Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
Easy Street, I imagine so, I recall the state of the Harriers and Tornados at the time, however, I wondered how long they may have hung on without the cuts of 2010. I'm not saying the Cameron Government did anything particularly radical of course, the point being the impact of the Sub-prime mortgage collapse in the USA and what came about thereafter. There are other points of conjecture, as I said, Brown would have probably got an electoral mandate out of it instead of being consigned to the same position in History as, Callaghan, Douglas-Home and I think Eden? I reckon Cameron would have got in in 2015 and without the Lib Dems, also, as you point out Easy Street, there is always the likelihood that the evisceration of the jets would have continued over a period of time under Brown and then been slowed or halted even under Cameron, so we could be right where we are now anyway, but possibly with the number of Bases still largely unchanged, I'm sure far too much is squeezed onto Lossiemouth in particular. Another couple of what ifs, the SNP may not have got the independence vote in 2014 and should Cameron have become PM in 2015, perhaps there would have been no referendum on the EU. Not lamenting of course, just imagining how far history would have diverged but for the 2008 crash. I understand that if you could disappear say back to Ancient Rome at any point and as much as stepped off onto the soil then back in your time machine or should anyone have seen the machine, things would be radically different by the time to got back to the present.
FB
Just as an observation, Eden won a snap election in 1955. He wanted to avoid any claims that he'd got to power simply by being the obvious successor to Churchill, and thus didn't have a real mandate from the public. An election would've been due in '55 or 1956 anyway, so he went to the country almost as soon as he'd become PM. Got a majority of 60 and, if memory of the figures serves, the Conservatives' vote share remains the largest gained in any post-war election by any government (47/48% IIRC).