Re: RI October 2024

The Horny Goat 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

Very definitely not initially.  And that is the time under discussion.
  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.

Actually I've read those but I disagree.  Churchill is not the best source on the politics of his cabinet.  He focuses on more important things.
Eden was his favourite, but if Churchill had died, it is far from clear that Eden would have become the PM. He wasn't that popular among the conservative rank and file.  People find it hard to forgive those who have been right when they were wrong, and they'd already had to do  this with Churchill.
Churchill's friend Beaverbrook recommended in mid war that the war cabinet be scrapped and replaced with a three person version, including Bevin, who he clearly regarded as the number two man in the cabinet.
Eden really shored up his position with the backbench conservatives in the postwar years.  Churchill was basically a part-time leader of the opposition, and the work fell to deputy leader Eden, who did it well.

 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.

His stated reason in private was that whoever was PM, Churchill would be the actual decision maker, and Halifax didn't want the job in those terms. He further mentioned that conflict between Asquith and his powerful minister, Lloyd George, had not been good for the country in WWI.
While it is difficult to rule from the Lords, in an emergency it can be done.  This was just a face-saving excuse.  Though it is to Halifax's credit that he recognized the situation.
William Hyde