Hugh Gaitskell
Labour Premiership, 1963-1968, won election 1963
Gaitskell making use of the state media.
Gaitskell swept to power in 1963, and in retrospect laid out the framework for much of what we consider "Modern Britain". Attempting to rehabilitate the Macmillan's new immigration laws as "nationality and not racially based", he was responsible for several liberal social reforms, including new racial discrimination laws, an end to the death penalty and the legalisation of homosexuality. A gulf with Rhodesia, attempting to unilaterally break away over race relations in the colony, demonstrated a considerable lack of capability of the armed forces however compared to Gaitskell's objectives of more active intervention against the white minority administration. It laid out the context for the 1965 Defence White Paper, setting out future requirements for the armed forces, whilst placing troops in Aden to quell unrest there, as well as the military beginning to transform in to the modern day force instead of a more conscription-based force from World War II. Attempts to bring the United Kingdom in to Vietnam were made by the United States, and initially Gaitskell was receptive seeing it as a way to mend bridges - the British forces had experience from the Malayan Emergency. However, the American desire for "boots on the ground" to support rather than just advisors meant that Gaitskell had little motivation to get involved in a war on the other side of the planet to the UK, especially given the British awareness of the lack of domestic support for Diem's South Vietnamese regime and it's almost complete dependence on the United States. Kennedy and Gaitskell could find little to see eye to eye on, despite being on the same side, it seemed.
Under pressure domestically from his Labour MPs - whether on reasons of principle, financial or other, many other countries proceeded towards increased autonomy or sovereignty - Nigeria finally officially became a Dominion within the Commonwealth, as did East Africa, whilst several other smaller states (often in the Pacific) moved towards what was increasingly called "dependency" status - the UK only providing defence, foreign affairs and ensuring "good governance". Accordingly, the British Empire shrank and the British Commonwealth swelled in membership, but this was predominately larger countries, whilst smaller territories remained dependant on the United Kingdom. This was usually for financial reasons as those smaller territories contained small populations, and it was also often seen as undesirable and diluting in the Commonwealth to admit a large number of tiny states. Despite this "triumph" of independence of new nations and Dominions, the presence of large and powerful countries on the Commonwealth made it more difficult for the UK to maintain it's figurehead position; the old guard (often now known as the "White Commonwealth") were frequently opposed by the new powerful members, often eager to realise their national policy objectives. The likes of India and Pakistan, who often focused on racial issues within the Commonwealth, were swiftly joined by Nigeria and East Africa (although South Africa had left in 1961), all large and significant member states. Economic and foreign relations inevitably began to change from the historic imperial relations to new geographical neighbours, a focus on opposing Apartheid in South Africa, and handling the growing crisis in Rhodesia. The latter proved to be a divisive topic in Commonwealth meetings, with African states eager for harder line action - including potential military action - to enforce majority rule in Rhodesia, and the UK especially balking at the prospect of taking arms against what would be a largely ex-British group in Rhodesia.
In to this came Gaitskell's queries towards greater Commonwealth/Imperial free trade in preparation for the Commonwealth 1966 Commonwealth meeting. Gaitskell was keen to try and shore up an economy which was beginning to struggle in the face of continued growth in Europe. Commonwealth trade with the United Kingdom was on a firm downward trend as former colonies found Dominionhood and new trade partners - the United States in particular was rapidly replacing the UK as a principal trade partner. The recent discussions with Diefenbaker in to balancing Canadian trade between both the United States and United Kingdom were moot however, with the replacement of Diefenbaker as Canadian Prime Minister by Pearson, whilst both Australia and New Zealand were wary of further free trade preventing their nascent industries from becoming self-sufficient and continuing as a mere agricultural & resource supplier to the UK. Likewise, India was attempting to diversify away from it's British past, and East Africa had little time for what it saw as neo-colonial attempts by Britain. The gentle feelers put out in advance of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers meeting were therefore met with polite indifference to the concept, and it died a rapid death once again. The UK just wasn't able to compete by itself with the trade power of the United States, and was also struggling to be the prime defence and foreign policy partner in the Commonwealth Australasia / Pacific area given it's position on the opposite side of the globe to the UK. The need to devalue the pound sterling in the late 1960s, reflecting Britain's economic insecurities, did little to help Commonwealth ties, and served to further push other Commonwealth members away (*1).
As such, the UK-French relationship continued to evolve, with joint technological projects to split costs forming early on, especially in the aviation sector. Many projects saw publicly celebrated agreements and co-operation between Britain and France; the Channel Tunnel agreement was signed in 1964 (*2) along with a commitment to a new high speed rail service between London and Paris through the tunnel. A supersonic airliner was investigated, but dropped due to lack of funds (*3) although this spurred the creation of an Anglo-French aircraft manufacturer,
Airbus, which would also rapidly bring in the Germans to make it a pan-European organisation (*4). Co-operation within the military aviation area was more difficult, given the number of well established national defence contractors, with competing commercial interests.
Domestically, the key points enacted under Gaitskell's Premiership was the widespread introduction of the metric system to the United Kingdom. This had been discussed at the 1962 Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference, and duly backed by all; metrication was the future it seemed, and Gaitskell definitely agreed having backed widespread metrication for many years. With Commonwealth partners adopting it, and trade partners in Europe (including all Common Market members) already operating at least predominately in metric, adopting a metric system in the UK would aid the export market and simplify a raft of administration.
Firstly was the decimalisation of the currency. Reports from 1960 by the British Chambers of Commerce had advocated for decimalisation, whilst a Government committee had also corroborated this in 1963 with an official report backing the decimalisation of Britain's currency. It seemed the only question left was how, but this was quickly answered by a raft of financial institutions, not least HM Treasury and Bank of England. These two backed the retention of pound sterling with a consistent value due to it's international usage and status as a reserve currency, with only the subdivision changed from 12 shillings or 240 (old) pence, to 100 (new) pence. Legislation was introduced in 1965, and immediately work began in to conversion of currency in to decimalised penny coins or 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 25p (*5) and 50p in order to simplify the conversion. This meant that the old Shilling, Florin and Crown coins could continue in circulation until replacement, being as they equalled 5p, 10p and 25p accordingly. Decimal Day, the official switchover to decimal currency in the "real world" was announced for 1970; after the next election. Such a move, in due time, would significantly simplify accounting and financial processes, whilst a raft of consumer aids were produced including dual-priced labels well in advance of Decimal Day, and pocket-sized conversion tables to aid in the switch.
The other side of the change was the metrication of the country. This introduced sweeping changes - not particularly popular at the time, and usually presumed to be part of the (but not the only) reason for the following election result which saw the Conservative party returned to government. This saw the imperial system dropped and metric system introduced in virtually every facet of British life.. The fledgling motorways in Britain would now be signed with metric distances (and later speed limits when introduced), meaning the southern end of the M1 motorway was resigned after only a few years (*6). This led to a confusing driving experience for some for several years as the motorways went metric, and connecting roads took far longer to receive metric signs (in some cases over a decade). As ministers commented; "you can't do everything at once - this will take time and you might as well start with the brand new roads", and the metrication programme was predicted to last 10-12 years anyhow. The metric programme touched virtually every part of British life, with standards from electrical wiring, to sports pitch sizes, to food packaging weights being converted to metric units, and such a huge change took far longer than estimates predicted - signposts in miles could easily be found well in to the 1990s in rural areas, although speed limits were far quicker to change (in only a few years) to avoid legal loopholes. Although much of this was driven in collaboration with the Commonwealth and to make trade with Europe (and the Common Market itself) easier, Gaitskell remained aloof of participation in the Common Market itself, having no time for the notion of subsuming the United Kingdom in to the European club and doing away with a thousand years of history as he put it.
In Malta, the nation had now been part of the United Kingdom for 4 years by the time of Gaitskell's entry to Downing Street. A whole hearted attempt by the British Government was under way in Malta, with the Valleta dockyards modernised to better function as the Royal Navy centre of Mediterranean operations. Integration was, although supported in a referendum, not a universally backed move in Malta, and the UK was particularly careful with regards to the Catholic Church in Malta - encouraging but not forcing "social progression" as seen elsewhere in Europe, which reflected the integration agreements over what would become Maltese devolution. Westminster backing for the Maltese government moves to back and develop the tourism sector in Malta were well received, as was the provision of UK-wide social benefits such as unemployment pay and other national insurance options - although the provision of UK pensions would take some time to filter through. The merging of the post office in to the UK wide General Post Office allowed the deployment of the
Girobank banking service which was offered via the GPO - this was a banking service targeted at those who had been unable to use the main commercial banks before.
In addition to Malta, towards the end of Gaitskell's Premiership, discussions between the United Kingdom and Spain began over the future of Gibraltar. Initially placed on a "Dependant Territories" list due to an oversight by British officials, missing the fact that the Treaty of Utrecht prevented Gibraltar from becoming independent, discussions continued between Britain and Spain over the future of
The Rock together with a tightening of Spanish restrictions against Gibraltar. What resulted was a suggestion from the Spanish government, then a dictatorship under the leadership of Franco, for what would in effect be the integration of Gibraltar in to Spain as a highly devolved Spanish territory. The Gibraltarians balked at this. Legislation in Gibraltar to organise a referendum in 1967 over this topic initially saw two options proposed - integration with Spain, or the continuation of the existing situation as a British dependency. However, following the example of Malta, the Gibraltar Integration Party succeeded in amending the proposed referendum, with a third choice added in tight circumstances during the Legislative Council debates; pursue integration with the United Kingdom.
The referendum was held at the end of 1967, towards the end of Gaitskell's electoral term, and surprisingly the integration with Britain option won the referendum - often attributed to the hard tactics employed by Spain towards Gibraltar. A period of reflection and negotiation planning was interrupted however, by the requirements for a 1968 UK General Election. It would turn out to be Gaitskell's farewell to Downing Street, and Gibraltar would be someone else's choice to make.
---------------------------
Notes: Gaitskell living longer (a 1953/1956 PoD) as he stands a chance of lupus at least developing very differently. Gaitskell is on record as having no interest in leading the UK in to the EEC, but also on the record as favouring metrication and decimalisation which obviously will feed in to UK-EEC harmonisation.
(*1) No future for Commonwealth trade or closer links really. The growing closeness of the UK and France also probably looks like a) a less strong partner as it can't do things solely by itself any more and b) a greater commitment to Europe rather than the global Commonwealth. Unlike OTL European accession being seen as the UK turning it's back on the Empire, this will make it clearer that both the Commonwealth and the UK are turning away from each other. Given Gaitskell's OTL severe lack of enthusiasm for the (European) Common Market, I see at least queries in to the possibility of greater free trade within the Commonwealth by Gaitskell to be inevitable.
(*2) Earlier Channel Tunnel which was begun and then cancelled in OTL; carries through here due to much closer UK-French relations.
(*3) Concorde is cancelled on cost grounds....well the purse is not unlimited. Saves a good amount of cash too.
(*4) UK remains committed to Airbus instead of getting cold feet.
(*5) 25p coin instead of 20p coin. Probably the only change here, to me it seems obvious as it means the continued use of the Crown coin is possible - I'd point out this is the same subdivision as the Maltese Pound/Lira in OTL too, which here obviously is directly using UK Pound Sterling, but with the rights to print it's own notes (same situation as OTL Northern Irish & Scottish banks).
(*6) This is probably the biggest change here; I can find several references in Hansard about Gaitskell advocating for metrication, so I figure the motorways (then under construction) are an easy first target for road metrication, with other roads following to metric over the next 10-12 years. Although I guess there will be some smaller rural/country lanes signs will last for decades as commented.
Apologies for the length, this kinda span out rapidly as I started writing, editing and tweaking!
