A united Ireland under the benevolent rule of Michael Collins/Liam Neeson, what's not to like?
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Maybe the French people finally became conscious to the tyranny they were suffering and in a swift revolution, reinstated the Commune? 
I'm curious about what's with Antonine as well, their last post in this thread was also their last post on the forum.
I'm curious about what's with Antonine as well, their last post in this thread was also their last post on the forum.
Very sorry for the lengthy delay - real life has been ridiculously hectic and it just seems to be getting more so. Nevertheless, I am committed to posting an update tomorrow if not tonight.
Update is now written - just need to find some pictures for it tomorrow and then I'll be able to post it.
Occupied Britain - Part III
The post-war story of England is one so lengthy and complicated that it warrants its own volume - and indeed there have been many published on this subject. However, the impact of post-war English development on the shape of the modern world is so significant that this history would not be complete without mentioning it in passing.
The first Powell Ministry, as it has been retroactively named, faced challenges unprecedented in English history.
The nation’s industry and infrastructure had been destroyed by the war, large segments of the population remained sympathetic to syndicalism, London lay in ruins, southern Hampshire remained under French military occupation in order to keep secret the humanitarian disaster caused by the atomic bombing of Portsmouth and a country which had once ruled the waves was now reduced to near puppet status at the hands of the resurgent French Empire.
Furthermore, Powell’s own cabinet was riven with a division between those who supported his vision of an independent England and those like his chancellor, Winston Churchill, who sought a way to restore the United Kingdom and the British Empire. These divisions, although originally a mere crack, were later to develop into the great fault line that was to dominate English politics for the remainder of the century.
Winston Churchill - Chancellor of the Exchequer 1947 to 1958 and spiritual father of the British Unionist party
However, the economic crisis of reconstruction took priority - and this common purpose was to have a unifying effect throughout the rocky early years of the independent English nation.
Following the French Empire’s model of a dirigisme or “state capitalism” where the government played a key role in the economy - acting as a force investing in and heavily directing the national economy - Powell began by co-opting and renaming much of the Union of Britain’s bureaucracy and institutions in order to manage the work of reconstruction.
Posters extolling the Ten Year Plan and its goal of building a "New Jerusalem" were a common sight in post-war England
In particular, Powell announced a ‘Ten Year Plan’ for reconstruction which included the founding of several mighty new ministries - the most notable of which were the Ministry of Rationing, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Housing.
Together, these ministries set about tackling the “five great challenges” of rebuilding England’s devastated housing stock, rebuilding industry and infrastructure, managing limited food supplies and reducing the nation’s dependence on food imports.
Reconstruction was helped in particular with the decision by the French Empire to provide each of newly independent nations with economic assistance in the form of shipments of grain, strategic metals, oil, coal and hard currency.
These provided the essentials necessary to keep England running whilst railways, roads and factories were rebuilt and coal mining was restarted. More importantly, while thousands of people remained homeless and forced to shelter in schools, town halls and gymnasiums, the spectre of starvation was kept at bay - something which, perhaps more than anything, allowed Powell’s government to stave off civil unrest.
Furthermore, Powell found a use for much of the now unemployed manpower of the munitions workers and the largely pardoned ex-Union of Britain military forces - less than a hundred prominent officers and trade unionists were executed by the post-war tribunals - by introducing compulsory national service and conscripting hundreds of thousands of men and women into new “civil battalions” to build motorways and railways, work on the decollectivised farms and build tens of thousands of new homes to replace the housing stock destroyed by the war.
The M1 motorway at its opening - one of many motorways built by the civil battalions
Those in the civil battallions received, in exchange for their labour, food, accommodation and a lowly wage of ten shillings a week - but this still represented an improvement over unemployment and occupied many who might otherwise have attempted a second revolution if left to malinger.
Additionally, a high priority for Powell was building a new English military powerful enough to guard the northern border against a potential invasion from German-occupied Scotland and to turn the nation into a military equal, rather than a subject state, of the French Empire.
In order to do this, all those who had served in the armed forces of the Union of Britain and who had received a pardon from the tribunals were offered the chance to join the new Royal English Army, Navy and Air Force at the same pay and rank as they had held previously.
Supplemented by conscripts on national service, this allowed England to rapidly build up a new army which would, within a decade, match the French Empire’s in size - although the air force and navy lagged significantly behind.
Furthermore, the contracts for equipment and weapons for the new English military were offered exclusively to newly created state owned corporations rather than to the French Empire’s own state owned corporations - much to their disappointment. These contracts, more than anything else, provided much needed economic stimulus and jobs for England’s industrial heartlands and, like many other state funded programmes, would prove a cornerstone of England’s post-war economic miracle.
Ultimately, the Ten Year Plan was to prove a near unbridled success. Despite long years of austerity, the retention of syndicalist institutions like the National Health Service and the slow but steady economic recovery would lead to a sustained rise in living standards and full employment throughout the fifties and sixties.
Saint George's Court in Sheffield - one of the more architecturally radical post-war housing developments
But of all the Powell reforms, the longest lasting were to prove his political ones.
The most visibly obvious of these was the decision to base his government and the new ministries in his native Birmingham, making it the temporary de facto capital of England. There were sound reasons for this due to the devastation of much of central London and continuing syndicalist sympathies amongst the east enders which made governing from the de jure capital impossible. Nevertheless, even after London had been largely rebuilt, many ministries and national industries decided to remain in Birmingham rather than relocate to the brutalist, utilitarian buildings of London.
Thus, while London returned to being the seat of government within a decade, the post-war construction had caused a permanent shift in the balance of economic power away from London - the capital would remain an economic powerhouse but it would permanently be rivalled by the cities of northern England.
The New Palace of Westminster is a spectacular example of the brutalist architecture typical of the new government buildings built under the Ten Year Plan
However, less visible, but equally notable were the changes to the political structures of England itself. The syndicates and unions which had formed a powerful tier of local government under the Union of Britain were outlawed and had many of their powers transferred to new parish councils - a reflection of Powell’s belief in the need for a Christian rebirth of the country. This government support for Christianity was also reflected in the changing of the national anthem to Jerusalem and the restoration of the House of Lords (stripped of hereditary peers) which was notable for the large contingent of Anglican bishops who actually made up a far greater proportion of peers than they had prior to the 1925 Revolution.
And, while parish councils would hold their first elections in 1948, it would not be until the end of the Ten Year Plan in 1957 that elections would be held for the House of Commons. These elections would be marked, most notably, by the restriction of the vote solely to the generally male heads of households - a shift towards a more patriarchal form of democracy as a way to firmly put English syndicalism in the grave by rigging the franchise to prevent neo-syndicalists from winning.
Whilst this mechanism would successfully lead to a landslide majority for Powell and his National Unity party, the disenfranchisement of women and young people created a ticking time bomb which would ultimately explode in the civil unrest of the seventies and eighties and the fall of the Fourth Powell Ministry.
Nonetheless, the political Powell reforms, like many of his policies, while excessive and storing up problems for the future, provided much needed stability as England transitioned from syndicalism to democracy.
In the French Empire itself, Powell’s changes were watched with approval by Napoleon IV and by De Gaulle (the latter in particular had found a kindred spirit in Powell) as England progressed swiftly to becoming a strong new ally in the Cold War with the German Empire. And, whilst the fierce nationalism and protectionism of Powell was a disappointment to French businessmen who had hoped to benefit from unfettered access to England’s markets, this was but a trivial concern to the Empire as it focused more and more resources on both matching Germany militarily and trying to put the atomic genie back in its bottle.
The post-war story of England is one so lengthy and complicated that it warrants its own volume - and indeed there have been many published on this subject. However, the impact of post-war English development on the shape of the modern world is so significant that this history would not be complete without mentioning it in passing.
The first Powell Ministry, as it has been retroactively named, faced challenges unprecedented in English history.
The nation’s industry and infrastructure had been destroyed by the war, large segments of the population remained sympathetic to syndicalism, London lay in ruins, southern Hampshire remained under French military occupation in order to keep secret the humanitarian disaster caused by the atomic bombing of Portsmouth and a country which had once ruled the waves was now reduced to near puppet status at the hands of the resurgent French Empire.
Furthermore, Powell’s own cabinet was riven with a division between those who supported his vision of an independent England and those like his chancellor, Winston Churchill, who sought a way to restore the United Kingdom and the British Empire. These divisions, although originally a mere crack, were later to develop into the great fault line that was to dominate English politics for the remainder of the century.
Winston Churchill - Chancellor of the Exchequer 1947 to 1958 and spiritual father of the British Unionist party
However, the economic crisis of reconstruction took priority - and this common purpose was to have a unifying effect throughout the rocky early years of the independent English nation.
Following the French Empire’s model of a dirigisme or “state capitalism” where the government played a key role in the economy - acting as a force investing in and heavily directing the national economy - Powell began by co-opting and renaming much of the Union of Britain’s bureaucracy and institutions in order to manage the work of reconstruction.
Posters extolling the Ten Year Plan and its goal of building a "New Jerusalem" were a common sight in post-war England
In particular, Powell announced a ‘Ten Year Plan’ for reconstruction which included the founding of several mighty new ministries - the most notable of which were the Ministry of Rationing, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Housing.
Together, these ministries set about tackling the “five great challenges” of rebuilding England’s devastated housing stock, rebuilding industry and infrastructure, managing limited food supplies and reducing the nation’s dependence on food imports.
Reconstruction was helped in particular with the decision by the French Empire to provide each of newly independent nations with economic assistance in the form of shipments of grain, strategic metals, oil, coal and hard currency.
These provided the essentials necessary to keep England running whilst railways, roads and factories were rebuilt and coal mining was restarted. More importantly, while thousands of people remained homeless and forced to shelter in schools, town halls and gymnasiums, the spectre of starvation was kept at bay - something which, perhaps more than anything, allowed Powell’s government to stave off civil unrest.
Furthermore, Powell found a use for much of the now unemployed manpower of the munitions workers and the largely pardoned ex-Union of Britain military forces - less than a hundred prominent officers and trade unionists were executed by the post-war tribunals - by introducing compulsory national service and conscripting hundreds of thousands of men and women into new “civil battalions” to build motorways and railways, work on the decollectivised farms and build tens of thousands of new homes to replace the housing stock destroyed by the war.
The M1 motorway at its opening - one of many motorways built by the civil battalions
Those in the civil battallions received, in exchange for their labour, food, accommodation and a lowly wage of ten shillings a week - but this still represented an improvement over unemployment and occupied many who might otherwise have attempted a second revolution if left to malinger.
Additionally, a high priority for Powell was building a new English military powerful enough to guard the northern border against a potential invasion from German-occupied Scotland and to turn the nation into a military equal, rather than a subject state, of the French Empire.
In order to do this, all those who had served in the armed forces of the Union of Britain and who had received a pardon from the tribunals were offered the chance to join the new Royal English Army, Navy and Air Force at the same pay and rank as they had held previously.
Supplemented by conscripts on national service, this allowed England to rapidly build up a new army which would, within a decade, match the French Empire’s in size - although the air force and navy lagged significantly behind.
Furthermore, the contracts for equipment and weapons for the new English military were offered exclusively to newly created state owned corporations rather than to the French Empire’s own state owned corporations - much to their disappointment. These contracts, more than anything else, provided much needed economic stimulus and jobs for England’s industrial heartlands and, like many other state funded programmes, would prove a cornerstone of England’s post-war economic miracle.
Ultimately, the Ten Year Plan was to prove a near unbridled success. Despite long years of austerity, the retention of syndicalist institutions like the National Health Service and the slow but steady economic recovery would lead to a sustained rise in living standards and full employment throughout the fifties and sixties.
Saint George's Court in Sheffield - one of the more architecturally radical post-war housing developments
But of all the Powell reforms, the longest lasting were to prove his political ones.
The most visibly obvious of these was the decision to base his government and the new ministries in his native Birmingham, making it the temporary de facto capital of England. There were sound reasons for this due to the devastation of much of central London and continuing syndicalist sympathies amongst the east enders which made governing from the de jure capital impossible. Nevertheless, even after London had been largely rebuilt, many ministries and national industries decided to remain in Birmingham rather than relocate to the brutalist, utilitarian buildings of London.
Thus, while London returned to being the seat of government within a decade, the post-war construction had caused a permanent shift in the balance of economic power away from London - the capital would remain an economic powerhouse but it would permanently be rivalled by the cities of northern England.
The New Palace of Westminster is a spectacular example of the brutalist architecture typical of the new government buildings built under the Ten Year Plan
However, less visible, but equally notable were the changes to the political structures of England itself. The syndicates and unions which had formed a powerful tier of local government under the Union of Britain were outlawed and had many of their powers transferred to new parish councils - a reflection of Powell’s belief in the need for a Christian rebirth of the country. This government support for Christianity was also reflected in the changing of the national anthem to Jerusalem and the restoration of the House of Lords (stripped of hereditary peers) which was notable for the large contingent of Anglican bishops who actually made up a far greater proportion of peers than they had prior to the 1925 Revolution.
And, while parish councils would hold their first elections in 1948, it would not be until the end of the Ten Year Plan in 1957 that elections would be held for the House of Commons. These elections would be marked, most notably, by the restriction of the vote solely to the generally male heads of households - a shift towards a more patriarchal form of democracy as a way to firmly put English syndicalism in the grave by rigging the franchise to prevent neo-syndicalists from winning.
Whilst this mechanism would successfully lead to a landslide majority for Powell and his National Unity party, the disenfranchisement of women and young people created a ticking time bomb which would ultimately explode in the civil unrest of the seventies and eighties and the fall of the Fourth Powell Ministry.
Nonetheless, the political Powell reforms, like many of his policies, while excessive and storing up problems for the future, provided much needed stability as England transitioned from syndicalism to democracy.
In the French Empire itself, Powell’s changes were watched with approval by Napoleon IV and by De Gaulle (the latter in particular had found a kindred spirit in Powell) as England progressed swiftly to becoming a strong new ally in the Cold War with the German Empire. And, whilst the fierce nationalism and protectionism of Powell was a disappointment to French businessmen who had hoped to benefit from unfettered access to England’s markets, this was but a trivial concern to the Empire as it focused more and more resources on both matching Germany militarily and trying to put the atomic genie back in its bottle.
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Thanks very much - I'm touched by your concern
The reason for my absence has been as follows: crucial by-election in Eastleigh, Hampshire plus dissertation plus party conference equals one very busy Antonine
Excellent update. I'm wondering, the St Georges Courts...is that image from Habitat 67, in Montréal?
Thanks very much - I'm touched by your concern
The reason for my absence has been as follows: crucial by-election in Eastleigh, Hampshire plus dissertation plus party conference equals one very busy Antonine
Ah, so you're active on the British political scene, eh? I was considering joining a third party over on my side of the pond. I need to make absolutely sure I can relate to the other members, first (I am not opposed to progressive income taxation, which might cause friction with a couple of people).
EDIT: I decided last night that I would nominate Christian Bale to play the starring role in Fall From Grace.
I'm going to commend you tremendously for making Powell's England exponents of brutalism - the most underrated of all architectural currents.
I think I actually once posted a link to my blog in this thread which is where I tend to do all my political ramblings and such. But yeah, guilty as charged. I must confess that it's very strange to be writing an AAR where things seem to be running pretty much opposite to the things I believe in
Of course, if I were American it would probably be very easy politically - I'd either join the Greens or just start my own party XD
Thanks
To be honest, I used to hate brutalism (not least because it led to the destruction of many beautiful old buildings) but it seemed appropriate for post-war England and when I actually went to find photographs to illustrate the update with I found myself warming to brutalism quite a bit as some of the buildings are actually quite nice. Not that I'll ever manage to love the concrete towerblocks though.Pshah! The only good thing about brutalist architecture is their use in dystopian sci-fi movies. other than that it's the worst kind of architecture, worse than the buildings of italian fascism or the pharaonic neoclassicism of the Third Reich. Brutalist architecture makes you feel weak, pathetic, uncomfortable. it's also ugly as hell unless you scrub and clean the concrete every year (which no one does).
Isn't the new Westminster Palace actually the Boston City Hall, Antonine?
Like any other art form architecture is entirely subjective in regard to aesthetics. IMHO, Louis Kahn and his monumental architecture is pretty much a result of Brutalism and Kahn gave us some of the most beautiful modern buildings, such as the national parliament of Bangladesh. Sure there's a lot of crap brutalist architecture, but that's the case with pretty much every style. Well, except Nordic modernism/functionalism
Like any other art form architecture is entirely subjective in regard to aesthetics. IMHO, Louis Kahn and his monumental architecture is pretty much a result of Brutalism and Kahn gave us some of the most beautiful modern buildings, such as the national parliament of Bangladesh. Sure there's a lot of crap brutalist architecture, but that's the case with pretty much every style. Well, except Nordic modernism/functionalism
I think I actually once posted a link to my blog in this thread which is where I tend to do all my political ramblings and such. But yeah, guilty as charged. I must confess that it's very strange to be writing an AAR where things seem to be running pretty much opposite to the things I believe in
The against what i believe! haha i understand rigging the elections a couple of times, it kinda defeats the whole idea of the war for a syndicalist party to be elected and isolate its self from France. I would of thought who can vote will anger a lot of people sooner than the 70's. I'm happy that we have our monarch back and with Queen Elizabeth II. And earlier than what she was crowned in reality. I would of preferred to see a united Britain with a campaign against Ireland, Maybe the war with Germany can result in a 'referendum in the UK resulting in Wales, England and Scotland rejoining to create a United Kingdom'? haha
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