Re: RI October 2024

In article <7v67ljhjfkp2vgh91f4nhce6b9r6oh3iu0@4ax.com>,
The Horny Goat  <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

On Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:44:38 -0500, William Hyde
<wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>

Churchill said 'yes', but was eventually turfed out in favor of
Eden

>
Let me guess, the author looked up a list of UK cabinet members and
threw a dart?  Eden was well down the list of possible PMs at this
point, with only the war having restored him to the leading circle from
the pariah status he was consigned to in the late 1930s.

>
In real life Eden was the #2 in the wartime coalition maybe not
initially but certainly from 1942 onwards. That becomes clear if
you've read Churchill's history/memoirs of the war. Churchill had
several strong ministers but no question Eden was his #2.
>
Whether that would have made him his replacement had Churchill had an
accident (for instance in late 1944 when he insisted on joining with
the troops when they whizzed into the Rhine) is anybody's guess.
>

And if peace broke out certainly an appeaser like Halifax would have
been handed the job.  Might as well say they gave the PM position to
Brendan Bracken.
>

While Halifax had his partisans in 1940, if you're writing an
alternate history you still have to deal with Halifax's stated reason
for not seeking the top job which was that he did not believe one
could effectively direct the political side of a major war from the
House of Lords.

As I have said, it *was* Halifax.  I got my antique English politicians
mixed up.

The Lords issue did not come up in any conversation.  Presumably it
was dealt with.  WP, quoting Robert Blake apparently, says:

Churchill's political position was weak, although he was
popular with the Labour and Liberal parties for his stance
against appeasement in the 1930s. He was unpopular in the
Conservative Party, however, and he might not have been the
choice of the King. Halifax had the support of most of the
Conservative Party and of the King and was acceptable to
the Labour Party. His position as a peer was a merely
technical barrier given the scale of the crisis, and Churchill
reportedly was willing to serve under Halifax

so people have waved it away at times.
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