapidly agreeing to a common programme with Roy Jenkins which elevated the former Labour frontbencher to Deputy Prime Minister. With Whitelaw and Carr taking over the Exchequer and the Foreign Office, Democratic Labour also secured Shirley Williams's elevation as Home Secretary. With a safe majority of 57 seats over a seemingly divided opposition, the Coalition leadership immediately turned to the urgency of the present economic crisis, as well as the increasingly delicate and controversial process of EEC withdrawal.

Perhaps the most relevant accomplishments of the Heath-Jenkins government were found precisely on the daunting economic front. Ditching the Alternative Economic Strategy and most of the sweeping economic controls introduced by Benn and Castle in favor of a mixed approach, the government was able to secure a number of loans to keep Britain from going over the brink, winning enough time to survive through the difficult, bitter winter of 1976. An anti-inflation strategy combined with limited economic cuts finally contained the almost unstoppable rate of inflation, and the combination of North Sea Oil extraction - giving the UK a crucial source of revenue - and the expansion of nuclear power previously authorized by Benn aided enormously in stabilizing the economic and preventing either harsh cuts or excessive deficit spending. Despite another serious threat in the winter of 1978-1979, the British economy was holding steady by 1980 as growth returned to the UK, even if unemployment remained very high.

Domestic policy was also a realm in which the Coalition acted with ambition and was rewarded for it: a series of consensual reforms to public services - particularly the NHS - finding success in increasing efficiency; the limited devolution plan resulting in the successful installation (after a strong referendum mandate) of a Scottish Assembly by 1978; expansion of immigration from Commonwealth nations and particularly Vietnamese refugees also seemingly helping the economy. Crucially, the Coalition managed to prevent a repeat of the disastrous strikes of 1974 by reaching a number of settlements with some of the more moderate trade unions and passing moderate restrictive legislation, thus averting a potential disaster. However, the government remained unable to negotiate a settlement to the Northern Ireland situation, resulting in continued - if decreased - violence.

Conversely, the government was repeatedly defeated or even humiliated over its handling of foreign policy, resulting in the combined resignations of Robert Carr (1977) and Geoffrey Rippon (1979). Heath and Jenkins's unyielding push for a soft withdrawal from the EEC crashed and burned after a strong rebuke in the 1977 EEC Referendum (which almost led to a joint resignation from the PM and DPM), further emboldening the Eurosceptics in all parties and forcing both leaders into a - for them highly depressing - hard withdrawal from the EEC and from EFTA by July 1st, 1978. This, in turn, was followed by further diplomatic defeats over the fishing "Cod War" in the North Sea, u-turns and failed initiatives in Africa concerning Uganda and Rhodesia, and crucially, the continued deterioration of the Special Relationship with the United States, as Heath's relationship to US President Mo Udall was infamously bad.

Avoiding major scandals - beyond an inquiry on Reginald Maudling -, the government also had some moderate struggles in Parliament, as certain issues still provided source for conflict between Democratic Labour and the Conservatives (Home Secretary Williams being a skeptic of the Coalition), and Heath himself was still the target of continued revolts by the Conservative right. Contrary to expectations, Benn was able to temporarily consolidate his rule over Labour after the 1976 Election due to the increased role of his new Socialist Campaign Group, and with the Labour right maintaining its silence over the former Prime Minister the Opposition avoided further splits. After four and a half-years in office, and sensing the time was right, Heath went to the Palace and asked for a dissolution of Parliament.
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« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2020, 10:27:16 PM »
« Edited: January 31, 2021, 05:02:28 PM by Lumine »

1980 General Election:

Party VotesSeatsChange
Conservative Party (Heath)33.8%331 MP's61
Democratic Labour (Jenkins)19.6%143 MP's77
Labour Party (Benn†)10.9%67 MP's-184
Liberal Party (Grimond)14.4%42 MP's35
Ecology Party (Porritt)9.8%17 MP's17
National Front (Tyndall)7.2%11 MP's11
Scottish National Party (Wolfe†)1.0%7 MP's8
Others3.0%17 MP's1

Having spent the last four and a half years in Coalition, and sensing the moment appropriate due to improving economic figures, Prime Minister Edward Heath's gamble was widely agreed to have made the 1976 Election look a normal affair, resulting in some of the more dramatic developments ever seen in British politics.

The big story of the campaign was provided both by the rise in visibility of the smaller parties as well as the unmitigated disaster of the Labour campaign, the combination of which proved electorally explosive. Having strongly championed nuclear power while in office and constantly taking credit for the construction of new nuclear power stations, former Prime Minister Tony Benn's credibility was utterly shattered by the dramatic Three Mile Island incident in the US weeks before the Presidential Election, a contributing factor in John Connally's defeat of President Udall. Alongside suddenly catapulting the Ecology Party into the forefront of politics, Benn was doubly undermined by a radical manifesto described by his own troops as "the longest suicide note in history" and a thoroughly hostile media, the combination of which forced him to damage control through the entire six week campaign.

With the spectre of Three Mile Island leading to an "environmental panic" among voters, both Jonathon Porritt's Ecologists and Laura Grimond's Liberals were handsomely rewarded by their foresight, turning the first party into a serious challenger and reviving the fortunes of the second as both directly targeted vulnerable Labour seats. A similar approach was undertaken by Jenkins, who despite being noticeably less energetic as a campaigner - which was thought to have costed Democratic Labour many voters - used the base provided by his strong 76' result to launch a full scale offensive to replace Labour as the main Opposition to the Conservatives. Heath, for his part, found himself stuck in the 30-35%, as a successful charm offensive to gain centrist support blew up in the Conservatives's face when the National Front started to swallow both left and right-wing working class voters.

Election Night was the stuff of legends, a long, confusing and generally bewildering affair in which countless politicians were caught off guard by the extent of the swings and by how much polling had missed the momentum of certain parties. Typical three-way marginals from 1976 were turned into four or five-way competitive marginals, all while the Labour vote pretty much disintegrated across most regions (and became non-existent in the South) in the sort of electoral slaughter not seen since the early 20th Century. Not only did Benn lose his seat, so did Shore, Silkin, Healey, and scores of promising MP's whose careers were brutally cut short. All in all, Labour only retained 67 seats, a sum which might have been lower were it not for how utterly safe many of those seats were in the first place. It was also a very bitter night of the Scottish National Party, which was widely believed to have lost steam after the formation of the Scottish Assembly. Losing half their seats, only the Labour collapse prevented further losses.

Conversely, it was a glorious night for most of the smaller parties, many of which saw either their votes or seats multiply as FPTP continued to deliver strange results. Roy Jenkins doubled his MP's and instantly became the new Leader of the Opposition, securing Democratic Labour as the potential challenger to the Tories in the next election. Laura Grimond revived Liberal fortunes by capturing several Labour strongholds, cementing the leftwards turn of her party. Porritt entered Parliament in a shockingly strong result, making the Ecology Party an example to European Green parties. And, in a development which sent alarms across Western Europe, Tyndall's National Front skyrocketed to 7%, showing unexpected strength in former Labour seats in London and Scotland. For their part, the Conservatives strongly benefited from being the only party above 30%, riding a 33% share of the vote into a small but clear majority.

Ecstatic at having vanquished Labour - for now -, Edward Heath returned to Downing Street 10 for what promised to be his last term in office.
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« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2020, 07:00:18 PM »

1981 Labour Leadership Election:

First Ballot, Leader:
Eric Heffer: 38.1%
Roy Hattersley: 38.1%
Denzil Davies: 23.8%

Final Ballot, Leader:
Roy Hattersley: 58.3%
Eric Heffer: 42.7%

First Ballot, Deputy Leader:
Giles Radice: 38.1%
Norman Atkinson: 33.6%
Gerald Kaufman: 28.6%

Final Ballot, Deputy Leader:
Giles Radice: 52.2%
Norman Atkinson: 47.8%

Six years of Bennite politics having dominated the Labour Party had ended with a historically disastrous General Election, the worst result for Labour in almost seventy years. Having lost almost three quarters of their MP's, both Benn and Shore having lost their seats - with Eric Varley serving as Acting Leader for a few months - and with most of the potential field now out of Parliament, the depleted remnants of the Labour Parliamentary Party scrambled for a wide open leadership contest. Quickly both the Bennite left and the remnants of the old Labour right found their champions in Eric Heffer and Roy Hattersley, both men joined by Denzil Davies as a representative of the new "soft left" faction.

With the leadership candidates forming official or implied tickets with the deputy leadership contenders, a competitive race delivered an unexpected result as the actual balance of power within the Labour electoral college swung. In the first ballot, Davies and Gerald Kaufman were eliminated despite a respectable showing, with Hattersley and Heffer tied in the leadership, and radical modernizer Giles Radice holding a moderate lead over left-winger Norman Atkinson. In the end, the circumstances of the leadership contest were widely perceived as having given Hattersley and the Labour right an unexpected victory, with a significant amount of the unions having serious doubts that a Heffer-led continuation of Benn's policies could revive the party in the next general election.
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« Reply #11 on: November 24, 2020, 07:44:28 PM »
« Edited: January 26, 2021, 11:09:47 AM by Lumine »

The Heath (III) Ministry
1980-1984
Conservative Majority

Prime Minister: Edward Heath
Deputy Prime Minister: William Whitelaw
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Peter Walker
Foreign Secretary: Francis Pym
Home Secretary: Jim Prior

Heath succeeds in getting the economy moving,
but struggles against the IRA and President Rumsfeld

Having secured the first Conservative majority since 1970 and with his Opposition - now led by his former coalition partner Jenkins - divided, Edward Heath returned to Downing Street for a third term with a renewed dose of confidence, believing he now had the means to end the general feeling of "managed decline" in Britain whilst also having the chance to make his mark on the foreign stage as an international stateman. In many ways, Heath's third and final government was transformative and decisive, and in others it was to prove incredibly frustrating for the aging Prime Minister.

Once again, Heath's main selling point was to be the management of the British economy, which had made remarkable process under the Coalition. Promoting his loyal and energetic lieutenant Peter Walker to the Exchequer, Heath and Walker maintained a moderately successful struggle to drive inflation further down whilst attempting to alleviate the high unemployment rate still plaguing Britain. Resisting the Monetarist wing's push for large-scale privatization, Walker was empowered to pursue innovative policies to increase efficiency in state run enterprises, combining newfound profits with continued use of North Sea Oil resources in order to keep things stable. Although the economy couldn't be defined as "booming" or competitive when compared to the rapidly growing EEC, the worst consequences of the 1975 Crash seemed to be over at last.

On the domestic front the Conservatives attempted more aggressive and bold attempts at reform, with decidedly mixed results. Easily the most popular policy introduced was the so called "Right to Buy" for tenants of public housing, resulting in thousands of new home owners across the nation. Other successful initiatives were pursued in education and the environment, as the government both expanded a number of environmental regulations and successfully - and controversially - expanded private education. Conversely, the marked hostility of the more left-wing trade unions - with Arthur Scargill emerging as a visible nemesis for the Prime Minister - resulted in a renewal of industrial strife, which coupled with a dramatic rise of IRA activities and the inability to secure a negotiate deal in Northern Ireland caused Heath no shortage of difficulties.

And once again, foreign policy was to remain Heath's most difficult and unpleasant challenge. Having held such dreams of international prominence, Heath and the Foreign Office were mortified by a non-stop series of diplomatic setbacks. On one hand, Heath's complete inability to come to terms with the newly elected - and radical minded - US President Don Rumsfeld, particularly due to Heath's opposition to Rumsfeld's monetarist policies, left Britain further isolated in terms of its partners. On the other, attempts by Heath to revive limited economic ties with Europe were both bitterly resisted by the public and ultimately abandoned by West Germany and France, both of which did not want a repeat of the 1975 debacle. A final bid to substantially expand Britain's role in international development - particularly through aid - also fell through after the lone major Parliamentary revolt of Heath's tenure.

With the Conservative monetarist right weakened - but not finished - after years of Heathite consensus and with the Opposition bitterly split, Heath's small majority was enough to allow him to implement most of his promised agenda, and the continued lack of major scandals - beyond a notorious affair by rising star Cecil Parkinson - enabled the Conservative leader to maintain his rule over the party. However, by the start of 1984 Heath (now 67) was showing clear signs of tiredness - matched by discouraging polling - after almost nineteen years as Conservative leader, and with twelve non-consecutive years as Prime Minister he had already matched Gladstone's record. Satisfied with the economic ratings and having resigned himself to the fact Britain did not want to be part of Europe, Heath tendered his resignation to the Queen with 18 months left in term, to allow a successor to make his mark before a new election.
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« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2021, 08:54:25 PM »

1984 Conservative Leadership Election:

Leader:
Jim Prior: 166
Geoffrey Howe: 83
Peter Walker: 66
John Biffen: 16

After an unprecedented nineteen years as leader of the Conservative Party, and having led the party - successfully or unsuccessfully - into six different general elections, Edward Heath tendered his voluntary resignation in May of 1984, with 18 months to go until the next General Election. With Heath's recent victories having helped him retain control over a majority of the Conservative Parliamentary Party, some predicted the contest could become another Heathite vs Monetarism struggle, as right-wing critics of Heath lined up behind John Biffen in the hopes of an ideological "revolution" within the party. This was not to be, as Biffen's leadership bid quickly unraveled amidst gaffes and public scrutiny over his liberal view of several social issues, stances that did not endear him to the Conservative right.

On the other side of the debate, an internal struggle over leadership of the Heathite faction took place between the Chancellor (Walker) and the Home Secretary (Prior), with Prior's warmer relationship to the backbenches enabling him to rapidly surpass Walker in terms of actual parliamentary support. Walker was also perceived to have been undercut by an unexpectedly strong response by the Democratic Labour frontbench during the budget debate, in which - ironically given his reputation - Industry Secretary Geoffrey Howe came out strengthened. In the end, Heathite control over the Parliamentary Party, Prior's successful courting of MP's and the relative weakness of his eventual competitors all conspired to give Prior an actual - if extremely slim - majority on the first ballot, signifying his election to the premiership.
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« Reply #13 on: January 29, 2021, 02:03:49 PM »

The Prior Ministry
1984-1985
Conservative Majority

Prime Minister: Jim Prior
Deputy Prime Minister: Francis Pym
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Peter Walker
Foreign Secretary: Sir Geoffrey Howe
Home Secretary: Sir Ian Gilmour

Prior defies conventional wisdom with the trade unions,
an attempt to conquer the political centre faces internal backlash

With only a few months to go until an inevitable General Election - and having dismissed an immediate one as too big a risk -, Jim Prior took office with a sense of urgency, determined to make his mark on Downing Street and avoid being dismissed as little more than a "Heath" clone. With Heath and Whitelaw's retirement signaling the departure of the "old guard", Prior immediately promoted the Heathite "new guard" by elevating Sir Ian Gilmour and Francis Pym, with Geoffrey Howe's decent showing in the leadership contest helping elevate him to the Home Office.

To his credit, Prior made good on his promise to further moderate the Conservative Party and attempt to seize the political centre, a strategic decision that was met with the equivalent threat of war by the already frustrated Monetarist right. Indeed, Prior's majority was to be the subject of constant revolts by a backbench squad led by Keith Joseph and Edward DuCann over the next few months, creating a very serious threat of a potential split like the one experienced by Labour under Tony Benn. The opposition, while mostly powerless on account of its division, nonetheless started to reorganize itself as a reinvigorated Jenkins put on effective performances against Prior at PMQ's. This, combined with sustained pressure from the far-right National Front, and by the remnants of the Labour Party remaining together under Hattersley, created the bigger challenge for Prior during 1984-1985.

Perhaps ironically, this internal division and parliamentary battles did not stop the government from taking active action and finding success in several fronts, leading the increasingly popular satire series Spitting Image to portray Prior as a smooth operator, manipulative and effective. Retaining Walker as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the economic team presided over an apparent transition from the previous and long-term recovery from the dark mid-seventies into a seemingly booming economy, bolstered by North Sea Oil, innovation and technology boosts, and new trading arrangements with the EEC and the Commonwealth. Having defied the growing monetarist orthodoxy persistently championed by Rumsfeld - triumphantly re-elected in the USA against a despairing opposition -, the United Kingdom seemed to offer at least one example of somewhat functional Keynesianism.

A record of missed opportunities and unsuccessful developments in foreign policy was also somewhat reversed, even if Prior did not found it any easier to deal with Rumsfeld than Heath had. Indeed, even if Britain continued to see the rapid debilitation of the Special Relationship - increasingly becoming a myth -, the UK started new steps as a more independent-minded actor in the international stage, signing a controversial joint declaration with China for the eventual handover in Hong Kong (yet another betrayal to the Conservative right) and pursuing a successful trade deal with the EEC. It was perhaps in the realm of domestic policies that Prior celebrated his strongest victory, as the risk of a General Strike in the winter of 1984 was narrowly averted due to a historic deal between the government and trade unions. Having yielded on the principle of industrial democracy - and allowed the introduction of work councils -, the government was nonetheless able to free itself from price and wage controls, as well as to manage British industry with a bit more flexibility.

Still, despite the energy Prior had seemed to bring into office, there was only so much time left from Heath's final term in office, and the Conservative Party was set to face a verdict on nine consecutive years in government. Choosing not to wait until the last possible moment - and hoping for success -, Jim Prior went to the Palace and requested a dissolution of Parliament, setting the date for the next General Election for June 1985.
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« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2021, 05:31:04 PM »

1985 General Election:

Party VotesSeatsChange
Conservative Party (Prior)38.1%376 MP's45
Democratic Labour (Jenkins)15.2%97 MP's46
Liberal Party (Grimond)15.2%78 MP's36
National Front (Tyndall)10.8%29 MP's18
Ecology Party (Porritt)10.8%26 MP's9
Labour Party (Hattersley)5.3%16 MP's-51
Scottish National Party (MacDonald)1.6%8 MP's1
Others3.0%20 MP's3

After what many considered to be a successful first year in office, Prime Minister Jim Prior's decision to call an election roughly three months before the last possible date was partly motivated by the belief the moment was right to take on the Opposition. In this he was certainly proving right, winning a third consecutive victory for the Conservatives amidst another dramatic realignment of British politics.

For the most part, the Conservative campaign was a mostly competent once, capitalizing on the booming economy and Prior's own accomplishments and personality to expand the party's appeal. This, in turn, had a noticeable impact in areas of Scotland, but as it was noted later on - with very few MP's sounding the alarm on time -, the emphasis on a more centrist platform also came to the expense of more traditional voters, many of which saw appeal in Tyndall's National Front. Indeed, Tyndall was a clear and unavoidable presence during the campaign, as his events were often targeted by left-wing activists in the hopes of derailing his efforts. However, it would later be argued - starting on Election Night - such attempts at disruption may have only succeeded in increasing his visibility, and giving him greater exposure.

In contrast, the division of the opposition became evident on the first few weeks of the campaign, as Democratic Labour and Jenkins were ruthlessly targeted by the Liberals, the Ecologists and Labour. Jenkins's inability to break 20% in the past election suggested to many that the other rivals had a serious shot of replacing him as the opposition, a dynamic which prevented the DLP from taking off as the visibility aged Jenkins showed little of the spark he had summoned while in the House of Commons. This, in turn, greatly benefited Grimond and Porritt, even if their actual rise in vote share ended up being more limited than expected. The biggest failure during the campaign was associated to the Labour Party, already weakened by the erosion of its trade union support. Instead of being able to use the campaign to recover lost ground, the party found itself on defence as Hattersley proved unable to make progress, his electoral offer described as unappealing to voters.

Any tension on Election Night ended the moment the exit poll struck, suggesting a Conservative landslide both in the UK proper and in Scotland. Although the Conservative share of the vote did not break 40%, Prior achieved the highest vote share since 1970, and a beyond unassailable majority of 102. Jenkins's Democratic Labour lost almost a quarter of their vote share and were pushed to 15%, the effects of FPTP and Grimond's essential tie in votes ensuring the DLP lost a third of its MP's while the Liberals celebrated their best night since 1923. While the Ecology Party and the SNP celebrated limited gains across the board, it was Tyndall and the National Front who leap into fourth place by gaining increased support in Scotland and in working-class constituencies, once again turning the NF into the strongest far-right party in Western Europe.

However, the worst night would be experienced by the Labour Party. One of the reasons they had retained several dozen MP's in 1980 was due to their concentrated survival in specific regions as their vote share outright disappeared in others, and the loss of roughly half their votes utterly amplified the electoral disaster that was to follow. Hattersley himself held on alongside a handful of MP's, but the stampede - including a near clean wipeout in Scotland - reduced Labour into a position not dissimilar to the Liberals during their darkest moments. Shortly after the results were announced Jenkins and Hattersley resigned as leaders, taking responsibility for their respective setbacks. Laura Grimond also tendered her resignation, confident there would not be another election until 1989-1990.

Hailed as the invincible Conservative champion - a title many wondered for how long it could last -, Jim Prior returned to Downing Street 10 for a second term in office.
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« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2021, 02:42:24 PM »

1985 Leadership Elections:

DLP Leader:
Shirley Williams: 57.1%
Bill Rodgers: 42.9%

Liberal Leader:
Michael Meadowcroft: 51.7%
David Penhaligon: 48.3%

Labour Leader:
Robert Kilroy-Silk: 55.2%
Dennis Skinner: 44.8%

Following the Conservative landslide victory at the 1985 General Election, several major opposition parties underwent leadership elections from August to October, caused by the voluntary departure of Laura Grimond (due to advancing age) and the resignations of Roy Hattersley and Roy Jenkins, both of which had led their respective parties to disappointing - or crushing - results. These contests were generally read as battles on the respective direction of each opposition party, particularly in terms of the voters to be pursued or the alliances to be closed with other groups.

The Democratic Labour race, for example, soon became a double contest regarding the branding of the now consolidated breakaway party, as well as whether to strike an electoral pact with the Liberal Party (the mythical "alliance") in order to maximize potential gains in 1989-1990. The minority position, defended by Bill Rodgers, wanted the DLP to essentially seize the old ground belonging to the Labour Party, refraining from alliances in order to rebrand as "New Labour". In turn, the majority position - which elevated former Home Secretary Shirley Williams to the leadership - stood for an alliance with the Liberals and a consolidation of the social democratic ideology of the DLP, to be rebranded as a "Democratic Party".

However, this auspicious beginning for a potential multi-party was in turn cancelled by the outcome of the closely fought Liberal contest, in which chief Grimondite heir Michael Meadowcroft - who opposed any sort of alliance - defeated a strong minority led by promising frontbencher David Penhaligon, thus ending the prospect of a "Democratic"-Liberal pact. For their part, the rump Labour Party found itself devoid from the most likely candidates due to the collapse of their parliamentary party, resulting in an unexpected contest between the drastically opposite Robert Kilroy-Slik (a unorthodox member of the "right") and Dennis Skinner (another unorthodox member of the "Bennites") which was resolved in Kilroy-Silk's favor.
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« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2021, 03:14:06 PM »

The Hunt (Late 1988)

Upon receiving a dossier from colorful backbench MP Geoffrey Dickens in early August 1988, Home Secretary Sir Ian Gilmour had ordered a minor investigation on potential paedophiles currently in Westminster or in positions of power in order to disprove Dickens's accusations of a large network. Instead, Gilmour had been utterly horrified by the realization that, although such a network did not appear to exist, there were serious allegations, evidence and potential cover-ups surrounding a number of MP's and prominent people in society. Having ruled out an attempt to deal with the matter covertly, Gilmour had subtly gotten the Prime Minister into a secure, isolated location and delivered the necessary information, resulting in Prior's visible outrage. Concurring that any attempt at a cover-up would be disastrous, both men resolved to act.

The first bombshell was delivered next Monday, when Cyril Smith MP was arrested and questioned by police, resulting in an utter media storm and an announcement to the House by the Prime Minister confirming the gravity of the situation. During the next few days at least half a dozen MP's - including Clement Freud MP - were also arrested, and matters grew into an even more frenzied tone once presenter Jimmy Saville and entertainer Gary Glitter were arrested by police in a raid within the BBC. Despite a failed appeal for calm from Prior and Gilmour, the tabloid press immediately seized on the issue as a general sense of panic and outrage spread across the United Kingdom, demanding the immediate and harsh prosecution of anyone involved in child sexual abuse or any other such offenses.

For their part, the government rapidly set up an independent inquiry into the whole affair, which soon grew empowered enough to take decisive - to some people rash - action. As specific arrests continued to take place, the search for possible culprits soon led to calls from the tabloids (led by The Sun and The Daily Mirror for people to come forward, resulting in turn in a large amount of accusations thrown around against prominent public figures. Not only that, but MP's or public figures thought to be homosexual were also outed by the media and falsely associated with what many had started to describe as "The Hunt". Although most of the individuals targeted by the unofficial accusations would be sooner or later exonerated by police, this did not prevent several promising careers to be ruined. Or, in one particularly dramatic case, the separate suicides of an elderly Democratic and a young Conservative MP, both accused - as it turned out, falsely - of being paedophiles simply by virtue of being outed as homosexuals.

As politics and the media became utterly dominated by "The Hunt" during the final months of 1988 - and as Geoffrey Dickens became something of a vindicated folk hero for his furious denunciation of paedophiles -, political parties which were hit by the arrests of MP's were then hit even harder by accusations of cover-ups and questions as to how such individuals could carry on for so long without being caught. Before long, once promising MP's like the Liberal David Steel were also ruined by the implication they had turned a blind eye, further enhancing the sense of chaos. This later phase would end up delivering a crippling blow to the Prime Minister once Peter Morrison MP, the Employment Secretary, was arrested and questioned by police.

The combination of a prominent colleague being arrested, and the fact that Prior had been Home Secretary for four years, led to suggestions - and even harsh accusations - of complicity in spite of the government's harsh response. By the end of 1988, the Prime Minister's position was close to untenable within a chaotic Parliament, with a frenzied media and an utterly outraged nation.
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« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2021, 05:48:29 PM »

The Prior II Ministry
1985-1989
Conservative Majority

Prime Minister: Jim Prior
Deputy Prime Minister: Francis Pym, then Vacant
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Peter Walker
Foreign Secretary: Sir Geoffrey Howe
Home Secretary: Sir Ian Gilmour

Prior battles Northern Irish violence and an economic slowdown,
is brought down by the trauma of "The Hunt"

Greatly empowered following his historic electoral achievement, Jim Prior returned to office confident that his honeymoon with the electorate would live on, and that the worst troubles of the challenging 1984-1985 period were over. To his immense disappointment, it was not to be.

Thankfully, the expansion of the Conservative majority consolidated Prior's hold over the parliamentary party, with the DuCann-Joseph backbench squad losing power and ultimately becoming irrelevant as a serious threat. Indeed, many commentators expressed their surprise at how the party avoided damaging internal disputes even as a number of issues became the source of serious headaches for the government, a factor which allowed the Prime Minister to seem safe on his position until almost the last moment. Conversely, the Opposition was to be a more problematic foe than before, as even though a Liberal-Democratic pact was scuttled, cooperation between most parties - excluding the National Front, whose fiery rhetoric remained a thorn on Prior's side - even allowing by-election coordination and a number of tactical victories. To his frustration, Prior would also be regularly bested (and at times humiliated) by Shirley Williams at PMQ's.

The honeymoon with the electorate, seemingly present for most of 1985 and 1986, began to end with the evident signs of an economic slump in early 1987, the booming Keynesian machine losing steam on account of decreasing competitiveness by the oil industry, a renewed rise on unemployment, and a steady  loss of the innovative edge brought before by Walker. Indeed, though the UK avoided a recession in 1987-1988, the economy seemed on the decline. Conversely, Prior expanded on earlier foreign policy accomplishments to finally dispel the unsuccessful record of the Heath years, maintaining a positive working relationship with the EEC, achieving limited consensus with General Secretary Gorbachev (to the point in which it was joked Prior enjoyed Gorbachev's company far more than he did Rumsfeld's), and averting a standoff over the Falkland islands in the dying days of the Argentinian dictatorship.

However, it was domestic politics - both in terms of reforms and internal security - which sapped the strength of the government, pushing the UK into a very dangerous situations. On one side, Prior's continued overtures to the unions failed to make the necessary headway as the new Work Councils proved hostile to the government, and a series of domestic reforms faced intense opposition by the Labour-led Greater London Council, and by the incoming Scottish government following the defeat of Tory First Secretary Alick Buchanan-Smith in 1986. Crucially, the Northern Irish situation exploded once renewed attempts at a negotiated deal collapse, the government's position angering both Unionists and Nationalists. As the IRA stepped up a massive campaign of violence - resulting in dozens of deaths in attacks - extremist Unionist militias responded in kind, resulting a vicious level of conflict not seen since the mid 70's, and against which Prior's government looked helpless and ineffective.

By early 1988 the government was showing clear signs of erosion even if internal discipline held firm, with Prior's public image having suffered in the process (indeed, Spitting Image gradually altered its depiction of Prior from a clever manipulator into a schemer who was way in over his head). It was in that context that Home Secretary Gilmour revealed to the Prime Minister the horrifying extend of instances of abuse in media and Parliament, resulting in the subsequent media frenzy and the infamous "Hunt" led by the British tabloid press. Despite an initially strong - and reasonably popular - stand, Prior's authority was essentially destroyed when a Cabinet minister was arrested on suspicions on abuse, the nation's moral outrage turning on Prior over varying perceptions of incompetence. Following the catastrophic collapse of the Conservative vote in a number of by-elections held to replace arrested MP's, the "men in grey suits" visited Downing Street 10 and informed Prior his term in office was over.

Forced to choose between battling a leadership challenge that would destroy the remnants of his authority, or to leave with some semblance of dignity. Prior bitterly chose the latter. Having once been the invincible heir to Edward Heath, Jim Prior had lasted only five years as Prime Minister.
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« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2021, 06:04:15 PM »

1989 Conservative Leadership Election:

Leader, First Ballot:
Geoffrey Dickens: 123
Nicholas Scott: 93
John Moore: 62
Peter Walker: 46
Brian Mawhinney: 46

Leader, Final Ballot:
Geoffrey Dickens: 207
Nicholas Scott: 163

Held in the aftermath of Jim Prior's forced resignation, and amidst the seeming collapse of the Conservative Party's authority and poll ratings, MP's were forced into an unexpected contest to find a successful and what would essentially be a "crisis Prime Minister". Thus, a contest which was originally predicted to be yet another predictable "Heathism v. Monetarism" showdown went into an altogether different situation, particularly after a large number of potential candidates were unable to stand. Although many expected the senior members of the Cabinet (the "big beasts") to take part in the contest, backlash associated with the arrest of Peter Morrison, the perceived fatigue associated with "Priorism", and age concerns all ruled out challengers such as Pym, Howe and Gilmour.

Thus, it was left to a newer generation of Conservative MP's - for the most part - to run for the leadership, the field extending to five candidates. Initially hopeful of becoming the main Priorite challenger, Chancellor Peter Walker saw the end of his leadership ambitions after another poor showing, and the somewhat more conservative Brian Mawhinney and John Moore were left behind despite being perceived as having run reasonably effective campaigns (particularly in the latter's case). Thus, Social Security Secretary Nicholas Scott became the default candidate for the left of the party in spite of his unusually liberal views, advocating for a more consensual approach to repair the damage caused by "The Hunt". Unexpectedly, the mainstream Monetarists failed to provide a sufficiently strong challenger - with Mawhinney coming last -, resulting in an unexpected and unorthodox alternative.

Despite not being taken seriously by many of his colleagues, Geoffrey Dickens had risen to instant popularity and visibility on account of his efforts to uncover the sexual abuse scandal, leading the charge in hounding several public figures and calling for extreme measures to combat issues such as paedophilia. This was shown to poll remarkably well at the time - even if some warned this was no guarantee of actual success -, and Dickens put together a competent campaign which minimized his usual behavior to project both strength and a populist programme for 10 Downing Street. In a campaign which strongly mirrored Tony Benn's unexpected takeover of the Labour Party back in 1975, Dickens gathered desperate backbenchers to lead the first ballot, and then to defeat Scott by exploiting his socially liberal convictions at the time which appeared to demand more conservative instincts.

To the shock of most of the Heathite and Priorite old guard, 24 years of intra-party domination ended with Dickens becoming Britain's new Prime Minister.
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« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2021, 04:32:15 AM »



Labour Leader:
Robert Kilroy-Silk: 55.2%
Dennis Skinner: 44.8%



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