Echoes of A New Tomorrow: Life after Revolution in the Commonwealth of Britain

[DensleyBlair]

Hopefully, they return to that soon. Maybe in the 80s.

There will come a point where even the Left will have to embrace it, at least in part. What stands Echoes in good stead compared to OTL is that here the Alternative Strategy / orthodox Bennite ‘reopen the mines’ position is centre-left establishment stuff, so it will be outflanked sooner rather than later. And that will probably be far less misty eyed about the hells on earth that were the pits.

Yes, as has been broached on many other AARs, including The Butterfly Effect, British Coal is doomed to fail at some point in the 20th century, which would inevitably send shock waves through the working classes to such an extent it is hard to see how it could be avoided. Hundreds of thousands suddenly out of work and entire communities now with not only no jobs but no prospects of any others turning up either...

It’s a total time bomb. My instinct is that the best strategy is probably to get in early, when there’s still time to do things fairly deliberately, and you can plough money elsewhere to keep the communities afloat. But even from speaking informally to a friend who works in green transition stuff, it’s not like you can wave a magic wand and have new alternative industries everywhere there’s a pit, so it’s still a big challenge. Particularly here where Britain hasn't taken the easy way out with a massive shift towards service industries…

As Allaun’s speech at the end sort of hints, what we’re moving towards is an understanding among the Left Opposition that the economy is going to have to open up and diversify somehow. The question is whether to let the social democrats have at it with ‘market forces’, or whether to attempt a sort of mass economic devolution – to the workers on a factory to factory basis, and to the towns/regions on a coordinating basis. The best hope really is a lot of Prestons.

This is...a good idea in the short term, but will not work when every mine has to shut...and they will all have to shut.

Yes. In many ways Lewis’s problems all boil down to one thing, and that is that he’s come to the premiership at a really bad time. Bevan got out just before his ‘steady as she goes’ really started to crumble (and even keeping that together literally killed him…) and now Lewis is trying to press ahead with stuff he’s been wanting to do since the 50’s, only without acknowledging that he’s in a really unstable position. He’s bluffing a pretty poor hand, which is what Allaun and others are starting to call out.

I think he’s probably one of the biggest potential ‘what ifs?’ of the timeline. If he gets in instead of Bevan, he can get his reforms through with a healthy economy and moderate unions. Britain comes out with a less lefty establishment, but it might be spared a lot of turmoil down the line.

Mmmm. Bet this is going to end well.

Just you wait.

That's not really what Unions are for, or can really be, outside of rather authoritarian regimes keeping them around for extra surveillance.

And very much the centrist/centre-right view within the Labour Party at the time. Which makes sense coming from people who are perhaps too convinced of their own benevolence. It’s a very interesting, quite alarming overlap between Fabianism and corporatism.

Of course, it could be worse. We could have a Labour leader threatening to sack MPs for visiting picket lines…

Indeed. I think they are destined to get it in this timeline, considering Scotland is already on the way towards regional autonomy and...actually I can't remember what happened with Ireland? Maybe a map of Europe and the world is in order?

Scotland is actually a bit less advanced than Wales, if only because it hasn’t had an Aberfan to catalyse opinion against Westminster and win mass public sympathy. But they’ve got some good advocates waiting in the wings, so they’ll be alright.

As for Ireland, the island was somewhat arbitrarily reunited immediately after the Revolution thanks to the CPGB giving Ulster back. I think this will have caused… problems. But then perhaps not as bad as OTL. I’d like to check in with them once Vol 2 arrives.

I have a world map for 1969 to end the volume. I can post it ahead of time if people would like. Not like it will spoil anything.

Oof.

I can only imagine the corrections page the next day…

I think it probably would be renamed after the Peterloo Massacre, yes. It looms large even in OTL memory, so it certainly will be a big cultural keystone for the city, and even country, during TTL. I think also the People's History Museum will come into existence much sooner, and very probably be a bit more expansive as well.

Good shouts all. And noted on the vote in favour of Peterloo. I’ll go back and edit at some point…

It did happen in OTL,

Yes! I think I forgot to add a note, but all of the photos in the update (bar a couple from the Paris and the LSE) come from the 1969(?) protests over the appointment of a new VC.

though so far as I am aware, nothing has yet beaten the OTL Keele University revolt against the Thatcher government, which involved the SU, the entire student population and large sections of the staff and management declaring themselves independent from the UK, and creating their own currency, passports and laws.

God bless Keele.

My favourite one of these is the story about the Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo, who in 1968 helped students occupy the university campus that he himself had designed only four years before. (Will try and dig out the reference… may be conflating two stories here.)

That institution might not exist quite as it did OTL, but considering the rather socialist/liberal ethos of the founding members, and how...remarkably robust the university culture has remained on the far left (housing every student, attempted ataturky for all resources including energy and food, etc etc), it would be a shame not to see it in TTL, causing any number of headaches for the government and cracking out increasingly large amounts of various new socialist thinkers.

Bevan built a load of new unis and polytechnics after a few decades of Mosley not touching anything, so these are all going to be pretty left-wing by inception. Keele is probably fairly indicative – and I should say that we’ve not finished with student movement stuff yet by a long shot. Many more places will get a look in in the next update.

If the government thinks it can go back to authoritarianism now the children of the revolution have grown up and received their bachelors in extremely left wing schools...they have a surprise incoming. That's only going to get worse when the children of the 50s grow.

Yeah this is true, and goes back to what I was saying about Lewis and timing. He’s basically doing what he would have done had he got in in 1959, without adjusting for the developments of the decade in between.

Children of the 50’s will be very fun when we get there in another three years time.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Speaking as an American, it can be interesting how so much can come from such minor actions.

You say that as if the US doesn’t have its own massive storms from tiny butterflies

Speaking as a military man, guess there's no SAS/SBS to go rescue the kidnapped!

Hold that thought…

Certainly it doesn't sound like they're available (which, OTL, they were though counter-terrorism hadn't quite entered the game, and GSG9 certainly isn't going to exist from which to form the basis for the OTL West's CT forces).

What CT forces Britain has is a tricky question at this point. Bevan was understandably touchy about supporting the BDI, which had been Mosley’s secret police/state security. It still exists, but it’s reputation is… sketchy. Lewis has fewer qualms about using them against the MAC (which he is doing in fact) but they’re not exactly well resourced.

Because the need CT isn’t going to go away as an issue, just exactly how Britain deals with it is going to stay a pressing question for a while yet. The Left have some fairly interesting ideas; the Right really just want to rebuild a new GSG9-style force. It’ll be a big bone of contention at the start of Vol 2.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Speaking as a military man, guess there's no SAS/SBS to go rescue the kidnapped!

Oh, there absolutely will be. Probably short maybe a third of the members who were reasonably aristocratic (mind you...Christopher Lee and Co were not esepcially...enthused about capitalism so...) but still very much the premier special forces, with perhaps a comparable concept and force now serving in the Kingdom of Canada.

God bless Keele.

How Priti Patel got spat out of there, I have no idea. Keele has a Conservative society, but the Christian Union is larger and much more terrifying.

The Labour Society on the other hand is so large it has it's default night slot at the Student Union.

Bevan built a load of new unis and polytechnics after a few decades of Mosley not touching anything, so these are all going to be pretty left-wing by inception. Keele is probably fairly indicative – and I should say that we’ve not finished with student movement stuff yet by a long shot. Many more places will get a look in in the next update.

All the post war unis were 60s and later then...hmm. Bit of a change for Keele which was very 1949 ex army camps and country estate going cheap (birthed by the welfare state, and as it happens rather fittingly now the finest medical university in the country). Lancaster and most northern polytechnics were late 50s and 60s designs so not much difference there...except even more left wing I suppose.

Making the economy less manufacturing and resources, and more service and finance, is going to be much easier when these lot start churning out a generation's worth of graduates.

 

[Wraith11B]

You say that as if the US doesn’t have its own massive storms from tiny butterflies

Oh of course, that was more of a comment about how wild their government can be with the winds of change. Say what you will about the US, but quick government change rarely happens quite so quickly on various levels.

Hold that thought…

Oh...?

What CT forces Britain has is a tricky question at this point. Bevan was understandably touchy about supporting the BDI, which had been Mosley’s secret police/state security. It still exists, but it’s reputation is… sketchy. Lewis has fewer qualms about using them against the MAC (which he is doing in fact) but they’re not exactly well resourced.

Because the need CT isn’t going to go away as an issue, just exactly how Britain deals with it is going to stay a pressing question for a while yet. The Left have some fairly interesting ideas; the Right really just want to rebuild a new GSG9-style force. It’ll be a big bone of contention at the start of Vol 2.

I'd imagine that without the Troubles, whatever special forces unit that the Commonwealth has is not quite as up on their CT. Just going off of what you're saying, I'd imagine it is more of a special raid team a la KGB or SWAT team rather than the SAS with a dedicated CT mission.

Oh, there absolutely will be. Probably short maybe a third of the members who were reasonably aristocratic (mind you...Christopher Lee and Co were not esepcially...enthused about capitalism so...) but still very much the premier special forces, with perhaps a comparable concept and force now serving in the Kingdom of Canada.

I'd imagine so. To expound on my statement above, we don't know exactly what has been transpiring abroad (Middle East and Soviet-funded terrorist groups being the major drivers OTL, and specifically the rise of the PLF/IRA, and primarily the failure of the Germans during the 1972 Olympics) that might encourage such a development.

 

[DensleyBlair]

EDIT: Just realised we’ve ticked over to a new page, so for any who may have skipped over it, there is a new update here!

_____________________

Oh, there absolutely will be. Probably short maybe a third of the members who were reasonably aristocratic (mind you...Christopher Lee and Co were not esepcially...enthused about capitalism so...) but still very much the premier special forces, with perhaps a comparable concept and force now serving in the Kingdom of Canada.

I'd imagine so. To expound on my statement above, we don't know exactly what has been transpiring abroad (Middle East and Soviet-funded terrorist groups being the major drivers OTL, and specifically the rise of the PLF/IRA, and primarily the failure of the Germans during the 1972 Olympics) that might encourage such a development.

Terrorism will be a bigger thing in the Seventies, so we’re a little premature still, but as far as abroad is concerned there will soon be plenty of call for people to start getting serious about CT. But Britain definitely has special forces; the military is pretty much kitted out entirely for counter-insurgency and guerrilla-type campaigns, so there’s plenty of room for delicate missions and special ops.

The armed forces themselves are all very hazy, and I haven’t written about them much because without a game to go off past the Thirties I am entirely out of the depth and comfort zone. But if @99KingHigh still has the time to commit then there should be a few conflicts to chew over in Vol 2 that will let us figure more stuff out.

All the post war unis were 60s and later then...hmm. Bit of a change for Keele which was very 1949 ex army camps and country estate going cheap (birthed by the welfare state, and as it happens rather fittingly now the finest medical university in the country). Lancaster and most northern polytechnics were late 50s and 60s designs so not much difference there...except even more left wing I suppose.

Yeah mostly so far it’s been redbricks and an astonishingly left-wing Oxbridge, which has probably seen the most significant overhaul because the Communists went to work on it when they were still in power. I reckon we’re probably due a general education update at some point, probably at the start of the Seventies when things start changing again.

As for ex army camps and country estates going cheap, one of the things which I haven’t written about since it was first mentioned that I should revisit is the fact that pretty much every country house in Britain is either a hospital or a block of apartments. Expropriated aristocratic property all went to Health and Housing in 1929, so it’s been engaged in all sorts of fun, novel uses for forty years now. Maybe some of it went to education?

Making the economy less manufacturing and resources, and more service and finance, is going to be much easier when these lot start churning out a generation's worth of graduates.

Good point. Though what exactly this service and finance would look like I have little concrete idea…

The neoliberal idea of university as producer first and foremost of educated workforce is likely to go out the window at some point, so without going full Maoist we probably won’t be seeing any ‘May a thousand consultancy firms bloom!’ scenarios…

Oh of course, that was more of a comment about how wild their government can be with the winds of change. Say what you will about the US, but quick government change rarely happens quite so quickly on various levels.

Oh sure, that makes sense.

I think it’s fair to say there’s a lot of pent up momentum in Westminster causing a lot of change to happen very quickly. Generally I don’t think Britain is very good at fast change, but in this instance it’s a case of when it rains…

Oh...?

I wanted to conclude the Roberts arc in the latest chapter, but it just got too long so I had to bump the resolution back to next time. But there are hints towards the end about Lewis’s plans for a bold PR victory…

I'd imagine that without the Troubles, whatever special forces unit that the Commonwealth has is not quite as up on their CT. Just going off of what you're saying, I'd imagine it is more of a special raid team a la KGB or SWAT team rather than the SAS with a dedicated CT mission.

Yes I think this is fair. I’d certainly imagined a SWAT type unit for the missions in conceiving in Wales. Dedicated CT will come later (and it will come) in the early/mid Seventies.

 

[Director]

As to your comments in regards to parallels to real life and the current state of British politics...

I am a confirmed pessimist. Therefore. I hope that any surprise I receive will be a pleasant one (though I admit even I was not pessimistic enough to foresee Benedict Donald actually getting elected). And I do believe that people usually receive a government better than they deserve...

Some people felt that things couldn't possibly get worse after the hesitant, drifting government of Teresa May. And then came the Haystack... So while I remain (yes, I'm an American Remainer) deeply pessimistic, I am hoping, but not expecting, to be surprised by your new government. Um - pleasantly surprised.


As to events... no-one surfed through the political and cultural upheaval of those times without taking a spill or six, so I anticipate that everyone, from government down to casual protester, is in for the sort of awakening usually termed a mugging. And any bright sunshine on the political horizon will be followed by this timeline's equivalent of She Who Will Not Be Named. I am, always, eager and willing to be surprised... pleasantly surprised.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

And any bright sunshine on the political horizon will be followed by this timeline's equivalent of She Who Will Not Be Named. I am, always, eager and willing to be surprised... pleasantly surprised.

Thatcher is definetly around in this timeline. And has a fairly similar upbringing and probably education too. Even matches the TTL focus on science and engineering (greengrocers daughter, did chemistry at Uni etc etc).

So yes, she could definitely show up.

 

[Director]

If not Thatcher, then someone of the same authoritarian bent - every action producing a reaction, and all that.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

If not Thatcher, then someone of the same authoritarian bent - every action producing a reaction, and all that.

Turns out she's a die hard internationalist communist and determined to crush Germany like a grape.

 

[DensleyBlair]

As to your comments in regards to parallels to real life and the current state of British politics...

I am a confirmed pessimist. Therefore. I hope that any surprise I receive will be a pleasant one (though I admit even I was not pessimistic enough to foresee Benedict Donald actually getting elected). And I do believe that people usually receive a government better than they deserve...

The number of people reading who are all hoping to be pleasantly surprised one way or another I think at this point has to guarantee a lot of disappointed people, but I will say that a general guiding principle when writing this is that nothing is ever final. That said, the plot moves by a lot of swinging back and forth along a frequently deviating path that is basically pointing towards things being alright. (Of course, there are a number of readers who will reject this possibility on the grounds that there's not going to be any Windsor restoration…)

But we are definitely in a rough patch. And I should forewarn, as it if weren't already obvious, that rougher is still to come.

Welcome to the thread by the way, @Director! Can't recall seeing you comment before.

Some people felt that things couldn't possibly get worse after the hesitant, drifting government of Teresa May. And then came the Haystack... So while I remain (yes, I'm an American Remainer) deeply pessimistic, I am hoping, but not expecting, to be surprised by your new government. Um - pleasantly surprised.

Hope is a dangerous thing, considering the current situation involves the Richest Person in Parliament and a Maggie Cosplayer on Day-Release attacking, uhh, The Other One for being insufficiently worked up about gendered bathrooms.

I think a pleasant surprise in this case would involve a spate of accidental yet brutal shaving incidents putting the majority of Westminster out of commission for a while.

As to events... no-one surfed through the political and cultural upheaval of those times without taking a spill or six, so I anticipate that everyone, from government down to casual protester, is in for the sort of awakening usually termed a mugging.

Quite so. Part of the rationale for ending the first volume as we are, aside from the fact that I think it makes both reasonable historical sense and a pretty good story, is that it allows for a considerable sea change ahead of vol 2. Otherwise I think there's a real danger that vol 2 would just be the same again, just in the 1970's. It's probably not a good idea to get too emotionally invested in any of the main characters at the moment – though that's not to say there won't be survivors, as there always are.

And any bright sunshine on the political horizon will be followed by this timeline's equivalent of She Who Will Not Be Named. I am, always, eager and willing to be surprised... pleasantly surprised.

Thatcher is definetly around in this timeline. And has a fairly similar upbringing and probably education too. Even matches the TTL focus on science and engineering (greengrocers daughter, did chemistry at Uni etc etc).

So yes, she could definitely show up.

Oh yes, She will certainly be making an appearance. I have what I hope is a fairly satisfying, lightly ironic role for her to play in proceedings.

If not Thatcher, then someone of the same authoritarian bent - every action producing a reaction, and all that.

Authoritarianism will be a tricky question over the next decade, because after Mosley's long rule we're still due a significant shift in the other direction. Bevan kicked things off, but obviously that project died a literal death. And now Lewis (as I've written him, anyway) is one of those funny characters who is socially liberal but nevertheless determined to run the state as a sort of enlightened strongman technocrat. (So a Fabian, really.) Which leaves a sour taste when only six years prior Britain had a premier who wold routinely arrest political opponents…

So the Seventies are due to be more 'libertarian', to use an inconveniently slippery term. But whether this will be right or left leaning of course remains to be seen.

Turns out she's a die hard internationalist communist and determined to crush Germany like a grape.

Have you ever read Thaxted?

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Oh yes, She will certainly be making an appearance. I have what I hope is a fairly satisfying, lightly ironic role for her to play in proceedings.

Trade union leader? Or something with her science background, leading the first big environmental movement perhaps?

 

[DensleyBlair]

Trade union leader? Or something with her science background, leading the first big environmental movement perhaps?

Closer with the second. An alternatively-motivated disdain for the coal industry, among other things.

 

[Director]

Authoritarianism will be a tricky question over the next decade, because after Mosley's long rule we're still due a significant shift in the other direction. Bevan kicked things off, but obviously that project died a literal death.

Parallels between our two nations tend to be, um, serpentine rather than strict lines. But I was thinking of our own 60s... LBJ was a tyrant to the legislature, but very progressive in his domestic policies. Humphrey would have been a classic liberal and at least would have tried to continue the push, though I think less successfully. (Humphrey did have LBJ's deep knowledge of his colleagues and was better-respected (and less-feared) by them but perhaps lacked LBJ's killer instinct).

Yet domestic ferment, energized by opposition to the fumbling war in Vietnam, helped to elect not Humphrey but Nixon. And Nixon, for all the 'practical politician' facade he had learned in repeated electoral defeats, was decidedly an authoritarian - and one who remained extremely popular with the electorate despite high crimes and misdemeanors leading to near-impeachment and resignation. Reagan's populist-packaged authoritarian style goes directly to W and to Cheeto Benito.

I suppose I'm suggesting that, despite the lack of foreign adventures, past experience with dictatorial decision-making could make the public more comfortable with the method rather than less, and if Lewis won't put down those dirty, disloyal hippies then someone will make an effective campaign out of the issue. And - here in the States - our experience with the crimes of Nixon, Reagan and W did not prevent the rise of each in turn, or Don Ego. So Lewis had better keep a sharp look-out in his right-side mirror. I think someone's going to want to be a 'compassionate conservative', kinder and gentler Mosley.

There is in every man, however deeply hidden, a longing for someone to just tell him what to do...


I'd swear I've commented before, but perhaps not. I've been reading, but playing catch-up is a low game, and one does hate to put up a contemporary comment on a long-ago post. Anyway, I do hold that a comment is the most-sincere payment we can render and payment, in your case, is certainly due.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Parallels between our two nations tend to be, um, serpentine rather than strict lines. But I was thinking of our own 60s... LBJ was a tyrant to the legislature, but very progressive in his domestic policies. Humphrey would have been a classic liberal and at least would have tried to continue the push, though I think less successfully. (Humphrey did have LBJ's deep knowledge of his colleagues and was better-respected (and less-feared) by them but perhaps lacked LBJ's killer instinct).

I think the Transatlantic comparison is probably closer to the mark with Lewis, seeing as he is Canadian. Which is something I’ve had in the back of my mind when writing him since his first introduction, but I don’t think I’d ever properly been able to articulate it, so thanks for drawing it out. Of course, we’ve had plenty of parliamentary bruisers of our own, but something of his outsider’s perspective I think gives him a particular ruthlessness. Or a lack of sentimentality, anyway. He was in many ways an accidental participant in the Revolution, having been in the country at the time as a Rhodes Scholar, so the fact that he’s now premier is fairly remarkable.

Yet domestic ferment, energized by opposition to the fumbling war in Vietnam, helped to elect not Humphrey but Nixon. And Nixon, for all the 'practical politician' facade he had learned in repeated electoral defeats, was decidedly an authoritarian - and one who remained extremely popular with the electorate despite high crimes and misdemeanors leading to near-impeachment and resignation.

At some point, @99KingHigh will I hope have the time to finish his own side of the story, because his alternate US is a fascinatingly terrible place. The contrasts with our own world are tantalising.

I suppose I'm suggesting that, despite the lack of foreign adventures, past experience with dictatorial decision-making could make the public more comfortable with the method rather than less, and if Lewis won't put down those dirty, disloyal hippies then someone will make an effective campaign out of the issue.

I think you’re right. The youth movement and the autonomist movement are going to bring to the fore a lot of people who were not exactly Mosley fans, but who basically liked stability of his regime. (Stability of course being that of the ‘Make A Desert And Call It Peace’ school…) The encouraging thing (if you’re that way inclined) is that there is a far more robust Left opposition, who even in a ‘revolutionary’ society are sort of perennially out of power. So the conflicts will be more difficult than they were in Britain OTL (though not in other places – France, Germany and Italy in particular), but in the end that might be a good thing because at least they are out in the open.

I think a key thing to bear in mind throughout all of this is that the country is pretty fractured so far as party politics are concerned, so the government is weak and subject to quick change. But underlying sentiments aren’t necessarily so split; the authoritarian and anti-authoritarian coalitions both transcend party lines, and are pretty broad. When it comes down to it, both have decent claims to the upper hand.

So Lewis had better keep a sharp look-out in his right-side mirror. I think someone's going to want to be a 'compassionate conservative', kinder and gentler Mosley.

Yes, Lewis is definitely conscious of what’s coming up on his right. Particularly because a lot of Popular Front electoral support comes from people who are waiting to be able to vote for the Social Democrats around Iain Macleod, who aren’t (yet) in Parliament. And those guys are actual Tories – albeit those strange, paradoxical creatures: Tories who are only Tories because the Liberals no longer exist (TINOs, perhaps?).

Of course, more malevolently, we do have Enoch in the wings…

As far as being a more compassionate Mosley is concerned, the ‘Mosleyites’ are of course still around as a parliamentary rump, the Group for Action. I tend to model them on Gaullists in my own thinking. They’ll have a larger role in the next update, actually, so it’s timely to bring all of this up.

There is in every man, however deeply hidden, a longing for someone to just tell him what to do...

Particularly in times of crisis, I feel…

I'd swear I've commented before, but perhaps not. I've been reading, but playing catch-up is a low game, and one does hate to put up a contemporary comment on a long-ago post.

I can’t recall having the pleasure of your commentary before now, but it’s been a few years so my apologies if I’m missing a memory. In any case, it’s great to have you, and I look forward to your takes going forward.

And I’m always happy to hear thoughts on old stuff, so please do feel free to comment as you read if you wish.

 

[Director]

Thank you for your explications - I have very much enjoyed the discourse.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Thank you for your explications - I have very much enjoyed the discourse.

Thanks to you too, @Director. I enjoyed thinking through your prompts.

 

[DensleyBlair]

The BBC have been doing invaluable work recently making a load of new material available to view via their Archives service, and in light of the recent chapter about music, this clip uploaded to YouTube earlier caught my eye:

I don't think for one second that Mosleyite detractors would use the same terms as the haughty priest in this video, about the dancing being, uh, 'pagan', but it's a fascinating first-hand look a just what it was that got being so het up about the stuff. Plus some great footage of what looks like a literal cavern club – exactly the sort of thing I've written about before of the underground jazz clubs favoured by leftist youth in Mosley's final years.

I'm not sure exactly how freely available BBC Rewind is across the world, but for those who can take advantage of it, I'd highly recommend delving into the archives for a little bit. There's some cracking stuff.

Rewind

What will you find? Explore thousands of recent archive clips from around the UK.

bbcrewind.co.uk

 

[coz1]

Skiffle + Cavern Club = The Beatles. Just a fad like Rock and Roll.

Where is Malcolm Muggeridge when you need him?

 

[DensleyBlair]

Skiffle + Cavern Club = The Beatles. Just a fad like Rock and Roll.

It did make me smile when the girl said during the interview that she’s keep playing skiffle ‘as long as it’s popular’. I love Lonnie Donegan as much as the next person, but in 1957 that would be all of about 3 years. Hope she liked rock n roll!

Where is Malcolm Muggeridge when you need him?

Funny you should ask, my friend. Funny you should ask…

 

[Von Acturus]

After a five week marathon I'm finally all caught up! What a gargantuan tale! I'd say, and I think most readers will agree, that what makes your work so enthralling and absorbing is the way you switch genres so effortlessly and cover the Commonwealth in all it's dimensions, from the first person view of a worker to the academic lectures on geopolitics, from comedic series to analysis of the musical underground! It feels really like it truly happened.