British politics as American politics

[James G]

This is something I have been thinking about: British politics as American politics.
There is no real alternate history here in terms of POD and some of the bits are a bit dodgy!

[James G]

State of Her Majesty’s American Government and the Opposition parties in 2020


The House of Commons in the Commonwealth country of America returns six hundred and fifty MPs. These men and women represent constituencies across the width of America including the outlying Alaska; there is no representation in the lower chamber of America’s Parliament from the Caribbean Islands, the Isles of Hawaii nor other distant (and smaller) territorial possessions.

Elected representatives form the highest ranks of the Government though there is no requirement for ministers, even the Prime Minister, to be an MP: convention and practicalities dictate that this is the current case though. The Conservative Party – oft known as ‘the Tories’ – presently form Her Majesty’s American Government after winning the last general election in December 2019 with a majority of representatives returned at the polls. Nine other parties have MPs who make up the Opposition and there is also the Speaker who was elected in his constituency as an Independent.


The Conservatives returned three hundred and sixty-five MPs in last year’s election. Expanding upon their previous total, their victory was deemed a landslide by media commentators when they moved from a minority government to one with a substantial majority. Smashing the so-called ‘Red Wall’ held by the Labour Party for generations, the Conservatives achieved a fourth win on the bounce and reaffirmed their position as the natural party of government in America. The Prime Minister’s personal popularity significantly helped achieve this in the face of many detractors. That Red Wall consisted of areas of the country where the Conservatives had long been deeply unpopular and it has been said that people there ‘lent their vote’ to them in 2019. Voters across the regions of the Great Lakes and The Floridas, plus parts of the East too, elected working class MPs standing for the Conservatives in defiance of traditional Labour ones. When combined with successful contests won in usually strong Conservative regions such as Appalachia, New England, Oregon, The South & Texas, the Conservatives retained power. Yet, among their victory, they lost votes in those heartlands of theirs – in New England in particular – while more than half of their previously-held seats out in California were taken from them. There were nervous moments for many incumbent MPs up in New England in December and tears from defeated MPs across in inland portions of the California regions (in Arizona and Nevada). The Conservatives are generally a party of small cities and rural areas. Here and there they hold a few seats in affluent bits of several big cities where local MPs remain personally popular. New York has a pair of Conservative MPs while Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit each has one. The suburbs around these urban areas, and more, likewise have ‘blue on the map’ but there is no great number. The Red Wall fell yet didn’t bring with it for the Conservatives the cities within them.

Two hundred and two Labour MPs were elected to the Commons last year. Their vote tally from 2017 (the previous general election) fell dramatically and a fifth of their MPs were voted out. Almost all of their seats in The Floridas went blue and the Great Lakes had swathes of red disappear; out in California, only one Labour MP was returned from a previous total of more than half a dozen. Labour MPs represent urban areas though do still have a smattering of seats held elsewhere in the country across certain semi-urban and even a select few rural areas. Up in Alaska, there remains a strong presence and portions of Texas have Labour representation too. Appalachia, Oregon and The Plains haven’t had a Labour MP across them for more than a decade now: not since the last Labour victory at the polls in 2005. Supported by a large number of Americans, Labour has the problem of not always being able to get out the vote and also is often hamstrung by the First Past The Post system too. Traditional support in California is regarded as something from the past now – despite the seats won in 2017 – due to the dominance of the California National Party. In creating the California Parliament in 1999, Labour sought to give the western region of America autonomy and also used what was at the time regarded as a clever ruse with the particular type of election system used there so as to always maintain Labour control in California at a regional and national level. That failed dramatically in 2011 (with the California Parliament being lost) and then was completed in 2015 (when Labour only won one seat in that year’s general election). Without California turning back red, a return to power for Labour where they will form America’s government in Philadelphia is unlikely unless something dramatic happens. They are a left wing party and smaller ones on the left challenge them everywhere for many of the same voters in addition to Labour having to battle the Conservatives.

A left-wing regionalist party, the California National Party (CNP) has forty-eight MPs from the fifty-nine which they contested in the 2019 general election. Coastal California, Inland California and Nevada are seas of yellow with inroads made into the traditionally Conservative heartland of Arizona too. The party is led by the First Minister in Sacramento (where the California Parliament is located) though the Leader in the Philadelphia Parliament holds significant power regardless. 2015 was the breakthrough election for the CNP at the national level and despite some disappointment in 2017, last December’s election has seen them back on top out West. The repeated calls for independence, not just more autonomy, are ceaseless. Devolved powers to the California Parliament are being used more and more, almost always to public support within the California region… less so elsewhere across America. California, led by the CNP, is viewed by many to be on the path towards independence.

The Liberal Democrats are a fusion of the old Liberals and the 1980’s Social Democratic Party. From a high with many dozens of seats won in the 2005 & 2010 general elections, the Lib-Dems have fallen back to their current total of eleven MPs in Parliament in years following that latter election. Going into a Coalition with the Conservatives in 2010 saw the Lib-Dems punished by the voters in the three general elections since. They have failed to recover since despite their protestations, especially last December, that their then leader had a real shot at being Prime Minister. The Lib-Dems hold seats scattered across the country through New England and The South; they have four in California too with a trio of those being in Nevada. Formerly strong in Oregon and even Alaska, those days are long gone. The Lib-Dems retain much of their protest party image yet the memories of the Coalition and the alleged betrayal of 2010 are still present in the minds of possible voters.

Another regionalist party, one of those only standing MPs in the Rockies region, where others such as the Conservatives & Labour do not stand, is the Democratic Loyalist Party (DLP). The DLP is a right-wing semi-nativist party with a Protestant base of support. Down through the Rockies, from Colorado to the border city of Victoriatown – Victoria to the DLP’s opponents – on the Mexican border, the party has eight of the eighteen seats available in this region. 2019 was the first election where a Loyalist party hasn’t won the majority of elections for MPs to Philadelphia. Of the eight DLP representatives in the Commons, only one of them won a seat in the Denver area with others in the rural areas of Colorado and Wyoming: Rio Grande and the city of Victoria is fully in Nationalist hands. The Rockies Loyalist Party (RLP) was once the dominant Rockies party before the DLP replaced them yet the DLP has been stung by recent nationalist success across the region and there are fresh memories (bad ones) of the role which the DLP played in supporting the Conservative government during the 2017-2019 Parliament. Demographics aren’t on the DLP’s side in a region beset by sectarianism.

Santa Lucha (Holy Struggle) is the second-placed party in the Rockies with seven MPs elected last December to Philadelphia. None of them take their seats as their party’s policy is to not recognise the Monarch’s sovereignty over the Rockies region. Despite the Spanish name, few voters for Santa Lucha speak Spanish nor were born down in Mexico either: almost all are Catholic though. The seven MPs are all on the left with much effort made at local community engagement. Philadelphia’s rule isn’t recognised as legitimate but the party takes part in the autonomous Rockies Assembly in Denver where they form a coalition of necessity with the DLP for the devolved government. Historic connections to terrorism are regularly thrown at Santa Lucha. Nationalist terrorism finally ended decades ago, along with the subsequent Loyalist terrorism too, but there remains the links which opponents, including the Conservatives, refer to with abandon at every opportunity. This is often richly deserved too.

In Alaska, the regionalist party Vecherinka na Alyaske (Party of Alaska) returned four MPs at the last general election. They have a presence in the Alaskan Assembly though Labour holds the reins of power there with the Conservatives in second place: a situation repeated in representation of MPs from Alaska to Philadelphia. The party promotes the Russian language and cultural identity to the homeland from where many ancestors to Alaska came. Another left-wing party, like other Nationalists in the Commons, the Vecherinka na Alyaske has a far larger vocal presence than its numerical strength. Voters in Alaska generally send MPs from the bigger American parties to Parliament yet the small party still has its many strengths and a dedicated local following.

The Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) is a sister party of the national Labour Party and contests elections in the Rockies. With a Catholic base of support in the sectarian politics of the Rockies, the SDLP is considered to be moderates in comparison to Santa Lucha. They have been eclipsed in recent years by that now larger party. They have two MPs to Philadelphia in addition to a minority presence in the Rockies Assembly: these pair of national representatives won their seats from voters in Denver and Victoriatown/Victoria.

The Alliance Party of the Rockies is yet another regionalist party only contesting seats in that region yet maintains a non-sectarian policy in defiance of what others do. One MP sits in the Philadelphia Parliament and there is a regional presence in the devolved assembly too. Young, urban voters in Denver – less so Victoriatown/Victoria – are the base of support for the Alliance Party yet the single seat held is out in rural Colorado some distance from the city of Denver. First Past The Post causes votes for them to be considered ‘wasted’ in national elections.

Elected for the seat of Miami-Biscayne down in The Floridas, the Green Party of America has one MP despite a big presence nationwide. Miami has always been a bit ‘different’ to elsewhere in the country and the Greens have put in much effort into holding this seat for several general elections in a row now: the personal vote for their MP there is strong. In further parts of the country, the Greens are ensured thousands of votes in constituency seats yet have long failed to expand upon their success seen in Miami. Once more, the election system of First Past The Post keeps their presence in Philadelphia limited to the one seat.

The current Speaker of the House of Commons is a former Labour politician. He ran for his constituency seat in Akron as an Independent, uncontested by the main parties as per tradition. He is an MP though with the responsibilities of that role while acting as a neutral arbitrator in Parliament. Many other parties, old and new, of different sizes and outlooks, contested the last general election and can be considered to have an influence (even if small) in national politics. In terms of individual votes, the Ameriexit Party came six in December 2019. Newly-formed, the single issue party formed around the matter of American exit from the trading bloc the Americas Union cost Labour many seats allowing the Conservatives to ‘come through the middle’ in portions of the Great Lakes, The East and The Floridas. No constituencies were won by them though. The RLP was unable to gain Philadelphia representation and neither was the Texas Party (running in 28 seats across the region of Texas) too. The Green Party of California, the American Independence Party, the Liberals and the Independent Group for Transformation all gained tens of thousands of nationwide votes for no electoral success. With the latter, this quasi-party held three seats at the dissolution of the last Parliament though those were all defecting MPs from the Conservatives & Labour who voters chose to eject from the Commons.


The next general election legally has to be held before May 2024. Americans can go to the polls ahead of then should MPs vote to have an early election though one isn’t expected this year nor next year neither unless the unexpected happens. Plans drawn up in 2013 for a reduction in seats in Philadelphia, down to six hundred, were supposed to have gone into effect before the last general election yet have been shelved by the current government: there are no plans for a lowering of the figure of MPs for the next election either. National boundary reviews for constituencies will take place before the voters go back to the polls though. Ahead of the collapse of the Red Wall, seat reductions and a boundary review were expected to favour the Conservatives and harm Labour: that election last December has upturned the apple cart with that assumption though due to the Conservatives holding many of those formerly endangered Labour seats that the party now doesn’t want to see abolished or modified.

MPs will be seated from Alaska, California and the Rockies in the next Parliament as per government policy regardless of the desires for independence from some in those regions. Alaskan independence is a pipedream for a small minority (if vocal) number of proponents yet it cannot be ruled out that California and even the Rockies might find away towards independence ahead of 2024. Either of those possible outcomes will have an earthshattering impact on American politics.

[James G]

I broke the United States – simply ‘America’ here – into regions. They aren’t states nor countries. What they are is similar to the Government Office Regions spread across Britain, transposed onto America. The comparisons aren’t perfect!

Alaska – UK comparison is Wales
Appalachia – UK comparison is the East Midlands
California – UK comparison is Scotland
The East – UK comparison is the West Midlands
The Floridas – UK comparison is the West of England
Great Lakes – UK comparison is the North of England
New England – UK comparison is the South of England
Oregon – UK comparison is the South-West of England
The Plains – UK comparison is again the South-West of England
Rockies – UK comparison is Northern Ireland
The South – UK comparison is the South-East of England
Texas – UK comparison is Yorkshire


( California includes the OTL Arizona and Nevada, maybe Utah
The Floridas includes the OTL coastal portions of Alabama and Mississippi
Oregon includes the OTL Idaho and Washington state
Rockies includes the OTL Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming
Texas includes the OTL Louisiana and Oklahoma )

[american2006]

Oct 15, 2020 18:29:03 GMT James G said:

I broke the United States – simply ‘America’ here – into regions. They aren’t states nor countries. What they are is similar to the Government Office Regions spread across Britain, transposed onto America. The comparisons aren’t perfect!

Alaska – UK comparison is Wales
Appalachia – UK comparison is the East Midlands
California – UK comparison is Scotland
The East – UK comparison is the West Midlands
The Floridas – UK comparison is the West of England
Great Lakes – UK comparison is the North of England
New England – UK comparison is the South of England
Oregon – UK comparison is the South-West of England
The Plains – UK comparison is again the South-West of England
Rockies – UK comparison is Northern Ireland
The South – UK comparison is the South-East of England
Texas – UK comparison is Yorkshire


( California includes the OTL Arizona and Nevada, maybe Utah
The Floridas includes the OTL coastal portions of Alabama and Mississippi
Oregon includes the OTL Idaho and Washington state
Rockies includes the OTL Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming
Texas includes the OTL Louisiana and Oklahoma )

I really do like this, but I think on the American side there are a few issues. First, New England is highly liberal, I’m consumed as to how they’d vote for the Conservatives. Second, how many MPs are there?

[James G]

Oct 20, 2020 15:44:15 GMT american2006 said:

Oct 15, 2020 18:29:03 GMT James G said:

I broke the United States – simply ‘America’ here – into regions. They aren’t states nor countries. What they are is similar to the Government Office Regions spread across Britain, transposed onto America. The comparisons aren’t perfect!

Alaska – UK comparison is Wales
Appalachia – UK comparison is the East Midlands
California – UK comparison is Scotland
The East – UK comparison is the West Midlands
The Floridas – UK comparison is the West of England
Great Lakes – UK comparison is the North of England
New England – UK comparison is the South of England
Oregon – UK comparison is the South-West of England
The Plains – UK comparison is again the South-West of England
Rockies – UK comparison is Northern Ireland
The South – UK comparison is the South-East of England
Texas – UK comparison is Yorkshire


( California includes the OTL Arizona and Nevada, maybe Utah
The Floridas includes the OTL coastal portions of Alabama and Mississippi
Oregon includes the OTL Idaho and Washington state
Rockies includes the OTL Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming
Texas includes the OTL Louisiana and Oklahoma )

I really do like this, but I think on the American side there are a few issues. First, New England is highly liberal, I’m consumed as to how they’d vote for the Conservatives. Second, how many MPs are there?

Thank you. Oh, I agree, it is far from perfect.
As a non-American, I am not as up to speed on American politics as natives, but when you say New England is liberal, it depends what kind of liberal you mean. Britain's Conservatives are oft-regarded as to the left of Biden... not Bernie/AOC left, but nowhere near Republican levels of conservatism. Brexit populism does distort things. Labour here could easily win the cities but, faced with a hard left Labour in December 2019, my thinking here would be that voters held their noses and voted for the least worst option. I could be very, very wrong on this though.
There would be 650 MPs. That's more Reps than the US Congress has but there are no Senators.

[american2006]

Oct 20, 2020 20:04:56 GMT James G said:

Oct 20, 2020 15:44:15 GMT american2006 said:

I really do like this, but I think on the American side there are a few issues. First, New England is highly liberal, I’m consumed as to how they’d vote for the Conservatives. Second, how many MPs are there?

Thank you. Oh, I agree, it is far from perfect.
As a non-American, I am not as up to speed on American politics as natives, but when you say New England is liberal, it depends what kind of liberal you mean. Britain's Conservatives are oft-regarded as to the left of Biden... not Bernie/AOC left, but nowhere near Republican levels of conservatism. Brexit populism does distort things. Labour here could easily win the cities but, faced with a hard left Labour in December 2019, my thinking here would be that voters held their noses and voted for the least worst option. I could be very, very wrong on this though.
There would be 650 MPs. That's more Reps than the US Congress has but there are no Senators.

I can see what your saying, so I’ll kinda explain it. If Biden is center-left and Trump is right (politically on the right), New England is a left or far left. Texas is around the center, California is left, cities are far left, you were pretty on point with the Great Lakes and Florida, Oregon though (especially if it includes Washington) is on the left.

[stevep]

Oct 20, 2020 20:04:56 GMT James G said:

Oct 20, 2020 15:44:15 GMT american2006 said:

I really do like this, but I think on the American side there are a few issues. First, New England is highly liberal, I’m consumed as to how they’d vote for the Conservatives. Second, how many MPs are there?

Thank you. Oh, I agree, it is far from perfect.
As a non-American, I am not as up to speed on American politics as natives, but when you say New England is liberal, it depends what kind of liberal you mean. Britain's Conservatives are oft-regarded as to the left of Biden... not Bernie/AOC left, but nowhere near Republican levels of conservatism. Brexit populism does distort things. Labour here could easily win the cities but, faced with a hard left Labour in December 2019, my thinking here would be that voters held their noses and voted for the least worst option. I could be very, very wrong on this though.
There would be 650 MPs. That's more Reps than the US Congress has but there are no Senators.

  I think part of the problem is when comparing apples with pears.  The Tories are to the left of Biden in some areas but fairly well aligned with the current Republicans in others.  Similarly both Republicans and Democrats are loud nationalists, as are the Tories, whereas Labour and the Lib Dems are much less likely to press the national button, at least in terms of perceived external threats.  On the other hand the left in Britain is more nationalistic in social terms than either the Tories or any but the more left wing elements of the Democrats in the US when it comes to getting a well educated and healthy population that can maintain the countries social and economic strength.