Burn It All Down – Britain, 1982-84

[James G]

The name of ‘Awkward Squad’ has been given to a grouping of several dozen Conservative MPs who sit together on the government backbenches in the House of Commons around Thatcher. From their ranks has come criticism of Tebbit’s leadership since his appointment last May. While this often comes in direct form within the House, in many cases it is done behind the scenes too. They are a busy bunch when working the lobby rooms and being active in the media. Repeatedly, Tebbit has tried to bring Thatcher and her supporters on side. There is so much to which they agree upon policy-wise. While a few MPs have come over to the government’s side, the majority have not. These are Thatcher loyalists who will not give unconditional support to the government because they believe she was right and Tebbit has betrayed her legacy in what he has done with the country. Inspired by her, they blame the economic disaster which is the national economy, and thus all the resulting problems from that, on Tebbit failing to follow Thatcher’s economic direction. He will not budge on that – the appointment of Lawson to replace Howe has been dismissed as a stunt – and so they will continue to be at odds with the government. Among the Awkward Squad is Nicholas Ridley. A junior minister under Thatcher at first the Foreign Office and then the Treasury, Ridley was a rising star before choosing to cut short his government career and join with self-described exiles on the backbenches when Tebbit took over in Downing Street. Several articles for media publications have been written by Ridley criticising the government’s direction and these have made an impact. Other Conservatives who don’t necessarily agree with the Awkward Squad on all that it stands for have conceded that Ridley’s remarks on particular points have been apt. Between the incident at the Maze prison and the Americans invading Grenada, The Daily Telegraph prints one of Ridley’s pieces on its letters page. This isn’t an attack on government policy but concerning something else.

In that letter, Ridley talks of ‘the enemy within’. The nation is under attack by problems caused from those who seek to tear it apart. Supported by foreign interests whether they are aware of that or not, Ridley argues that there is a fifth column at work within Britain. These people are against all that decent people hold in esteem, these being the pillars upon which the nation is founded upon: parliamentary democracy, law & order and freedom. Ridley points to the presence among rioters within the inner cities of outside troublemakers who attack and murder the police. He highlights the infiltration of political parties and the attempts at subversion of the democratic process by radicals hell-bent on bringing everything down. Ridley pinpoints a recent example of the enemy within. His letter in The Daily Telegraph runs a few days after violence erupted in London during an otherwise peaceful protest by the CND. They had a large gathering of supporters, hundreds of thousands of them, maybe half a million, in the middle of the capital yet on the fringes there were outbreaks of violence. Police officers on public order tasks – not deployed to meet trouble – were attacked and passerbys molested when violent disorder moved to Park Lane outside of Hyde Park. Windows were smashed, cars set on fire and expensive premises looted. These people attached themselves to the CND event and caused much trouble. Ridley states that they had little interest in the cause which the peaceful protesters were marching for but instead were present just to make trouble. These people are the enemy and they have been hiding within.

Two weeks later, there is another CND march. This one is outside of London and instead in the Berkshire town of Newbury. CND has hastily put together a gathering of supporters to protest against the imminent arrival of the first deployment of Cruise to Britain starting at RAF Greenham Common. A leak from out of Whitehall concerning their incoming arrival on flights from the United States has seen the CND organisation’s leadership act fast to put together a big presence. They aren’t expected the same numbers as their recent event in London achieved, nothing like them in fact, but there is still a desire to make the biggest effort possible. Leadership of CND is split between Bruce Kent and Joan Ruddock. The former is a priest who has been prominent at the forefront of CND for some time now as has the position of General Secretary; the latter is a young progressive (some say communist) activist holding the post of Chairwoman. That Second Wave that the CND is having in terms of support has taken place with Ruddock in the more powerful position of Chair. It has come with much what Kent believes is entryism into the movement though from outsiders (as highlighted by that Ridley piece) who don’t share the long-established values that he champions. Ruddock’s argument is that the CND has always had subsets – Christian CND, Labour CND, Scottish CND etc. – and different views within the organisation are welcome: theirs is a democratic movement. It is those newcomers to CND who turn out too on the marches with ever-growing numbers. Entryism in an organised manner to subvert CND for other political ends is denied by Ruddock and she welcomes all those supporters. Despite this disagreement between the top two figures, they’ve worked together to make the Newbury event as big as it can be. A ‘welcome’ will be given to those missiles that Reagan has sent to Britain and Tebbit has allowed to come. The deployment is a threat to the world and the CND will show just how many Britons oppose them.

The CND event is held on Saturday the 12th of November with marchers gathering inside Newbury. The plan is for them to go down the road to Greenham Common to where the women’s peace camp is. No intent is there present to enter the airbase or do anything illegal but make a peaceful protest as per their legal right to do so. Trains on the Great Western Railway out of London Paddington are full and there are many cars on the M-4 motorway coming from the east & west. More participants than anyone expected head to Newbury on a day with fine weather (for this time of year anyway) to join in opposition to what many regard as America taking the world on a course towards nuclear war by bringing Cruise here.


In the middle of November 1983, Tebbit is involved in the Able Archer 83 NATO war games. Only in later years will the significance of the overreaction to Able Archer 83 become apparent when it comes to the participation of leaders such as himself in mock nuclear war preparations: no one is aware at the time of the paranoia in Moscow. Busy with that duty, Tebbit is made aware late in the week concerning the CND march towards Greenham Common. Briefed on the matter from Whitelaw, Tebbit is concerned – as his Home Secretary is too – that the event will be the scene of significant unrest. What has recently been seen on Park Lane isn’t wanted to be repeated out in Berkshire. The Prime Minister instructs Whitelaw to make sure that there is a strong police presence in the Newbury area to avoid that. The rule of law must be upheld! He leaves the details up to Whitelaw and returns to playing his role in that exercise. Despite the recent fall-out with the Americans over Grenada, Tebbit remains committed to the NATO alliance and showing allies that Britain retains her position as a global power is on his mind. Whitelaw is sure to be able to handle things. The Home Secretary follows his instructions and makes sure that the CND march will be policed better than the Hyde Park one was. Police forces from across the country are ordered to aid Thames Valley Police as per standing national arrangements. This has been done before in relation to industrial disputes with strikers on pickets and inner-city violence. The police are better equipped to deal with violence than they have previously been too with riot shields and updated tactics. Selective Parliamentary criticism has come where it is said that there has been a ‘militarisation’ of the police yet the ability to counter unrest has continued unabated in spite of that.

A perfect storm comes about on November 12th leading to what is afterwards deemed ‘the Battle of Greenham Common’.

The vast majority of those who gather in Newbury and march up towards the airbase where the Americans are deploying Cruise for the first time are ordinary, peaceful civilians. There are men, women and children present with march stewards deployed by CND to keep order. CND can’t control all those who have made the journey out to Berkshire though. The Enemy Within, as Ridley calls them, turn out in number. They cause disruption inside Newbury and during the walk up to Greenham Common. Arrests are made against those throwing stones and attacking property yet many more of the troublemakers disperse back into the cover of the crowds. There are close to two hundred thousand in Berkshire today, once again far more than anyone expected to be here. The afternoon goes on and there is more of that trouble as the march reaches the edge of Greenham Common. Inside the facility, there are both American and British military forces though none of them are involved in what happens next. The throwing of projectiles and physical assaults upon police officers starts again. A lot of people are involved in this with a large group of those throwing glass bottles and stones in one place. When fireworks are also used as weapons, the order to put an end to this comes. Mounted police officers are sent towards them to bring this coordinated attack to an end. Police horses charge forward. Those they seek to break up flee though with many of them immediately running towards groups of marchers not involved in this. This happens every quickly and, in the confusion, abetted by a firework exploding among them to cause panic, many of those police horses end up among the innocents. Several people are trampled underfoot below the mounted police. In another section of the mass crowds, that police charge is seen by those watching as an unwarranted attack and a reaction is made. Projectiles are sent towards the police lines again and this time riot police move forward. Other people try to get out of the way as the police come forward yet are unable to. Police batons strike those who it appears in the confusion are deliberately standing in the way after being instructed to disperse. As before, innocents are caught up in this rather than those the police are trying to go after. They will be the casualties of the Battle of Greenham Common.

News crews and reporters are covering the CND march on Greenham Common. There is camera footage from here, photographs and witness reports which will fill the media for many days afterwards. The official position of Thames Valley Police, which is put out in a statement, and one supported by Tebbit’s government, is that the police were attacked during disorder and reacted accordingly. It is initially said that those severely injured were all rioters. It is fast understood that most of those hurt weren’t criminals. Moreover, both of the two people who will later die in hospital can’t be said to be rioters either. A young mother and her four year-old son were both trampled by a police horse and they die from their injuries. Newspapers ask whether they were rioters? Downing Street will afterwards complain that several news organisations manipulated the reporting of the situation, with video footage especially, to tell a false story. This isn’t something that most people want to believe. To them, it is clear that this was a police riot! Ruddock calls it this in a public statement and her remarks are repeated elsewhere. Even Kent, who is still very uneasy at the type of people who turned out in Berkshire, cannot contradict that assessment. Another attendee who will make serious criticism of the police actions is the Leader of the Opposition. Michael Foot’s Labour Party is beset by many problems going into an election six months away. He is also a long-standing CND member too and had an alarming encounter with one of those police horses which ended up inside the crowd. Foot tears into the government days later in the House though without using such inflammatory language as Ruddock does.

There is nationwide outrage across the country in the aftermath, especially once that mother and her child are reported dead. Plenty of Britons believe that the police are out of control. Even those who support the cracking down on disorder, and there are many Britons who have disgust at what has been seen over the past few years, cannot defend the deaths of those clear innocents. This is just not right, this isn’t the Britain which they recognise. Anger will fade over time among many yet the Battle of Greenham Common is recognised as a defining moment (a negative one) of Tebbit’s premiership.

[dunois]

Good timeline so far, The SDP/Liberal Alliance must be polling into the high 30s by now. Which likely means a hung parliament in 1984 ...

[James G]

Jul 28, 2020 21:37:49 GMT dunois said:

Good timeline so far, The SDP/Liberal Alliance must be polling into the high 30s by now. Which likely means a hung parliament in 1984 ...

Thank you. Something very different from what I usually write and what I've long wanted to give a shot at creating.
They are polling high. Getting enough votes where it matters is the key though. OTL 1983 was abysmal for the SDP due to that failure. A hung Parliament looks likely at the moment here, a recipe ripe for chaos.

[James G]

Part Five – To The Polls


The government’s term of office ends in May 1984. A general election must be held when that mandate for government runs out. The country will go to the polls to either keep the current government in office or see it replaced with another one. Campaign preparations have been going on for some time though neither of the two main parties vying for office are in a brilliant state as the election approaches.

Foot’s position at the head of Labour has been beset by problems since he won the leadership back in 1980. A staunch left-winger, the aged Foot isn’t one for confrontation. His party is full of that internally though as battles have raged between the centralists and those on the left like he is… and then those even further to the left such as Benn and then the Militant people. The following year witnessed a breakaway party forming from several centralists: the Social Democratic Party (SDP). A couple of dozen MPs departed and the shiny new SDP won media support. Foot has held on in the face of infighting and accusations of entryism made into Labour by the far left in the form of Militant but also Socialist Workers Party activists. Figures such as Benn hold much sway over the heart of the party despite not being in the Shadow Cabinet. Thatcher’s fall gave Labour a boost yet not one which has held strong. Internal and external criticism of his leadership has come aplenty. In March last year, the Bermondsey by-election was lost to the Liberals as a result of the state of affairs which the party is in: to see that seat long considered to be entirely ‘safe’ then lost was a bitter pill for Foot to swallow. There was a backlash there against the turn which the party has taken with those from the far left gaining such an influence. Foot’s detractors say that Labour should be riding high in the opinion polls and getting ready for government but, instead, many voters are turned off by Labour policies adopted due to the power that the far left has within the party. Foot has been trying to keep it all together and present Labour as a party of government.

The Battle of Greenham Common causes quite the strong reaction with regard to Labour’s fortunes. Foot’s presence there that day witnesses what he sees as an attack made on CND supporters by Tebbit’s government. His continued criticisms of the police’s actions and his blaming of that on the Home Secretary win him praise… rumours which make it to the newspapers say that his post-Greenham performances made sure that no one mounted a challenge to his leadership as it had been mooted there might have been. He has found himself a cause which many people support: that the government is unfit for office. Holding onto this support is difficult though when the newspapers are full of the activities of troublemakers within the party. There is also the manifesto which Foot will be taking the party into the upcoming general election on the back of. This is not one which he and the leadership have written. The party conference held at Brighton last October saw the adoption into the manifesto – named ‘A New Hope for a New Britain’ – where all motions arrived at during conference voting, no matter what, have formed that manifesto. Foot sees this as internal party democracy. He has committed himself to it though and Labour will fight the election on the back of it. So much of it has been written by the Militant-infiltrated Labour Party Young Socialists and will turn off many potential voters but that manifesto is what Labour will go to the polls behind.

Louder talk has come in recent months within the Conservatives of a possible leadership challenge to Tebbit from his own MPs. No one has made such a move but there have been those rumours that it was considered. Tebbit has stayed where he is though despite events in Berkshire, the economy and all the other problems which the nation is enduring under his premiership. The Conservatives are just as disunified as Labour, yet in their own ways. Staying in power keeps a lid on many of the divisions breaking out into the open. However, there have been arguments that have made it into the newspapers and onto the airwaves though. Opponents of Tebbit’s leadership on the right – those around Thatcher – and his critics of a centralist persuasion too have not always remained silent. They point to the failings of his government by not righting the wrong which is the loss of the Falklands. The dire state of the nation’s finances is another matter along with all of those millions out of work. Much more should be made of Labour’s woes too! As the election approaches, this calms down somewhat. The thought of being out of power and seeing their country led by the socialists, even communists, who are running rings around Foot is more of a concern. The manifesto which the Conservatives will fight the election on is put together and it has a lot of support.

Election strategy is formed by Conservative Central Office are there is planning done as to how to defend where there needs to be defence and where to go on the offensive to win seats in favourable constituencies. The SDP are gaining ground in traditional Conservative seats – the defences will be here – and there are likewise good signs that many Labour seats can be turned blue with the right effort made to go after them. The Conservatives aim to not just keep the majority that Thatcher won for them in the 1979 election but to increase that. Talk is present that an economic turn-around is coming soon with internal messaging being that this should be talked up in the months and then weeks leading up to the election. While outsiders regard the economy as a Conservative weakness, Central Office sees it as something that the party can win the election on as long as the game is played right. Law and order are another strong point with regard to messaging. The hope is that public disgust over Greenham Common will fade and the blame will be put on left-wing troublemakers: those whom the Conservatives can tie to a sign of what will come if the voters should choose Foot over Tebbit. A key message for the election will be ‘look at how terrible Labour is’, something that not everyone agrees with but those who do voice that concern, do not have the numbers nor influence to rid so much of the election strategy from.


Labour and the Conservatives aren’t the only two political parties in Britain. Only one of them has a shot at forming a government yet smaller parties head into the 1984 general election knowing that they will have a role to play in what comes after the nation has gone to the polls.

The Liberals and the SDP have agreed to form an electoral pact: the Alliance. In by-elections such as Bermondsey, the SDP have stood aside while elsewhere the Liberals have. For the general election, the two parties have agreed to maintain their separate identities but not run against each other following still ongoing consultation on which constituencies each has a better shot at winning. The thinking behind their pact is to maximise the chances at gaining seats. In addition, should a hung Parliament occur where neither Labour nor the Conservatives gain a majority, then they will have influence in that as well. David Steel leads the Liberals while the SDP is headed by Roy Jenkins. Steel’s Liberals supported Labour under Jim Callaghan before Thatcher won Downing Street. His party is an old one, which a few decades ago would alternate with the Conservatives in forming governments before Labour came along. The Liberals stand for old-fashion liberalism and argue that they represent the sensible middle-ground of British politics. Steel’s pact with the SDP initially met criticism within his party but it has borne fruit and looks likely to continue to do so come this May. Jenkins is one of the ‘gang of four’ who left Labour three years ago. A few of his MPs have won by-elections (as he has done) but the majority are defectors from Labour – and a lone Conservative too, who defected back in 1981 – who departed their former party aghast at the hard left political direction that party has taken. The SDP is inspired by how social democratic parties on the Continent function. Centralism, grown-up politics is how Jenkins wishes for Britain to have with the SDP at the very heart of that. His MPs aren’t always with him on every decision though, especially his deputy David Owen. Support for Tebbit taking on the trade unions has come from SDP MPs when the official party position has been to oppose that. The idea of the Alliance isn’t seen as the best solution too. The majority of those MPs who defected from Labour are going to stand again in the same constituencies in the upcoming election with internal party fears being that many of them might lose. Better reports are coming from elsewhere, in traditional Conservative seats, that candidates in them for the SDP have much promise. On-the-ground activists and party members are more for Owen than Jenkins. So much of this is patched over as the election approaches though. The SDP aims to use the benefits of the Alliance to win big in May. Polling suggests huge support which, while unfortunately spread out rather than concentrated in key areas, is only good news for the SDP.

Nationalists in Scotland and Wales are preparing for the election. The SNP and Plaid Cymru have representation in Parliament already and hope to build on that if they can. Difficulties are many for them though and any seat increases look marginal. Public mood in their home countries isn’t for either of them to win any more than a token number of seats. Things are different in Ulster with the mainland parties not contesting seats in Northern Ireland. The biggest party is the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and when, like the Liberals, they gave support to Callaghan’s Labour in the late-Seventies, of the many concession wrung out were for there to be an increase in seats inside Ulster. For this general election, rather than twelve, there will be elections for seventeen seats. The UUP are intending to take all of those new ones alongside the many they hold. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as well as other smaller unionist ones, will challenge them on the Protestant side of Ulster’s sectarian divide for them though. There are two large nationalist parties in Ulster: the Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP: which has an unofficial alliance with Labour on the mainland) and Sinn Fein. The increase in seats is one factor behind each of them aiming to make gains in the election while another is what is being portrayed as ‘Tebbit’s war on Catholics’. The latter party are behind this propaganda campaign yet the SDLP don’t have their hands clean with regards to the message being put out that from London there is not just a conflict against the IRA / INLA by the government but support for Loyalist terror groups too. All six of these parties contesting seats outside of England head towards the election looking for what victories they can win in these troubling times.

[James G]

Early in 1984, Argentina is back at war again. An attack is made against Chile with Marshal Galtieri sending Argentine military forces into action at the very bottom of the South American continent. It is an unprovoked strike, one which takes Chile by complete surprise. A long-standing dispute over islands at the entrance to the Beagle Channel – a sheltered passage for shipping linking the Atlantic to the Pacific – is supposed to have been settled some time ago. Mass demonstrations within Argentina against Galtieri and the continuing rule of his oppressive junta call for another ‘successful’ foreign adventure though. Chile is an enemy for seemingly all Argentinians and Galtieri believes this will unite his countrymen against them rather than towards him. It worked before… yet not this time. The Argentine people don’t do as expected and the Chileans will not cooperate either with the plans of Galtieri. Fighting back, Chilean air & naval forces inflict defeat after defeat upon the Argentines as well as supporting a ground attack into the Argentine half of Tierra del Fuego. The airbase at Rio Grande from where those Super Étendards carrying Exocets flew back in May 1982 is taken by the Chileans. A long, full-scale war between the two countries looks likely to occur. Chile has the upper hand but it might not always stay that way with Argentina getting ready to make a cross-border move at several points through the Andes to march on Santiago. Protests against Galtieri grow and the defeat inflicted in Tierra del Fuego becomes known about among most Argentines. The junta totters on the brink of collapse. Foreign interference comes too. The Americans work with other South American nations to try to bring an end to the fighting and Chile is keen to see this happen. They have defended their own territory – those small islands below Tierra del Fuego, plus Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams elsewhere – and now hold Argentine soil: to see an end to the fighting will mean that they will emerge the winners. The United States is rebuffed by Galtieri but not by other generals: everyone agrees that if Galtieri go, that doesn’t mean that the left-wing opposition has to take power. Deposed in a palace coup, the First Marshal of the Empire is out of office and sent into enforced retirement. The Chileans, eager to end this, especially following an air raid on Santiago during the time Galtieri is near to bring brought down which causes many deaths, agree to take part in an American-arranged ceasefire following Argentine accession too.

That fighting goes on for five weeks between February and March. During that time, Britons take notice. Calls are made for the country to get involved in the conflict and to side with Chile so that the Falklands can be liberated from their long occupation at the hands of the Argentines. Nearly a third of the pre-war population has left the islands, to be replaced by ‘settlers’ including a huge garrison, but there remain Britons there and Argentina is on the backfoot under Chilean military attacks. Tebbit’s Cabinet discusses it. There has been military spending since the Falklands and proposals are made to see if a second Task Force can be put together. Two aircraft carriers are in Royal Navy service with upgraded Sea Harriers as well as a helicopter-based AWACS system; there has also been much work done with ship-based missile defences. Yet, Argentina has re-armed as well once sanctions ended. A real fight would be on the cards. The Americans put an end to such ideas. They throw everything at ending the Argentine-Chilean conflict and Foreign Secretary Joseph, who has already met with General Pinochet in secret to open talks on possible cooperation, is told in no uncertain terms that the United States will not support any British attack against the Malvinas. This humiliation is in some ways rendered moot by the end of the fighting but by then there has been a lot of talk in Britain about doing this. The government is criticised on one hand for ‘missing a chance’ (there wasn’t much of one to be honest) and also for preparing to reignite a conflict that could have seen hundreds more British deaths once again.

The same day that that conflict ends, there is a double murder in Cheshire. Two police officers on patrol are shot at close range outside the usually quiet town of Macclesfield. They are discovered in the early hours by a local woman out walking her dog who stumbles upon this unsettling scene. Cheshire Constabulary can find no motive for their murder nor have any suspects. They follow every fleeting lead yet come up empty every time. Many theories are floated around from the officers stumbling upon their killer or killers about to commit a crime to a targeted attack made by someone whom either of them might have arrested in the past. It is admitted that they might have just been unlucky though, that someone was out to kill policemen and these two were in the wrong place at the wrong time. A pistol is discovered a week later in a roadside ditch several miles off. Forensic tests show that it is the weapon which was used to commit the murder but there are no fingerprints to use. This weapon was reported stolen in a robbery from a home in Warrington (a local man has a license for it) in February but that is where the trail goes cold. That theory of a targeted yet still random attack is one which Cheshire Constabulary stick with. They do believe that someone murdered their policemen just because of the job which they did and the uniform which they wore. There is believed to be unknown person, or persons maybe, still wandering around with an intent to kill uniformed public servants with ultimate motives behind that yet to be understood but with the fear that this isn’t criminal but instead, it is about politics. On March 21st, an explosion goes off late in the day at a military base in Herefordshire. Bradbury Lines, outside Hereford and home to the SAS, is attacked by the INLA using a ‘proxy bomb’. A civilian security guard employed by the MOD leaves home that evening to go into work with masked, armed men back at his property pointing guns at his wife and son. There is an explosive device hidden within his car and he is told to drive it into work or his family will be killed. When the explosion occurs, it is only a partial detonation: faulty wiring saves the security guard’s life and those of personnel at Bradbury Lines. When police officers arrive at his home after being told by the distraught security guard of his fears for his family, they are found tied up but alive. While those missing hostage-takers and would-be bombers were disguised and have gone, the wife tells the police, and later MI-5 investigators as well, that she is certain that one of them, and maybe a second, weren’t Irish. The others were, but there were people in her house putting on a fake accent: they sounded Northern to her and she’s certain they were young English people in her home threatening to murder her fourteen year-old son.

The INLA and Red Action have just committed their second ‘joint action’ in three weeks.


On April 6th, Parliament is formally dissolved ahead of the election four weeks away. This marks a start to official campaigning though that has been taking place unofficially for some time now. The very next day, on a rainy Saturday in Central London, a huge gathering of people assembles. With the support of Livingstone’s GLC to allow for it to happen with necessary permission, the People’s March For Jobs takes place. Hundreds of thousands of attendees participate in several coordinated marches through the middle of the city leading to a final gathering at Trafalgar Square. They are demanding jobs for them and others. Banners carried by participants call for action on other matters such as a cessation of the deployment of Cruise into Britain, withdrawal of troops from Northern Ireland and an end to inequality & injustice. When the marches have brought everyone together, speeches are made by various leading figures to restate these aims.

Those behind the organisation of this event belong to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). While the SWP stand candidates for elections, they are not a Parliamentary force. Instead, this is a protest movement and one which is often able to successfully put together ‘fronts’: temporary alliances of political interests standing under a banner of unity. The People’s March For Jobs is something long in the making. The small but active SWP have been helping to bring people out for last year’s CND events and they have also organised other events too. This is their biggest success yet. A steering committee, made up for all sorts of political figures, is the official behind-the-scenes set up for this front yet the SWP have their people where they need to be to control it. Deals have been struck between what would normally be political foes – the SWP isn’t especially close to Livingstone; he prefers the tiny yet loud WRP – to make all of this work: the GLC’s leader will be one of the speakers where Livingstone will demand that the GLC not be abolished as the Conservative’s manifesto calls for. The interests of the SWP are served by the People’s March For Jobs. They have volunteers on-hand to hand out banners and provide stewards to keep the marches following the agreed route. A huge showing of opposition from the ordinary people towards the government is the goal for the SWP with this event and they believe they have that with the weight of numbers. Throughout the day, the numbers of marchers continue to grow. The number of attendees easily passes half a million with all sorts of people, from varied backgrounds and from across the country, having travelled to London today to take part in this peaceful protest. However, it will be another mass gathering of opposition to the government marred by violence.

Late in the day, towards the end of those impassioned speeches undertaken by keynote speakers, there is trouble just away from Trafalgar Square. Over on Haymarket – along the route for one of the marches between Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square – riot police serving with the Met.’s Special Patrol Group are sent in to stop criminal damage being done to commercial properties there by troublemakers who have attached themselves to the protest. Special Patrol Group detachments were in Newbury last November when Thames Valley Police was supported by the Metropolitan Police and it was they who were at the forefront of that so-called ‘police riot’ there. Supported by mounted officers on horseback, riot police engage those committing violent actions. A series of shots ring out. Two officers and a horse are hit. Panic ensures as people flee in several directions and there are casualties caused by a stampede. Camera footage is plentiful of this. As to those shot, one of the policemen dies and the other will be in hospital for some time; that police horse will need to be euthanised too. No one knows who is responsible for this with the gunman, or gunmen maybe, being unidentified. Overspill towards Trafalgar Square from the Haymarket shootings occurs with people fleeing in that direction and riot police following. Actions undertaken by Special Patrol Group officers using their batons against protesters is caught on camera down Pall Mall and through to Charing Cross. More police officers then disperse large sections of the gathered crowd. There are injuries but thankfully no more deaths. Still, many observers will regard this as yet another unwarranted attack on innocents by the police, at government direction, to silence their demands.

[James G]

As polling day moves closer throughout April, disputes between the political parties vying for office take place. While campaigning for their own election, politicians and their parties attack others as well. The Labour Party is behind a story run on the front pages of The Daily Mirror (a Labour supporting newspaper) where there are claims that a ‘private army’ has been formed with the name of GB84. Allegedly, GB84 has the backing of the government and the security services with plans to commit ‘extra-Parliamentary acts of disruption’ should Labour win the election. Moreover, it is hinted in a piece in The Daily Mirror that GB84 has already struck with them being responsible for the shootings on Haymarket as part of a ruse de guerre to blame Britain’s left for violence. Downing Street denies this and so too do several Conservative MPs running for re-election who are named as supporters. It is said that this is a dirty trick, one which Labour declares that the Conservatives have done to them when The Sun (who have endorsed the Tebbit) runs a frontpage piece ‘Benn on the couch’. This concerns Tony Benn where an American psychiatrist analyses the Labour MP from afar. It is a smear complete with allegations of planned actions by Benn should Labour win: he will apparently do what Livingstone done with the GLC to take over the party leadership the day following the general election in what The Sun says will be a coup d’état. Ties between Benn and Militant, plus Scargill’s NUM, are highlighted along with suggested links to him and the SWP’s actions in seeing (smaller) street protests post April 7th. Benn and Labour deny this with the MP himself stating that he doesn’t support any move to change government policy via violence in the streets… leading to a backlash against him from many of those involved in those protests who had believed he was on their side. Benn is a self-described democratic socialist and he supports democracy, not all that unrest and claims of refusal to follow the legitimate outcome of that.

The fear of a Benn-led government following a Labour victory is something that the Conservatives use elsewhere in their attacks either directly or through proxies such as that newspaper. Benn isn’t even in the Shadow Cabinet but he is the face of Labour’s manifesto for many Britons. Labour can criticise Tebbit as much as they want, with good responses, but more voters are alarmed at the possibility of Benn in Downing Street than they are of Tebbit staying there. The SDP follow the Conservatives lead here with Benn being something projected to be a ‘vote-winner’ for them too. Late in the campaign, they play up the possibility of a Benn government as well with the knowledge that many voters will vote for them in constituencies where the Conservatives are weak against Labour to stop Foot from gaining power and being removed from the leadership in this hypothetical scenario that the newspapers are talking up. Labour focuses on its manifesto, especially the domestic portions of it concerning the social change that it promises to bring to many people. Foot is out campaigning though with his age and frailty showing, Shadow Cabinet members take on more and more of that as the weeks go by. Benn himself is fighting hard to stay in Parliament following the redrawing of constituencies for this election making that a real challenge. He stays in Bristol East fighting off strong efforts from both the Conservatives and Liberals to unseat him. Yet, at the same time, Conservative-supporting newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times both run articles during the campaign criticising Tebbit for putting Britain in a situation where Benn and the far left – Marxists and Trots! – are as close as they are to gaining power. They say his tinkering with the economy has brought about a depression, not a recession as the Prime Minister says, where there is now the chance that Labour is close to power. Foot is derided as the worst leader that Labour has ever had yet opinion pieces in each newspaper then pose the question that is he is that bad, and is ahead of Tebbit in many polls, then just how bad must Tebbit be?

That manifesto which Labour are running on is a long document. A New Hope for a New Britain contains those domestic pledges for the policies which Labour will enact should they win power – one of the most controversial being a referendum on the fate of the monarchy – yet there are many other components concerning foreign policy. So much of this is decried by the Conservatives, and the many newspapers which support Tebbit’s leadership (with misgivings though), as more of the ‘loony left’ as personified by the politics of Benn and Livingstone. It calls for a British withdrawal of international organisations such as NATO and the EEC too. Unilateral nuclear disarmament, ending the Cruise deployment by the Americans as well as closing all United States military bases in Britain, ceasing military deployments in Ulster (at once) & West Germany (gradually) and also granting independence to all remaining ‘colonies’ such as Bermuda, the Caribbean islands & Gibraltar have all likewise been put in that manifesto as demanded by the party conference last October. This is all attack material for Labour’s opponents to make use of with claims that it is entirely irresponsible with every hairbrained idea put in it by young socialists and Trots who’ve infiltrated Labour. In reply, the Conservative’s record in government and their manifesto comes under fire from the opposition parties. Defeat in the Falklands, claims that America has made a puppet of Britain in foreign policy terms and fears that Tebbit is exposing Britain to nuclear war with Cruise are how those attacks are made. On the domestic front, the utter dire state of the national economy and the mass unemployment has all happened under the Conservatives. The terrible situation in Ulster and Tebbit’s plans on media restrictions have to be defended by senior Conservative figures and they struggle in that just as senior Labour people do with regard to their party’s foreign affairs commitments. Tebbit wants to talk about getting people into work, more privatisation and law-&-order but this is a struggle in the face of everything else going on.


The countdown to May 3rd enters the final week. Polling numbers reaching the media and secret internal party ones cause celebration and alarm in equal measure. The numbers are all over the place. Smiles turn to frowns with each new one arriving. Millions of Britons have yet to make up their minds on who they will vote for. Underhand measures are used by the Conservatives to get seemingly positive economic news out to the public despite election rules banning what can and cannot be said during the period of purdah. Labour campaigners are accused – but not caught – of handing out leaflets containing lies about opposition candidates in certain constituencies where things are very close. The SWP puts together another People’s March For Jobs event with this one held in Manchester. It is far smaller than the recent London one and, thankfully, doesn’t see any violence to it. The Conservatives and the Alliance both complain that the SWP are acting as a front for Labour here with speakers at the post-march gatherings stating that they will do everything they can to make sure Labour keeps to its promises on jobs & the economy once they are elected. One newspaper makes a claim that in the event of a Labour victory, to save Britain from communism, there will be troops on the streets with the British Army taking over; another newspaper says the Americans will invade! There is a shooting incident between the British Army and the IRA in South Armagh on the last day of campaigning with a trio of dead IRA gunmen the result of that encounter. In addition, on that same day but in something which doesn’t make the news, Kent Constabulary arrest a pair of young men in Maidstone: they are held on terrorism offenses after guns are found in their rented property yet neither of these two are Irish. They are members of an underground cell who refuse to talk to the police when detained to give any explanation either as to where they got those guns or what they planned to do with them.

To the polls go British voters on May 3rd. Campaigning ceased at midnight and today is all about getting out the vote before then waiting for the election results to come. That they begin to do starting much later that night and into the early hours of Friday morning.

The results and thus the outcome aren’t what anyone has predicted will be seen once the night is over with.

Once the final results from the six hundred and fifty constituencies are in, the final tallies can be seen for what it all means. Tebbit’s Conservatives have won two hundred and ninety-eight seats (down 41), just ahead of Labour under Foot taking two hundred and ninety (up 21). The Alliance has managed to have forty MPs elected – twenty-one Liberals and nineteen representing the SDP – but they have won many votes that have been effectively wasted with them not being concentrated enough to turn those into more seats. The Scottish National Party has three MPs and Plaid Cymru has another two. Across in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionists have won eleven seats but the Democratic Unionists have underperformed in taking only two: the Ulster Popular Unionist Party (UPUP, in many ways a one-man show) has won another seat. For the nationalists, the SDLP has achieved victory in two seats while Sinn Fein has gained one. That victory for the latter has come at a time of internal disputes between the party’s politicians and the IRA leadership yet the voters have – narrowly – allowed the party to win representation even when the party maintains an abstention policy.

Britons have spoken. In that, their voting sees a Hung Parliament as the result. No party has a majority and either the Conservatives or Labour will have to work with others to form a government.

[James G]

Election results from May 3rd, 1984

Conservative Party : 298
Labour Party : 290
Liberal Party : 21
Social Democratic Party : 19
Ulster Unionist Party : 11
Scottish Nationalist Party : 3
Democratic Unionist Party : 2
Plaid Cymru : 2
Social Democratic & Labour Party : 2
Sinn Fein : 1
Ulster Popular Unionist Party : 1

[lordroel]

Jul 31, 2020 14:07:23 GMT James G said:

Election results from May 3rd, 1984

Conservative Party : 298
Labour Party : 290
Liberal Party : 21
Social Democratic Party : 19
Ulster Unionist Party : 11
Scottish Nationalist Party : 3
Democratic Unionist Party : 2
Plaid Cymru : 2
Social Democratic & Labour Party : 2
Sinn Fein : 1
Ulster Popular Unionist Party : 1

This is not good news for the Conservatives.

[James G]

Jul 31, 2020 14:09:11 GMT lordroel said:

Jul 31, 2020 14:07:23 GMT James G said:

Election results from May 3rd, 1984

Conservative Party : 298
Labour Party : 290
Liberal Party : 21
Social Democratic Party : 19
Ulster Unionist Party : 11
Scottish Nationalist Party : 3
Democratic Unionist Party : 2
Plaid Cymru : 2
Social Democratic & Labour Party : 2
Sinn Fein : 1
Ulster Popular Unionist Party : 1

This is not good news for the Conservatives.

It'll be a Hung Parliament as 326 - or 323 taking into account Speaker/deputies and Sinn Fein absence - is the bare minimum required to form a government.

[lordroel]

Jul 31, 2020 14:11:41 GMT James G said:

Jul 31, 2020 14:09:11 GMT lordroel said:

This is not good news for the Conservatives.

It'll be a Hung Parliament as 326 - or 323 taking into account Speaker/deputies and Sinn Fein absence - is the bare minimum required to form a government.

Another round of elections then.

[James G]

Jul 31, 2020 14:12:59 GMT lordroel said:

Jul 31, 2020 14:11:41 GMT James G said:

It'll be a Hung Parliament as 326 - or 323 taking into account Speaker/deputies and Sinn Fein absence - is the bare minimum required to form a government.

Another round of elections then.

Ah, we shall have to wait and see. The story is halfway done now, leaving plenty more drama to follow.

[James G]

Part Six – New leadership


Tebbit’s Conservatives have ‘won the election’. Such is the message which comes from Downing Street sources in the aftermath of the final set of results coming in and the seat tallies being totalled. There is no majority which the Conservatives had gained though, but a plurality. That isn’t enough for Tebbit to be able to at once form a government though it does give the Conservatives the right to be the first to try and form one. Through the Friday after polling day, aided by civil servants trying to stay apolitical yet dealing with party politics, Tebbit retains his post as Prime Minister while efforts are underway for him to remain in such a role for good. Brittan and Lawson head up the Conservative’s negotiating team as they make contact with the two parties of the Alliance, as well as the Ulster Unionists too, in an effort to form a government. Up for discussion is the possibility of other parties joining the Conservatives in a coalition or, providing supply-and-confidence (voting for money bills and against any motion in the House of no confidence) to Tebbit staying in Downing Street. The Environment Secretary and the Chancellor get nowhere though. While the UUP is open to discussions, to see what they can get, with their numbers there isn’t enough to keep Tebbit in Downing Street. As to the Liberals and the SDP, they will not back Tebbit remaining in post. Though not directly asked, the leadership of each of those smaller parties make it clear that they will not give support to any other hypothetical Conservative leader at this time either. The rebuff is evident: they aren’t open to seeing the Conservatives stay in office. Their explanations are short though the reason is made clear. Tebbit and his party are responsible for the dire situation that the country is in and therefore there can be no way that the Alliance parties will do business with them.

The Alliance is already talking to Labour. Meetings are held that lunchtime. Steel and Jenkins send Cyril Smith and David Owen on behalf of their parties respectively and they meet with Denis Healey and Roy Hattersley: two men serving as Labour’s deputy and shadow home secretary. Fruitful outcomes are arrived at within this initial contact. The Alliance are open to providing confidence-and-supply to a Labour government. They have conditions though and those concern a refusal to go along with all that is in the Labour manifesto. Owen is firm on this when talking with Hattersley but Smith also makes it clear too that the Liberal Party will never vote for many of those policies should they come before the House of Commons. Both the Liberals and the SDP oppose so much of that manifesto! Their leaders and those on their negotiating teams are also thinking about what will come next: they foresee another general election soon, probably later this year, and are affirming their stances for when that comes around. Nothing is yet agreed though. Tebbit stays where he is and there is yet to be any official deal done to see him replaced. Further meetings are due with negotiators going back to their leaders for consultations ahead of formal talks tomorrow. Tebbit is busy in the meantime. Being rebuffed so forcefully at once doesn’t faze him. He is convinced that the Alliance will not work with the far left dominated Labour, especially not the SDP who only a few years ago broke away from Labour because of that. There is a serious economic issue going on though which distracts him and also Lawson too. A run on the Pound is ongoing while there is also a significant capital flight underway. International markets and domestic investors are fearful that Labour are soon to take power. They are acting in panic ahead of that. Major financial damage is done within the space of a few hours while there is political paralysis in Britain.

In Cabinet Office meetings starting early on the Saturday morning, a deal is thrashed out between Labour and the Alliance. Tebbit is just along the road up in 10 Downing Street but he has zero input in what is going on where the Liberals and the SDP agree to support Foot in forming a government. The Prime Minister finds out after the fact that the UUP had one of their senior MPs, Harold McCusker, in the Cabinet Office too. While not involved in the deal, the Ulster Unionists know what is going on and have received many assurances from the others present on matters concerning Northern Ireland. The Conservatives have been cut out of everything. Tebbit is informed at midday that a final agreement has been made. The Alliance will back a Labour government – with many, many conditions – and Foot has enough support to be take on the position of Prime Minister. Lawson and Whitelaw tell him this and strongly suggest to Tebbit that he should resign. The Queen is in London and they believe that he should go and see her.

A final attempt is made by the soon-to-be former Prime Minister to stay in power. He places calls to Steel and Jenkins, warning them of the danger to the nation of letting Labour in. They each politely decline his request to reconsider. Tebbit is told by the two of them that the best thing he can do, so as to keep his reputation, is to accept the inevitable and give up. Still, Tebbit stays where he is as the day gets later with the Prime Minister having a crack at trying a different route by securing individual support from members of the Liberals and the SDP rather than talking to their party leaders. There is contact made with Owen and Tebbit’s hopes are raised but the SDP’s deputy will not go against his party… and he can in no way guarantee that many of his fellow MPs, so many of them new in Parliament and not former Labour ones who left because of the madness in their former party, will follow him. By the time Tebbit’s round of phone calls ends, it is night-time. The Prime Minister will sleep in Downing Street once again: he’s still here and refusing to budge.

The Queen goes to church on Sunday morning yet remains in London at Buckingham Palace. Tebbit wants to put off a meeting with her until Monday: it is Sunday after all. Alas, that isn’t to be. Advisors to the monarch inform her that there is a new government ready to be formed and Tebbit should no longer stay in-place. This is already making the Queen look bad. The Prime Minister is called by officials and asked whether he needs to see the Queen today… they are indirectly calling him over to the Palace. He knows now that the game is up. He isn’t told directly to come to see the Queen and resign, but that is what this means. Cabinet members and party grandees tell him to do the decent thing: ex-PM Ted Heath is one of those imploring him to give in. Eventually, at four p.m., a car takes Tebbit to Buckingham Palace where he does the honourable thing and resigns from his position of two years.


Michael Foot, seventy years old, a committed and passionate left-winger, is Britain’s new Prime Minister. The Queen calls for him to come and see her later that evening. He has been in London since Friday morning, at Labour Party HQ on Walworth Road in Southwark, surrounded by party figures and supporters. There has been much impatience but now the time has come. Talk had been that it might have been Monday before Tebbit left Downing Street at there was a lot of fury at such an idea. He’s gone though and taking the short drive to Buckingham Palace next is Foot. When seeing his monarch, Foot is asked to and subsequently agrees to forming a government in the Queen’s name. It isn’t mentioned by either of them that a much-publicised part of the manifesto that Labour have been elected upon calls for a national referendum to abolish the monarchy. That’s left unsaid, along with many things too including the fact that Labour’s leader has had to wait as long as he had when it has been clear for some time that only he could form that government.

Ahead of this, Foot hasn’t been the only one impatient at the delay for Tebbit to go. Pre-arranged several weeks ago, and still allowed to take place despite the violent events of April 7th, during May 5th (the Saturday) another People’s March For Jobs gathering in the centre of London took place. The organisers – without acknowledging any hubris of theirs – assumed that Labour would win the election in their planning and decided that Foot would need a reminder of their cause. Moreover, the steering committee behind this have built a movement and unwilling to give it up at this time. The SWP people and those others are wanting to keep going, to not let all of this dissipate. Many people showed up, plenty of them celebrating the sure end of Tebbit’s premiership. They protested though at him staying for the time that he did. Riot police and mounted officers on horseback spent the day and night waiting for further outbreaks of violence but they didn’t see them. There were just the chants for Tebbit to go, and to go now. Now he has and those who’ve been out on the streets expect that after Labour has ‘won’ the election, they will keep their promises.

Britain is under new leadership.

The next morning, Foot addresses the nation as its Prime Minister. He promises a sea-change in society. Hope is the message which Labour has won power on and Foot says that Labour will now deliver. While the text of the speech when later read by those who don’t hear it comes across well, the actual delivery doesn’t sound too great. Many Britons already have an impression of Foot – good, bad or indifferent – but those who don’t, have one now. It isn’t one that makes them think that this man is eager to lead the country nor can inspire anyone. There are many newspaper articles today concerning the outcome of the election. The Conservative’s failure, Labour’s victory and the future for the country are all discussed in print just as they are on the airwaves too. Three particular pieces, one in The Guardian, another in The Daily Express & the third in The Sun, are of note. Owen’s comments made to a Guardian journalist and what Smith has to say to in the Express will inflame those on the country’s left. Each practically boast of the role that their parties will play in limiting Labour’s ability to carry out its manifesto commitments, especially the ‘mad ones’ according to the SDP’s deputy leader. Leon Brittan talks to the nation’s best-selling tabloid and calls the partnership which has put Foot in power an ‘Alliance of the Losers’. It can’t last, he says to the Sun journalist, and the Conservatives will be ready to fight the next election that is certain to come very soon one Parliamentary pressures tear this agreement between Labour, the Liberals & the SDP apart.

Meanwhile, there is further turmoil on the markets. Sterling gets a thrashing at the hands of overseas speculators. Financial assets are being removed from the country too with not just investors pulling their money out where they can but individuals withdrawing contents of savings accounts and even safety deposit boxes from banks. Peter Shore is the new Chancellor and he has a truly terrible first day at the Treasury. Everyone is convinced that Britain is going down the economic blackhole to ruin… and so act in the fashion to actually make that happen less they be the last one standing. Healey is at the FCO. He is the new Foreign Secretary (as well as party deputy leader) and his first day at work involves spending seemingly every minute on overseas phone calls with opposite numbers as well as foreign leaders. Allies and friends are in a confused state where they fear the worse in relations with them now that Britain has elected a government regarded as far left. As Shore is, and much of the top-level of the Labour Cabinet, Healey is not someone who agrees with the stated party policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament nor the withdrawal from NATO and the Common Market. Such things were voted for by majorities at the last party conference though, even without the support of those such as the new Foreign Secretary. When those whom he speaks to ask him whether Britain is suddenly about to abandon all of its international commitments, Healey tells them no. That isn’t the case at all. Those policies might have been in the manifesto, but Healey tells those worried overseas that such things will not get through Parliament should the new government put them to a vote.

On Wednesday, the newly-elected forty-ninth Parliament begins to assemble. Oaths of allegiance to the Queen are sworn by MPs: the lone Sinn Fein MP, Gerry Adams from Belfast West, is absent in doing this and thus will not be taking his seat. There are new faces replacing old ones. The election last week threw up some surprises all over the place with unforeseen voting patterns: much of that down to boundary changes for this general election where nine out of ten seats were either new or modified. The SDP only has half a dozen of the same MPs which it went into the election with after Labour retook so many of their previously-controlled seats back; Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, with Jenkins & Owen in the ‘gang of four’ back in 1981, have lost their seats. The SDP now has a slew of newbies who won in allegedly ‘safe’ Conservative seats and old divisions don’t necessarily concern them. Nineteen wins and eighty second-places in the many constituencies contested is a good result for the SDP yet is doesn’t fully paper over the internal party issues now apparent. There are a large number of young Labour MPs, so many of them radicals who other Members raise a smile when observing them seemingly bemused by their surrounds. Nine of them are Militant members and several of them are seen with Benn (re-elected after winning the closest of close three-way races in Bristol East)… who hasn’t launched that coup to steal the Labour leadership as pre-election claims said he would. Conservative MPs arrive with frowns and forlorn looks. They have been forced from power and many are still in a daze at the suddenness of it all. Their party won several new seats where the campaign went as planned yet disasters occurred elsewhere and this is the result. The new government is affirmed later in the day when MPs vote in support of it. The Liberals and the SDP show their support for Foot’s Labour with the SDLP – two members from Northern Ireland – also doing so though without any formal arrangement. When the role of Speaker (the previous Speaker retired ahead of the election) and his three deputies are given out, and the not seated Sinn Fein MP taken into account, it appears to outsiders that the new government has an effective majority of eleven: 328 to 317. However, a closer count sees that one re-elected Conservative is absent today. Ralph ‘Bonner’ Pink, chosen a few days ago to remain representing Portsmouth South in the new Parliament, has died overnight. There will have to be a by-election and ahead of that, Foot has a majority of twelve, fourteen if the unofficial arrangement with the SDLP is counted. That is enough to see him in office, but is he is power?




House of Commons second week of May, 1984

Government : 328 , (Labour, 288 / Liberals, 21 / SDP, 19)
Opposition : 316 , (Conservatives, 295 / SNP, 3 / Plaid, 2 / Ulster, 16)
Speaker & Deputies : 4 , (Conservatives, 2 / Labour, 2)
Not seated : 1 , (Sinn Fein, 1)
Vacant : 1 , (constituency of Portsmouth South)

[James G]

Some of the more controversial things ITTL manifesto for a Labour government, adopted at party conference by proportional voting which the leadership obeys.

1) British Withdrawal from the EEC/Common Market and NATO.
2) Abandoning 'colonial possessions' such as Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Cyprus bases, Bermuda and Caribbean islands.
3) Unilateral UK nuclear disarmament and getting US nuclear plus conventional forces out of the UK.
4) Immediate troop withdrawal from Northern Ireland and a phased one from West Germany.
5) Abolishing the House of Lords and a referendum on the future of the Monarchy.

All this would need a majority of votes in Parliament though.

[James G]

That is a legitimate question. Foot may hold the role of Prime Minister and should be ultimately responsible for the reins of power but there are many others who are grabbing at them too ready to steer things their way. The new government finds out just how difficult power is to yield. That economic damage done right at the very beginning of Labour being back in office is real. It isn’t something that can be fixed easily. The Bank of England and civil servants make it clear that the ideas banded about by members of the new government, joined by vocal outsiders, will do no good. Their suggestions are the ones which are followed, the decisions of sensible people in this matter of great national importance. Everything is done with respect yet it is fast understood that shouting slogans and following dogma matter for naught where ‘real money’ is concerned.

Before the week is out, the government proposes an emergency budget. It is something worked on ahead of the election by Shore but now with the necessary additions in this time of sudden economic crisis. The Chancellor would like it to proceed at pace and it has support from the Alliance. However, Shore cannot push it through Parliament at enough speed. These things take time and during that, while having slowed down, the attacks on Sterling from overseas and the withdrawal of money out of the UK continue. Into the following week this continues with MPs debating aspects of the bill presented. Political point-scoring is done aplenty though there are those with genuine concerns. Labour cannot keep its MPs on-side with this too. More than a dozen are opposed to Shore’s economic measures on the grounds that it doesn’t go far enough, that it isn’t what they want to see. A few Liberal MPs and more than a few from the SDP think it has in fact gone too far and is too overreaching. The Conservatives seek to delay it in their opposition to Foot’s premiership. The government has to throw everything it can at finally, after much delay, getting a vote arranged. Deals have to be cut with opponents on each side to see enough support ahead of a Division in the Commons and then a final vote.

The Summer Recess is some time away. There is much which the new government aims to do during that time. Labour has manifesto commitments which Foot and other senior figures wish to see implemented. There is an understanding that a lot of it will take time with hard battles to come. Therefore, they begin with what they are sure they can get through Parliament. Cabinet members announce bills concerning a nationwide jobs plan, a minimum wage for workers, the reversal of some of the privatisation pushed through by Thatcher & Tebbit, ending the selling off of council housing and new equal rights guarantees. None of these are covered by the Labour-Liberal-SDP agreement that allows for Foot to be in Downing Street: that agreement is for the Alliance to support bills on a case-by-case basis. While they are somewhat controversial, they aren’t as likely to cause as strong reactions as have been seen in response to other items in the Labour manifesto from those who allow for Foot to be in Downing Street. Labour MPs themselves criticise the action taken here though by the government. Benn and Skinner are at the forefront of questioning why Foot will not bring forth the promised rolling back of Tebbit’s trade union legislation and also the commitment to begin the process of dismantling the House of Lords (to replace it with an elected, democratic upper house). Let them dare try and vote such things down, Skinner goads Downing Street… with seemingly everyone else knowing that they will. Prominent Militant-supporting Labour MPs such as Terry Fields, Dave Nellist & Pat Wall demand that the government begin the process of following the manifesto promises on the Lords to start with then the monarchy referendum: there were some shameful scenes in Parliament during the recent State Opening by the Queen. The socialists Eric Heffer & Bob McTaggart bring up American nuclear weapons and the Common Market; newly-elected Jeremy Corbyn joins with Bob Cryer & Martin Flannery is demanding action on the situation in Ulster; Michael Meacher and Reg Race urge for the government to take the police to task for all of their brutality against minority communities and peaceful protesters. Outside of Parliament, the influential Labour Party Young Socialists – they have a real voice within the party due to their large numbers – apply pressure themselves for Foot and the Cabinet to stick to the manifesto which they were elected on. Begin re-nationalising all what has been privatised, they demand, and reverse all the damage done during the Thatcher-Tebbit era just as has been promised to the party and the people while the election campaign was underway.

Outside of the Commons, without needing votes from other parties to act, the government is undertaking what Foot regards as important work. Defence Secretary John Silkin has issued instructions for new rules-of-engagement for soldiers operating in Northern Ireland including putting a firm stop to SAS shoot-to-kill operations. He’s also spoken with the Americans about halting their exercises from out of RAF Greenham Common with Cruise deployments into the countryside. Hattersley is at the Home Office and he has had the country’s senior policemen brought to see him. The Met. Police’s commissioner has been hauled over the coals – so says an off-the-record briefing given to The Daily Mirror – and the Association of Chief Police Officers has been told that the new government will abolish the National Reporting Centre, which has been used by the previous government to intervene in political matters, with haste. These are important tasks which the government has addressed as urgent. There is outrage at this from the Conservatives and parts of the right-wing press… but also from the vocal far left as well. It isn’t enough! Calls for action come from this latter quarter, not talks about doing something! Nukes out, they shout, and abolish the police state too. They’ve thought that the time for their voice to be heard has come yet find that those in Downing Street and in the top posts at the ministries are not doing as they demand. Labour ministers aren’t seen as representing ‘real Labour’: they are establishment figures who activists and the angry young cannot trust. The anger at this is not understood for just how violent the reaction will be down the line.

Foot isn’t one for confrontation. He would like to avoid all of this but does what he has to and talks to critics. Healey, Deputy PM as well as Foreign Secretary, tells him that those MPs aren’t about to join with the Conservative opposition to vote against the government so they can be politely ignored yet the Prime Minister doesn’t follow that advice. His meetings are held in Downing Street and also at Chequers too… more than a few people invited to see him refuse to go to the latter place. Wall, elected in Bradford North, is a revolutionary and will not go to a country mansion reminiscent of the ruling class such as Chequers. Nothing good comes out of any of these at all. The Prime Minister cannot meet the demands of those pushing for what they believe is real change, where the radical agenda that Labour has been elected upon will deliver. They are told that the Parliamentary arithmetic isn’t there for all of that but he wishes to do what he can. Only if the Liberals and the SDP agree can the government act, he reminds them. Without meaning too, the placid Prime Minister seems to infuriate them by his admission of inability: he’s seen as the puppet of others and the victim of an establishment stitch-up. Moreover, Healey and the other ministers and Cabinet have less and less time to listen, too busy getting on with the important business of government.

No one is listening to those on the outside. Ministers talk of responsible government and smug remarks on the television & in the newspapers come from leading members of the Liberals and the SDP, those who boast that they are stopping the insanity feared from taking place. Many of those who want what they are promised begin to look for another outlet to get them what they want.


Tebbit remains as Conservative leader. He isn’t formally challenged by his fellow MPs in the aftermath of the election though there is some behind-the-scenes manoeuvring on that note. Several of his colleagues would like him to resign now that Foot is in Downing Street. No one takes the final step though in going up against him. They look at the situation with Labour in power as they are at the mercy of the Liberals and the SDP. Internal Labour divisions once they have power are there too, something played up by Conservative-supporting newspapers. To Conservative eyes, it looks certain that there will be another general election this year: this echoes the feelings of the same from the Liberals and the SDP. Tebbit tells his MPs that he won them the election and can win once again, this time with a majority once the voters get a taste of the far left. Those who listen don’t want the voters to see Conservative division when all attention of on that going on is with Labour. Stalemate develops in what could have been a Conservative civil war where Tebbit’s supporters, Thatcher’s Awkward Squad & the unaligned moderates all agree to wait this out. The enemy that is the far left Labour will be defeated first before ‘friends’ are turned upon. There is support for a future leader in Heseltine, or maybe either Brittan or Lawson, down the line yet consensus is reached to wait until at least Christmas before any move might be made against Tebbit… if the government lasts that long! The Conservatives are banking on the Alliance of the Losers tearing itself apart before then. The smart money is on this to come with the SDP walking away eventually when they have enough of Labour’s madness. Jenkins forced Owen to break off contact with Tebbit when efforts were made for a Conservative-SDP-Ulster Unionist partnership straight after the election and Owen is known to still be angry at that. He is a young ambitious man, someone who Jenkins only just beat to the party leadership the other year. Should Owen try again, Tebbit and many of his colleagues believe they he will succeed and Labour will be forced from office with the SDP under new leadership.

That vacancy in Parliament with Portsmouth South not having an MP is seen as an opportunity by Tebbit. Bonner Pink died right after winning re-election there in the face of a strong SDP challenge against Labour more than him. Without any sense of shame, the SDP have been fast to begin unofficial preparations for a by-election there to add to their tally of seats in the Commons. Due to Parliamentary convention, when an MP dies or resigns, the party which he or she represented is the one to move the writ of election in Parliament. Sometimes this is done with haste, other times not: it depends upon many circumstances and those don’t include the wishes of the voters. The Conservatives do so in mid-May and a by-election is scheduled for four weeks hence. The plan is to tie the local Labour and SDP candidates – the latter specially – to what is going on with Foot’s premiership. Portsmouth is a military town and negative comments made from the several national Labour figures about the armed forces will be made use of as it was to get Pink re-elected on May 3rd. Infighting between those forming the voting block which keeps Foot in power is to be exploited too. Unlike the Alliance between the Liberals and the SDP, Labour will run against the SDP in Portsmouth South. Getting a Conservative MP elected in the vacant seat is an important objective but, more than that, Tebbit wants to see his opponents tear lumps out of each other. He hopes this will damage Jenkins’ leadership of the SDP to a significant, hopefully fatal degree.

Polling day comes around and on June 14th, the Conservatives win. The SDP candidate takes second place some distance back with Labour pushed into third. Those two spend the entire campaign fighting against each other as well as with proxies from their national parties as well. In public, the Conservatives celebrate ‘cutting the government’s majority’ but in private, they know they have won a far bigger victory. Anti-military statements from far left Labour figures alongside a local backlash against SDP for being in position supporting a government with those people as MPs – something pushed hard by the Conservatives – pays off big: the Alliance of the Losers message helped too. Gossip coming from out of the SDP tells Tebbit that Owen’s camp have blamed Jenkins for this defeat in what could have been a winnable seat if the SDP wasn’t keeping Labour in power. John Cartwright and James Wellbeloved approach Jenkins and tell him that what has just been seen in Portsmouth South is being felt nationally. Activists and voters are up in arms at the SDP supporting Labour. Cartwright and Wellbeloved think there will be another election soon and the SDP will be massacred at the polls.

Meanwhile, other internal political squabbles and resultant underhand plots are underway within Labour. The Greater London Council has been saved from abolishment by the general election result. Livingstone has claimed victory for that, taking credit which isn’t his in what is typical shameless fashion from the man. There is a Labour government in office but it isn’t one which he has good relations with on a personal level. The senior people at the top of Labour have criticised GLC actions many times and there is the issue of the Worker’s Revolutionary Party. Hattersley, Healey, and Shore consider the WRP to be violent thugs responsible for Labour failing to win the general election in an outright fashion; to Livingstone, it is those young radicals who’ve been battling fascists & the police (sometimes the same thing), and helped get Tebbit out of Downing Street. Even with the GLC saved from extinction, Livingstone wants more. He is just as unhappy as so many others to see Foot captured by the establishment. Far more savvy that the youngsters who form the ranks of radical protesters, Livingstone understands why Foot cannot do all that is needed. However, he does think that he can do more than he is. He wants to see pressure applied where it is needed to force that.

When the SWP (opponents of the WRP, not friends at all) put together their People’s March For Jobs campaign, their front organisation was joined by Livingstone. The SWP welcomed this with the knowledge that the many faces on the steering committee which had directed things, the better: it confuses the picture for critics of what it is all about. Livingstone has been fast to gain influence though, more than the SWP would have expected even of a deft political operator like him. He has the power and reach to direct the future for the movement during late June, cutting deals with all sorts of people and applying the right sort of pressure. It is suggested by others that the People’s March For Jobs changes into the People’s March For Justice. Several of those Militant-backed Labour MPs – such as Wall – have too joined and they call for the movement to grow in scope so no longer it is just about jobs but social justice, even criminal justice in the sense of half a dozen young activists being held on remand since the violent events of April 7th. Their freedom is demanded: no trial, just immediate release. They are declared to be ‘political prisoners’. The new Attorney General, Arthur Davidson, refuses to meet with a People’s March For Jobs delegation who arrive unscheduled to see him with a petition about them. This is a stunt which he recognises but will not play ball with. This new movement is about more than that though. Social justice means many things to those who back the SWP, Livingstone, Militant and a wide collection of others. They want what was promised in the Labour manifesto with regards to addressing poverty, minority rights, unfair laws and so much more. They want it now! Livingstone’s says that the GLC will grant the movement permission to undertake organised protests in London in the upcoming months. He doesn’t think that the name People’s March For Justice accurately reflects what this movement is all about though: he suggests a better one, something more catch-all.

On June 30th, the maiden People’s Front protest takes place. Keep your promises, the message is, and don’t betray us.

[James G]

Part Seven – People’s Front


The first protest gathering of the newly-named People’s Front goes off without a hitch. Attendance isn’t the same as many of the People’s March For Jobs gatherings but the organisers put that down to a combination of bad weather and a lack of understanding among the ordinary public as to what they are all about. Rain and negative publicity are said to be behind ‘only’ eighty thousand people turning out in Hyde Park at the very end of June. This is still a large number though. They all are here to support the cause that the organisers want to draw attention to. A carnival-like atmosphere is somewhat present. There is music and plenty of comradery among attendees. No trouble is reported and while there is a police presence, it isn’t overly strong nor regarded as aggressive. Keynote speakers address the crowds during the early evening, when the weather gets better. A mix of the well-known and unknown talk to the people present but also the attending media too. The call is for the government to honour its promises made during the election campaign: they were elected by the people and these are the people’s wishes. Demands are issued by those speakers where they focus upon the many controversial aspects of A New Hope for a New Britain: abolishing the Lords & the monarchy, nuclear disarmament & no to Cruise, leaving the EEC & NATO and reforms of trade union law & the police too. Moreover, a lot of what Foot’s government has already begun to do in Parliament, such as beginning to reverse some of the worst aspects of Conservative privatisation and bringing forth legislation to ensure the rights of women & minorities too, is said to be not good enough. The actions of the Liberals and the SDP in blocking what they have – boasting of doing so too! – comes under fire. There is a lot of passion in these speeches from angry people. Many in Hype Park today are angry too. Today isn’t the day to riot though. There is a Labour Prime Minister and a lot of the feeling here is that, with a gentle reminder, he will come around and make sure that what the people have been promised is delivered.

Another People’s Front march takes place a fortnight later. The weather is better and the attendance is higher. Much of the same said before is repeated. This one takes place in the form of a march though the middle of London rather than a static event. Parliament Square – not so busy on a Saturday – is where the march concludes and speakers on the main stage gather to get angry while holding their microphones. An unofficial divert takes place early on during the march where several thousand people break away from the event at the start and head towards the US Embassy. They cover significant ground on their way and affect traffic. These are dedicated hardcore protesters from various small far left and anarchist groups co-operating on July 14th to show up in number outside of there. They have come for trouble, without intentions on that fact hidden. The Met. Police intercept them on the way there as the crowd of people go through Belgravia towards Grosvenor Square. It is ordinary officers sent in here. On the orders of the Met. Commissioner, riot police with the Special Patrol Group aren’t involved in this less there be political fallout. The police come under attack and there is property damage. Several officers and protesters are injured in a series of confusing, spread out clashes which go on for a while. This is officially nothing to do with the People’s Front. Those who broke away defied event stewards in a co-ordinated fashion where they went out to seek trouble. Regardless, the violence once more seen on the streets of London will be blamed on all those who come out protesting. Newspaper attacks and negative comment from politicians comes in the following days. In addition, images in several newspapers, such as The Sun and The Daily Mail, show some of the banners on display during the organised and peaceful march. There were a couple which stated ‘Kill all Tories’ and ‘the Queen for the Chop’. Comments from the steering committee of the People’s Front made through a spokesman to The Morning Star (a small but vocal left-wing newspaper) claim that those images were staged. Pat Wall has been defending the People’s Front in the House of Commons and on the following Monday – when those pictures run – he blames ‘fascists and capitalists’ for all trouble seen and claims ‘an establishment stitch-up’ with regards to the fuss over those banners seen among march participants.

Another two weeks go by. Parliament is soon to break for Summer Recess and on July 28th, the People’s Front hold another march. The stated aim is for a reminder to be sent to MPs before they go away on holiday as to the strength of feeling from the British public. The attendance numbers rise again: they easily top two hundred thousand. A longer march takes place then before with feeder marches to the main one which goes through Central London to Parliament Square again. One of those smaller marches begins in the East End of London on Commercial Road. Intended to be of less importance than others, this changes four days beforehand. A young British-Asian man is murdered in Tower Hamlets in a racist attack by skinhead thugs: this is a multi-racial area with many recent ethnic tensions. For many years, the SWP has been at the forefront of combatting racists with battles against the National Front (NF) celebrated by them. It is decided that the march on the Saturday will include more anti-racist banners than usual and participants will pay tribute on the way to the murdered teenager. Many of the People’s Front more prominent figures join with the East End feeder march, making sure that this is mentioned in press releases too so no one will miss it. Rumours come ahead of the march starting that the NF has its own gathering but these are untrue. Through Tower Hamlets the march goes, escorted by the police, and on the way to the very centre of London by way of Britain’s financial hub which is The City. They don’t reach there. When the front of the march is at the end of Commercial road, near to Aldgate East Underground Station, they find the police have closed the road to them. Questions, complaints and shouts are met with the instruction to look up in the sky at all that smoke… something’s burning.

The NatWest Tower up ahead in The City is alight early this afternoon. The country’s tallest building, owned by the National Westminster Bank, is burning furiously despite all the inherent fire management & suppression systems with this four year-old structure. London Fire Brigade crews are quickly on-hand and the Met. Police close roads around the wider area for safety reasons. It looks like arson to those first on the scene and they are glad that it is unlikely than anyone is inside on a Saturday afternoon. The risks are that there could be a collapse though, especially since this is a serious fire that has a hold of the entire building. Across London, over in Fitzrovia, there is police activity around the Post Office Tower. This is the capital’s second largest structure and there has been an arson attempt here today too in what is surely a coordinated series of arson attacks. Those trying to break in and set it alight have been arrested though with two young men in custody – a woman was seen fleeing and not caught – along with petrol cans and paraphernalia for forced entry. They’ve been caught by chance here. Each refuses to answer any questions on the street nor when taken to the high security Paddington Green police station. Neither man is identified and it isn’t clear why they, and those who’ve set alight to the NatWest Tower too, would want to do such a thing as this. What is their goal? Who sent them out to make these attacks?


Before MPs go away for the summer, during June and July when Parliament is sitting, there are several bills which go through Parliament which the government gets its way. Their majority is challenged though. Militant-supporting Labour MPs abstain here and there in a careful, co-ordinated fashion to apply pressure on the government: if they were voting with the opposition, this would make things even more difficult but they won’t do that with Tebbit still as Conservative leader and on the attack. Benn doesn’t join with them in abstaining to see votes passed in the Commons by the tightest of margins – party whips have a devil of a time – but he instead continues to criticise government ministers as they appear to be more and more captured by the system and the establishment. However, when making an appearance on the BBC, Benn argues with his interviewer that this isn’t about personalities but instead about policies, positions and above all the politics of the establishment in trying to stifle democracy. He isn’t fighting his fellow MP, he says, but the system. Jenkins comes under severe pressure from within his party to keep them in-line too. There is a rebellious mood there following the disaster in Portsmouth South for the SDP. Owen is flexing his muscles, urging for the party to make sure that there is clear separation between them and Labour in the minds of voters. He repeatedly assures those who will listen that this is all going to fall apart some time before the end of the year and the SDP need to be ready to fight an election without the baggage of the madness of a far left dominated Labour. While the bills which are passed in the Commons are important, and are applauded by critics of the Thatcher-Tebbit era, none of them remain enough for so many voices of discontent. The People’s Front are holding their marches demanding more than all of this. The national economy is still suffering from the damage of early May and there remains the issue to of large numbers of Britain’s unemployed. The National Back To Work Scheme which Parliament approves, Foot’s much heralded jobs plan, has been tinkered with and watered down in places to get it voted upon. Implementation is going to take some time and, despite what Secretary of State for Employment John Smith hints at, millions of people suddenly aren’t going to be working.

Comments are made in Parliament during early July about worrying events out in Ulster. Conservative and Labour MPs raise the issue of Ian Paisley (leader of the Democratic Unionists) and his remarks on the ‘Third Force’. This is a paramilitary group – which Paisley says is a defensive militia – which first made an appearance back in 1981 with claims that it numbered tens of thousands of armed men. Paisley says that the Third Force has never gone away and it now expanding. Should the ‘Labour Marxists in London’ try to give Ulster away to the Republic of Ireland, Paisley says that the Third Force will stop that. There is no manifesto commitment that Labour has to do such a thing. Pulling troops out of Northern Ireland is there, but not unilaterally turning over the province to the Republic along the lines of other British possessions in the world. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Eric Varley responds to these urgent questions by stating that the rule of law will be applied in Ulster. There will be no illegal gatherings of armed militia allowed. Paisley isn’t in the House when this happens but his fellow DUP Member is. Peter Robinson defends the Third Force as patriots and also says that the will of the people in Ulster is to stay within the United Kingdom. They will not be dragged out of Britain against their will. Enoch Powell, once a Conservative and now an Ulster Unionist, still a racist too, speaks up for Ulster’s wish to remain part of Britain before going onto talk about American conspiracies to break up the United Kingdom. His conspiracy theory is met with yawns as he goes far off the important subject at hand with this potential for widespread civil strife in Ulster.

Foot is also absent that day in the Commons and for the rest of the Parliamentary term. The night before his seventy-first birthday, he takes a painful fall. The Prime Minister has been spending much time at Chequers due to coming down with summer flu beforehand, once getting over that, takes a tumble ahead of going back to Downing Street. He has broken his left leg – ‘put your right foot forward’ comes a gag from a satirist’; another asks whether it was Benn or Healey who gave him a push – and is lucky not to be any more seriously hurt. He is taken to hospital though and does leave there in a wheelchair. The nation seems to have little sympathy for the man, even his own party couldn’t much care. Appearances by the Prime Minister have been few and far between on the campaign trail ahead of the election and since then. Unkind comments come about him being an old man on the verge of death. He has long walked aided with a cane after a terrible car crash in the Sixties and is also blind in one eye too: this has made him the subject of much cruel mockery. Him being at Chequers for all the time he was when ill before this latest incident has been criticised by opponents even with the knowledge that he was rather ill. This latest incident only confirms the view that many have, and express too, that he is unfit to be Prime Minister in more than just the political sense. In a wheelchair and needing rest, Foot is out of sight and to many the nation looks rudderless.

Hattersley meets with the head of MI-5. The Home Office has responsibly over Britain’s domestic intelligence service though not day-to-day management. The Director General is John Jones, a career spook, and he briefs the Home Secretary on a range of important matters which concerns his organisation. The murder of two policemen in Cheshire and the failed bombing at the SAS headquarters have been linked together with the INLA in league with far left British militants. MI-5 is playing catch-up but making progress, Jones says, in trying to get to the heart of this cooperation and smash it. Hattersley is told too that there is an emerging, worrying threat from several extreme groups on the far right too. Column 88 and the English People’s Liberation Army have spent some time organising where they have youthful recruits willing to commit acts of political violence. MI-5 infiltration has taken place and measures have been taken against each yet they seem to be aware of this and are increasingly starting to operate in a cell-like structure reminiscent of true terror groups. Jones assured Hattersley that the pre-election talk of GB84 is nothing more than a silly piece of propaganda: there is no vast right-wing conspiracy with a secret army ready to try to take over the country. Those tiny extremist groups are where the real threat is though where they are on the far left (working with the INLA) and the far right. As to Northern Ireland, the IRA is on an unofficial slow down of operations. MI-5 has people within them too and the word coming out is that in light of the election result, the IRA leadership seems to be reflecting on how to proceed. Jones warns the Home Secretary that they haven’t gone away and are still active in Ulster, but there has been a break put on terror attacks against Mainland targets by them for the time being. How this will play out in the long run is anyone’s guess. This meeting takes place ahead of the arson attacks on July 28th when it is those domestic extremists which Jones talked about who strike. The People’s Front is discussed though. Contrary to what some Conservatives, and a few newspapers too, have alleged, there is no foreign interference with this movement: it isn’t a Soviet proxy. MI-5 have their eyes on it – Jones pointedly doesn’t say where there are undercover officers or informers within but Hattersley takes note of the non-comment and draws his own conclusions – and will carry on monitoring it less it become a threat to national security. Politically, MI-5 is neutral but they are aware of the desires of outsiders to influence this domestic movement for their own nefarious aims.

Parliament breaks on Tuesday July 31st. Discussions between the parties which form and support the government are due to take place over the summer. The official Labour position is to talk to the Liberals and the SDP to see where comprise can be met in getting more of their agenda through the Commons in the new Parliamentary session. That is thought to be what the summer will be about. However, with the weather looking good and youngsters out of schools & universities, the People’s Front aim to dominate the agenda with more protests and marches planned. They want to carry on applying the pressure to get their way. They’ll try to do this by filling the streets of the disadvantaged and angry in not just London but other British cities too.