Duncan Black & Iain Dale (eds.) – Prime Minister Portillo: and other things that never happened (2003)
Politics – 370 pages – my copy (hardback; 2003) bought for £1 from Plymouth library in July 2010
- 2 nods out of 5 -
Counterfactual histories came in vogue during the early noughties; we had Nazi banners upon Big Ben, a New World colonised by Soviet Russians and a nuclear holocaust wasteland of the 1980s. Most are military based, while the better ones usually involve Niall Ferguson, but where at the “what ifs” of political history?
Editors Duncan Black and Iain Dale responded in 2003 with this edition: Prime Minister Portillo (and other things that never happened). The book’s front cover image, of Portillo smiling at Number 10 Downing Street, proves as an entrance that whatever may be upon the pages will not be as fantastic and surreal as Hitler planting the Nazi flag upon the Moon. This, being British, was going to be all the more subtle and unassuming.
Unfortunately for the reader, the lack of excitement pours cold water upon the book’s promise of taking us upon alternate realities. Take some of the essay titles themselves as proof: ‘What if Benn had beaten Healey in 1981?’ and ‘What if Labour had won in 1970?’ were hardly ever going to set heartbeats racing. Sure, the editors attempt at bringing in larger events, such as Lenin’s arrival in Petrograd in 1917, of John F. Kennedy escaping bullets, but ultimately, too many of these chapters fail to galvanise interest.
The highlights include John Charmley’s essay – ‘What if Halifax had become Prime Minister in 1940?’ – written in the role as historian in an alternative reality; in which Churchill is a joke, rather than a legend. Rather than the “do or die” attitude of historians upon the subject of waging war with Nazi Germany, Charmley instead suggests that staying out of a continental war, between Nazis and Communists, was the best strategy in the long-term.
Sadly, Charmley’s style is not copied throughout the majority of chapters. The general rule appears to be suggesting a momentous change, only to negate it completely. What if the Conservatives had won in 1964? Not much change is the unsatisfying conclusion. What if Ted Heath had gone to the country three weeks earlier in February 1974? Again, not such a big difference. All of which is baffling as to why these questions were picked in the first place. Is it either British political history is simply not that interesting, or that the writers have not made the right choices and developed the right material?
As it stands, these political counterfactuals were always predestined to fall off the library shelves and upon the discount pile – exactly where the Worm found and rescued it. But due to the lack of excitement, the test now is if can weather the future storms and stay upon the Worm’s own shelves. Like Portillo and his Tory leadership candidacy, the prospects are ominous.
Politics – 370 pages – my copy (hardback; 2003) bought for £1 from Plymouth library in July 2010
- 2 nods out of 5 -
Counterfactual histories came in vogue during the early noughties; we had Nazi banners upon Big Ben, a New World colonised by Soviet Russians and a nuclear holocaust wasteland of the 1980s. Most are military based, while the better ones usually involve Niall Ferguson, but where at the “what ifs” of political history?
Editors Duncan Black and Iain Dale responded in 2003 with this edition: Prime Minister Portillo (and other things that never happened). The book’s front cover image, of Portillo smiling at Number 10 Downing Street, proves as an entrance that whatever may be upon the pages will not be as fantastic and surreal as Hitler planting the Nazi flag upon the Moon. This, being British, was going to be all the more subtle and unassuming.
Unfortunately for the reader, the lack of excitement pours cold water upon the book’s promise of taking us upon alternate realities. Take some of the essay titles themselves as proof: ‘What if Benn had beaten Healey in 1981?’ and ‘What if Labour had won in 1970?’ were hardly ever going to set heartbeats racing. Sure, the editors attempt at bringing in larger events, such as Lenin’s arrival in Petrograd in 1917, of John F. Kennedy escaping bullets, but ultimately, too many of these chapters fail to galvanise interest.
The highlights include John Charmley’s essay – ‘What if Halifax had become Prime Minister in 1940?’ – written in the role as historian in an alternative reality; in which Churchill is a joke, rather than a legend. Rather than the “do or die” attitude of historians upon the subject of waging war with Nazi Germany, Charmley instead suggests that staying out of a continental war, between Nazis and Communists, was the best strategy in the long-term.
Sadly, Charmley’s style is not copied throughout the majority of chapters. The general rule appears to be suggesting a momentous change, only to negate it completely. What if the Conservatives had won in 1964? Not much change is the unsatisfying conclusion. What if Ted Heath had gone to the country three weeks earlier in February 1974? Again, not such a big difference. All of which is baffling as to why these questions were picked in the first place. Is it either British political history is simply not that interesting, or that the writers have not made the right choices and developed the right material?
As it stands, these political counterfactuals were always predestined to fall off the library shelves and upon the discount pile – exactly where the Worm found and rescued it. But due to the lack of excitement, the test now is if can weather the future storms and stay upon the Worm’s own shelves. Like Portillo and his Tory leadership candidacy, the prospects are ominous.
