Talk:Mosley's Britain

From Alternative History

How does the BUF win an election in 1935? In OTL, it didn't even win any seats in Parliament. IMO, this timeline would need a sweeping POD for a BUF victory in 1935 - at the least, probably something which causes the collapse of the Conservative Party as well as the Liberals during the 1920s. But even then I can't see the BUF being elected to government unless Britain is a radically different society - they'd need to nip in the back door, like the Nazis did. If Britain had been on the losing side in WWI, then I can imagine fascism would have taken root (though probably not as the BUF and probably not under Mosley). Well, perhaps there's a simpler way the BUF can come to goverment in 1935, and Mosley can be PM: The POD would need to give us a more successful Conservative Party, one that is in power when the Depression hits - perhaps the Liberals don't cause the fall of Labour in 1924, and Macdonald is in power for five years in the mid-20s, then the Tories are returned with a majority in 1929.

So, come 1931, Baldwin's government tries to deal with the financial crisis by imposing a raft of cuts to welfare and public spending, combined with tax rises, import tariffs and labour camps to deal with the unemployed (basically, what the National Government did, but much harsher and without the cover of it being a broad coalition). This leads to a second, and much keener General Strike in 1931 (around the time of the Invergordon Mutiny in OTL, and including widespread strikes in the Navy and Army as pay is slashed). Various political groups march in protest at the government's measures. Communist activity is rife, at least according to the Times, and the establishment starts looking for someone to save it from the red hordes. Conservative-minded citizens gravitate towards Oswald Mosley's New Party and there are violent street battles in most major cities. Despite misgivings, George V agrees to Baldwin's request for an election at the start of 1932.

The election sees the Tories wiped out and a clear majority for Labour (while the New Party wins its first seats in Parliament). With the ruling class viewing this as tantamount to a Bolshevik takeover, the King panics. He rebuffs Baldwin's suggestion that he call Macdonald and prorogues Parliament before it can meet, appointing the aged Lord Salisbury as PM. Salisbury appoints Winston Chuchill as Home Secretary; Churchill turns the troops out against the strikers and marchers, and provides machine guns to willing loyalist militias (not entirely un-related to the New Party). The rampant bloodshed ends the strikes and removes the protestors from the streets, but proves embarrassing internationally and uncomfortable at home - even at this time of crisis, the middle classes have no stomach for massacring the lower orders.

Events are spiralling towards a civil war as rumours abound of secret Soviet arms shipments to the re-grouping radicals, while the King and the government are universally unpopular. Salisbury resigns in the autumn of 1932 and the King replaces him with Lord Londonderry, a younger and more convivial peer who had been a moderately worker-friendly industrialist during the General Strike in 1926 (and was also a noted Nazi sympathiser in the mid- and late-1930s in OTL). By early 1933, Parliament has not sat for a year, and the goverment is running out of money and looking increasingly tyrannical. A highly dodgy general election is held, with the Communist Party banned and fascist gangs staking out polling stations and intimidating voters. The Tories are resurgent under Londonderry, but fail to win a majority, as does the reduced Labour Party. The New Party, now renamed the British Union of Fascists, makes significant gains, replacing the Liberals as the third force in Parliament.

Londonderry is forced to form a coalition with the BUF and a bit of the Liberal rump (Liberals Nationalists under Charles Kerr, another Nazi sympathiser in OTL) to approve a new budget and pass legislation. Mosley enter the government as Minister of Labour, with other BUF leaders also getting the Ministries of Health and Education. In 1934, Mosley threatens Londonderry with the threat of the BUF siding with the Labour Party in a Motion of No Confidence, and gains the Home Office as well. He uses these prominent posts to raise his own profile and that of the BUF, whilst starting to install fascists or sympathisers into key posts in the police, local labour councils and education and health authorities, and the security service (which already has a number of sympathisers in prominent positions). Londonderry's government staggers on until 1935, when the BUF resigns and forces another election, even dodgier than 1933.

The BUF comes second and beats the Tories into third place, but still no party has a clear majority. Mosley convinces the House of Lords and the ailing George V to expel the Labour Party from Parliament, lest it's able to form a government with the non-National Liberals and moderate Tory MPs; this gives the BUF a majority in the Commons, and Mosley replaces Londonderry as PM. -- Gregg 19:02, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adoption

I'm adopting this article if you wish. Buk5 16:52, 23 June 2008 (UTC)