Union of Britain/History

History

Great War

For Britain, 1918 would mark the beginning of the end for British involvement in the Weltkrieg after attempts to institute conscription in Ireland were met by fierce resistance from the Irish populace, with the nationalist group, Sinn Féin, organizing much of the opposition. The president of Sinn Fein, Éamon de Valera, was arrested by the British government for allegedly conspiring with the German Empire and held at Lincoln prison. By summer, agitation on the island grew progressively worse as manpower reserves on the continent further diminished, and the British government finally decided to reinstate conscription in Ireland, albeit alongside Home Rule as a way to appease the Irish. The resulting "temporary" exclusion of the six counties of Ulster, which was to be reviewed following the end of the war, saw the settlement rejected by the Irish and resulted in an immediate uproar, with the largest general strike in all of Europe taking place. Violence would grow ever more common and the barracks of the Royal Irish Constabulary became the target of weapon raids.

In December, the Irish Home Rule elections would finally go ahead and resulted in a resounding victory for Sinn Féin, and a near total decimation of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Despite their overwhelming success Sinn Féin refused to take their seats in the Irish House of Commons, instead opting to form their own assembly, the Dáil, which would go on to declare an independent Irish Republic with Cathal Brugha, a veteran of the Easter Rising, as temporary president. On the same day, the Soloheadbeg Ambush saw two RIC constables assassinated, an event which led to the Irish War of Independence. Faced with open rebellion in Ireland and a stagnated situation on the Western Front, Britain would request additional Japanese commitments to the war effort, proposing that Japan cut military-related export prices or deploy troops to the Western Front. The Japanese would go on to refuse all British proposals for a multitude of reasons, but eventually agreed to dispatch a few additional cruisers and destroyers to the Mediterranean, leaving neither party satisfied and only further compromising Britain's situation.

Peace With Honor

In August 1919, Following the disastrous "Last Offensive" of the French Generals, France urged Britain to sign an Armistice with the Central Powers as France was wracked by strikes and mutinies. Britain, although initially hesitant, eventually acquiesced and signed the Copenhagen Armistice alongside France and Belgium, and under pressure from the United States agreed to partially lift the blockade of Germany. Finally in November, the Treaty of Versailles was signed by the remaining members of the Entente, with Britain exerting tremendous pressure on their French allies, fearing that they would collapse and weaken the British position as a result. In Asia, Britain would go on to refuse to recognize Japanese claims to Tsingtao and, after having overheard disparaging remarks from British diplomats on Japanese contributions to the war, Japan's delegation to the peace conference would leave after.

At home, a general election was soon organized for December amid widespread criticism of David Lloyd George and his government, which the Conservative Party took immediate steps to distance themselves from. Derided by his supporters as "The man who lost the war" and with a party split between him and his clique of "Coalition Liberals" who had formed a government with the Conservative Party in 1918, and Herbert Henry Asquith, who had been the formal leader of the Liberal Party, Lloyd George and his National Liberal Party very soon turned into a political pariah and put him on the receiving end of a Conservative victory in the elections. While Asquith had tried to distance himself from the Liberals who had governed during the war, he was still impacted by backlash as his party was left with 146 seats in Parliament, compared to the Conservatives with a comfortable 395 seats out of the 707 total seats. This victory would place them in the limelight and saw the Conservative Leader Andrew Bonar Law become prime minister while all throughout Britain, radicalism would grow as returning soldiers became disillusioned with the Liberal and Conservative Parties, as they had sent them to fight in a pointless war.

In Ireland, Sinn Féin would continue to wage the Irish War of Independence, despite the conflict having become quite bloody by that point. Having been recently elected, Andrew Bonar Law - an Ulsterman by blood, ardent supporter of Irish Unionist Edward Carson, and staunch opponent of Irish Home Rule and Independence - quickly moved to step up British efforts at combating the Irish War of Independence. Due to Éamon de Valera's then-ongoing imprisonment in Lincoln prison and failure to escape, the leadership of the Irish struggle for independence would fall to Michael Collins.

In order to shore up the British economy, especially in light of the newfound wealth and resources of the German Empire, protectionist tariffs were controversially introduced by the Law government. The Empire Marketing Board was set up to encourage people to "Buy British" and trade barriers were set up for goods not originating from Britain or its Dominions, especially for goods that originated from the newly formed Mitteleuropa. While this and the then-ongoing Dreadnought Race had helped alleviate unemployment, large sections of the army were demobilized and the economic situation detereoriated as prices of many goods, including foodstuffs, raw materials, and chemicals went up, harming the general population and the more advanced sections of British industry.

Heading into 1920, the Law government stood firm on the unpopular Irish War of Independence and, despite the intensifying violence and lurid tales of the depredations of groups like the Black and Tans, refused to negotiate any peace that would result in Britain losing sovereignty over Ireland. In May of the same year, Oswald Mosley, now an Independent and former Conservative MP for Harrow, married Cynthia Curzon, daughter of the eponymous Lord Curzon.

Anglo-Irish Treaty & Leftist Consolidation

In 1921, the French Revolution had come to a close and the victor had shown itself to be the Confédération Générale du Travail, which then established the Federation of the Communes of France under a syndicalist system. While the prior Russian Revolution and the potential threats posed to British rule in India alarmed the British government, they had largely failed to concern itself with the new revolutionary government across the channel. France initially focused its attention on rebuilding and mending the scars of the brief and bloody civil war, and thus did not appear to be a big threat to Britain. Despite this, the government panicked and began to use wartime legislation to increasingly clamp down on left-wing activists and the Trade Union Congress, stopping short of banning strikes entirely.

A growing "Peace with Ireland" movement began to help fuel discontent as the Law government used the Irish War of Independence as justification the maintaining of its emergency legislation. Trouble would begin to brew with the Trade Union as key alliances were forged in the TUC and the Transport and General Workers' Union was formed from the merger of numerous other unions, with the radical Ben Tillet successfully having sidelined Ernest Bevin. Having been inspired by the success of the radical trade unionism in France and dismayed with the failure of Bolshevism in Russia, the British Socialist Party, South Wales Socialist Party, and the Socialist Labour Party merged and formed the Syndicalist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) in 1921. Prominent Scottish nationalist and socialist, John Maclean, would abandon the BSP as a result of the merger and go on to found his own Scottish Syndicalist Party.

The Syndicalist Party of Great Britain began to grow at a rapid pace, absorbing Sylvia Pankhurst's British Section of the Third Internationale, followed by the Scottish Syndicalist Party, which voted to join despite Maclean's objections. The merger was pushed for by the pro-British trade unionist Willy Gallacher, which prompted Maclean to abandon the party he founded in disgust and join the tiny, yet still dissident, Socialist Labour Party. The SPGB would campaign on a pacificistic and anti-capitalist program that elected to reject parliamentarianism and "financial democracy". Throughout the year the party began absorbing various smaller socialist parties, quickly rising to prominence as a result.

By mid 1921, it had become clear that tacit support from Germany, as well as intensifying violence, was turning the war in Ireland into an unwinnable affair. A truce was signed and Law was forced to come to the table, with the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiated and signed in mid-November. British negotiators agreed to terms that were fairly favorable to the Irish as to not alienate the new republic and ensure that it would, for the time being, remain within the British sphere of influence.

In early 1922, a delegation of the Independent Labour Party made its way to France following the civil war. Among them was John Beckett, a young councilor and activist. While in Paris, Beckett would encounter figures of France's growing National Syndicalist movement and Sorelian literature. Beckett would come to believe that national syndicalism was the inevitable evolution of socialism and that the French compromise had "stalled" its evolution. He would later return to Britain where he would be arrested, though later released without charge. In the years that followed he would come to form a small, although not insignificant political clique of fellow national syndicalists, many of them either disciples of Sorel, or of the late British "National Socialist" Henry Hyndman.

Around the end of 1922, Stanley Baldwin, chancellor of the exchequer, was sent to the United States for negotiations on the repayment of British war debt in an attempt to rebuild relations between the United States and United Kingdom. With the Kingdom of Italy having collapsed during the Italian Civil War and the Italian Federation or Socialist Republic of Italy being unable to repay their debts, the French Republic's financial situation in limbo, the war with Ireland and the rebuilding of the Royal Navy, the government estimated that annual repayments of roughly £16 million a year were possible, provided that Russia could service their debts properly. Baldwin's inexperience did him no favors however and he was persuaded to agree to £40 million a year instead by the United States. Baldwin sealed his political downfall by announcing the deal on the docks at Southampton to the press before consulting the rest of the cabinet. The announcement would only serve to distract Law as the notion that lining the pockets of American businessmen mattered more to him than the welfare of the British people spurred on a storm of bad publicity. Law would vent his frustrations with the chancellor in anonymous letters to The Times.

In November, the Labour Party held their first official leadership election to decide who would become the party chairman. The former party leader, pacifist, and staunch moderate Ramsay MacDonald, who had recently retuned to politics after an aggressive campaign against the government to accelerate their disarmament and strengthen unemployment programs, launched a strong challenge against the incumbent chairman, J. R. Clynes. MacDonald rallied against what he viewed as a dangerous mismanagement of Labour, claiming that Clynes had allowed the radicals and those with syndicalist sympathies to run amok, which had alienated the Labour Party from the common Briton. With a slim 4% lead, MacDonald successfully won control of the party, having promised to give Labour a respectable voice in politics whilst isolating the dangerous radicals.

Death of Law and the Labour Government

In early 1923, Law began to lose his voice. After a visit to the doctor Law was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and, being unable to speak in the House of Commons, decided to resign as both the prime minister and the leader of the Conservative Party in order to live out the remainder of his life in comfort, finally succumbing to the cancer in October. The task of replacing Law would fall to the Conservative grandees and the King, and with Baldwin's gaffes as chancellor too recent for him to salvage his political career, Arthur Balfour's protégé, Austen Chamberlain, was chosen as leader of the party and a general election was called. With the election being the first since 1919, all that remained of the Irish MPs was in Northern Ireland, reducing the size of parliament down to just 615 total seats. The election saw the charismatic and reformist MacDonald and the Labour Party come into force as the anti-war opposition, advocating for defense cuts in order to alleviate the poverty that affected most of Britain. Labour would go on to win 201 seats, such as in Birmingham Ladywood, which was taken by Oswald Mosley despite two attempted recounts. The Liberals also managed to make a small recovery, campaigning against protectionism and managed to rise from their 146 seats in 1919, to 163 seats. The Conservatives remained the largest party at 243 seats. Earlier in the year John Maclean founded the Scottish Workers' Republican Party as a Scottish nationalist and "Celtic syndicalist" alternative to the SPGB but his efforts failed to gain traction.

With the tacit support of the Liberals, who had expected to gain politically from the anticipated failure of the his government, MacDonald was appointed prime minister by George V. MacDonald would then go on to severely moderate the policies of Labour such as the policy towards nationalization as to not alienate voters, and in doing so undermined his support internally and from the syndicalists, who had begun to advocate for a revolution along the lines of the Commune of France or the failed Melbourne Commune. After having been suspended from parliament for assaulting a parliamentary aide, Beckett would come into contact with the young and impressionable Oswald Mosley, introducing him to Sorelianism.

The Liberals would soon turn on Labour over MacDonald's failure to decisively push for an end to tariffs, which perpetuated the problems of sluggish trade and high prices. In addition to killing several bills which included much-needed housing reform, the Liberals and Conservatives leapt on a politically controversial decision by the Labour government to withdraw the prosecution of left-wing activist John Ross Campbell, precipitating accusations of shielding revolutionary influences. A vote of no confidence in the government was launched and passed with a comfortable majority. Defeated in the House of Commons, MacDonald was forced to resign, parliament was dissolved, and a general election was called at the start of 1924.

British Revolution

Main article: British Revolution

The General Strike

Protesters during the 1925 General Strike.

On May 13th, the crew of the HMS Hood, docked in Plymouth, mutinied, refusing to obey the ship's officers. Though soon arrested, a large crowd of protestors at the docks intimidated the police into releasing the sailors and calling for backup. The subsequent violent crackdown on the protest resulted in a general strike and rioting throughout the city.

In response to the government violence against strikers, the Transport and General Workers' Union called a solidarity strike. Fearing a French style revolution, the government quickly outlawed the TGWU and suspended the right of transport workers to strike, outraging Labour and the trade union movement. Despite mass arrests, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain joined the strike, numerous territorial army barracks went into mutiny, and on the 18th of June the Trade Union Congress announced its intention to hold a general strike. The government ordered the army to support the police in breaking up strikes and even forcing workers to resume critical jobs.

First Shot of the Revolution

South Wales' huge Port Talbot Steelworks was heavily unionised, and its workers had undertaken a mass walkout. In September, when a crowd of strikes approached inexperienced soldiers, one opened fire leading to chaos and five dead. The town was placed under curfew by armed police and that night the nearby barracks were stormed by furious miners. They stripped and beat the soldiers, and seized the buildings.

The Syndicalist Party called for this uprising to be imitated, the Daily Worker claimed that over 100 miners were massacred, and across Britain clashes between the police and strikers grew deadly. Parliament quickly outlawed the Syndicalist Party, the Trade Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party while Parliamentary immunity was violated with the arrest of several members for sedition and incitement to mutiny. Outraged, Labour began to rally behind the radical trade unionists calling for the deposition of the government. Panicking, the government declared a state of emergency. The remaining loyal territorial army were mobilized as barricades, military checkpoints and barbed wire sprung up over London. All large gatherings were declared illegal, and with they refusal to disperse ordered to be met with the army opening fire. Several divisions and generals mutinied rather than obey.

Some Liberal members of parliament abandoned the ruling coalition and petitioned King George to dissolve parliament and call for a general election, which he refused. Weeks later, George Lansbury spoke at a Labour Party conference where he embraced Republicanism and condemned George V's "political meddling" while referring to the execution of Charles I. The Labour Party was soon outlawed and all Labour members of Parliament remaining in London were arrested for high treason.

The Fires of Revolution Spread

Cardiff became the first major city to fall to the Revolution as martial law was declared across Wales. A stream of foreign aid and volunteers flowed into the city as Wales was engulfed in warfare. In Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh had their government buildings stormed by rebels who agreed to link up their territories with a successful but bloody march on Livingston, causing the Parliamentarians to withdraw from the heart of Scotland.

British tanks and soldiers preparing to engage the revolutionaries, 1925.

Mass desertions from the army caused their ranks to be replaced with ill-disciplined ex-servicemen, whose brutality only increased support for the rebels, allowing cities such as Liverpool to fall to the Revolution. On December 24, auxiliary troops demanding refuge in Manchester Cathedral brutally beat William Temple, Bishop of Manchester, but before he could be killed, rebel militia slew the auxiliaries. On Christmas Day a red flag was flown over Manchester Cathedral, the center of the new Christian socialist movement.

In January 1925, the rebels advanced from Cardiff into Bristol while in Liverpool the Union of Britain was declared. George Lansbury was appointed President, and weeks later A.J. Cook was elected Chairman of the Ministerial Council, leaving the President as a more ceremonial role. With the support of Lansbury, Cook appointed John Wheatley as Deputy Chairman.

Though the loyalists were able to retake Bristol, the army was in full retreat across Britain's industrial heartland. A massive attempt to evacuate Scotland by sea was met with limited success, leaving some soldiers behind as guerrillas in the highlands. The Scottish rebels chose to advance south to link up with the midland rebels. In Spring, martial law was extended to the rest of the United Kingdom and the royal family was evacuated to Canada under the guise of a state visit. This caused a flood of people to try to flee the country, clogging Britain's southern ports and forcing the government to divert military to keep order.

In Birmingham, Oswald Mosley delivered a series of speeches that convinced a revolutionary mob to seize control of the city. Though it was swiftly placed under a siege consisting of brutal urban combat, the Union army managed to advance rapidly and relieve the city. In July, the Republican military, now containing an air branch, attacked Nottingham, where its discipline shocked the Parliamentarians and won it a tough victory.

The remains of the Royal Navy began assisting in the evacuation to Canada, now including the government. Heavy Autumn rain slowed the Union's advance and the Parliamentarians managed to halt the rebels at Coventry. With Canadian reinforcements on their way, in December the Union secured French help in raiding Plymouth to break the stalemate. This proved successful and the direction of forces to the south coast allowed breakthroughs at Peterborough, Luton and the retaking of Bristol. London descended into chaos with the government abandoning the city, allowing the Republican army to enter it and crush all remaining resistance.

British Reconstruction and the Red Terror

In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution there were various political questions that had to be settled. As the Republican Army moved southward to assume control over London, the militias largely disbanded or returned to local duties. The south and east of England would remain under the control of the professional Republican Army and Field Marshall Jack Jones, whose liberal sympathies helped shield many from the fate that swept up many in the revolutionary purges. George Lansbury would attempt to find a place in the new political landscape of Britain, but the Old Guard had faded in prominence and his position as president was becoming tenuous as the role had begun to lose its ceremonial purpose. At the end of the Revolution, Labour as a political party had been hollowed out and became a vessel for the defunct SPGB, with Lansbury relegated to a mere figurehead. In particular, one rising star was minor Labour politician and junior minister in the MacDonald government Clement Atlee, who had survived the tumult alongside his fellow Fabians and former Labour members, reestablishing contact with many, including former MacDonald ally Philip Snowden. Shortly afterwards, Snowden reemerged on the political scene to contest the leadership of the Independent Labour Party, which had become dominated by Wheatley's revolutionary loyalists. Whilst the party had not split outright, the political feud went on to highlight the ideological differences between Wheatley's "Clydeside Clique" and Snowden's dreams for a "post-revolution evolution", the latter of which attracted many Fabians, Labour moderates, and even former members of the Liberal Party, Attlee however remained steadfast to Lansbury's Labour Party, perhaps having seen the syndicalist dominated political structure as a better ladder for him to rise to prominence than joining the independents. Wheatley and Snowden had proven that they were able to put aside their differences in some regards, managing to launch an effective political campaign by playing to their respective strengths in their home regions. The ILP quickly became popular in East Anglia and the southwest, having become the main competitor to the Liberals in those two regions, though the ILP lagged behind in Wales, which remained dominated by the old unions. Scotland had a more complex situation however, as the Clydeside Clique remained split over the issue of regionalism, and a wave of Scottish nationalist parties had begun to sweep the region.

The issue of Ulster, having been effectively the last remnant of the United Kingdom not under Union control, had yet to be properly debated by the Congress and no clear answer was in sight. While the Union of Britain had been quick to recognize the Irish Republic and promised to negotiate on the status of Ulster, murmurs of discontent and proposals of an "Irish liberation" sprung up. Ireland had spent the revolution as a shellshocked spectator, confused, scared, and even intrigued. The question among the Irish was such, could the collapse of their old enemy see the end to centuries of strife or would the socialists prove to be no different than before?

As many exiles and returning Ulstermen headed for the Emerald Isle, the Ulster elite entered into secret negotiations with the Irish Republic to secure their future and prevent the socialists from gaining a foothold in the province. The British Government-in-Exile, giving no real indication as to Ulster policy, would simply remind the Ulster elite that it would "Remain British now and forever" but would not offer any assistance. Initially negotiations proved slow but the sighting of troop movements in Liverpool became the breaking point, with Collins claiming that the Union of Britain was planning an invasion of Ireland. Faced with such a choice the Ulster elite acquiesed and chose to accept Irish protection. While the Union would deny the accusations vehemently, instead claiming that the troops were executing regular deployments throughout Britain, the damage had been done. In the aftermath of the incident, any plans for an invasion or negotiations with Ireland were shelved and relations with Ireland would remain cold, albeit not tense.

Having met in the smoldering ruins of London, the Provisional Revolutionary Government convened the Constitutional Convention to set out the future of the fledgling Union, with the first issue on the agenda of the Congress being the reconstruction of Britain. Up and down the country, battalions of volunteers were sent to help clear roadways, provide emergency medical care, set up provisional food banks, and bury the dead. Thousands of orphaned children were taken into the government and the Young Britons Committee was established to run the provisional orphanages. Government buildings, stately homes, private social clubs, and other "monuments to wealth" were converted into impromptu homeless shelters as the government declared its intention to begin a nationwide public works project to rebuild the country. Plans were drawn up to build 300,000 new homes, new road networks, and train links as well as a complete transformation in the cities as public services were greatly expanded and became readily available. The Cenotaph, which had been badly damaged during the Battle of London, would be rebuilt from scratch with Edwin Lutyens reenlisted to take up the task, as it was then planned to add the dates of the revolution added beneath those of the Weltkrieg.

However, all was not well and despite the best efforts of the militias and Republican Army to mop up remnants of monarchist resistance, their numbers had become too depleted and weary to cover the entirety of Great Britain, as a result much of the push to continue fighting resistance fell to the part-professional workers' militias. While many Loyalist troops had been evacuated to Canada after their defeat in the Civil War, some had remained due to being unable to escape, already operating behind enemy lines like the Operational Patrols, or simply wishing to remain as to organize a domestic resistance. A small minority of these had surrendered to the Union and were rehabilitated into the Republican Army but most formed various bandit groups. Operating out of disconnected rural areas and their old operational patrol bases, the various bandits had become difficult to track and often proved a dangerous threat to the disorganized workers' militias, with those suffering from poverty which had risen after the Civil War having been swept up into similar groups. Around February, a group referring to itself as "The Loyalist Opposition" kidnapped three government officials and would later execute two of them, with the third one going missing. Shortly afterwards, the group had claimed that more deaths would follow should "orderly and moral governance" not return. The group itself was shrouded in mystery with no central leadership and having been effectively composed of loosely coordinated southern Operational Patrols. Despite this it continued to strike immense fear into the fledgling republic and sparked the so-called "Banditry Crisis" after more people (usually random civilians) were robbed, kidnapped, or killed by the bandits. Militia squads, most of which had been assigned to local provisional policing by the Union government, erupted into a frenzy of action as numerous violent purges and reprisals took place against suspected bandits and ex-Black and Tans. Eventually the reprisals came to encompass "reactionaries and counterrevolutionaries" on spurious evidence though the central government did little to stop the violence.

With immense paranoia having took hold and banditry worsening, Cook gave the Republican Army the greenlight to become involved in ending the Crisis. This led to the establishment of the "Special Operations Executive", effectively a detachment of the Republican Army that had been tasked with detaining "counterrevolutionaries", protecting VIPs, and eliminating "armed dissident groups". The SOE, affectionately named "Wheatley's Secret Army", had proved to be immensely successful in shutting down bandit groups and completely eliminating the disorganized and outgunned Loyal Opposition as well as cleaning out other bandit groups in England and Wales. The older, and then deeply entrenched Royalist guerillas in the Scottish Highlands would continue their operations well into 1928, though they grew progressively weaker over time.

While the Banditry Crisis had for the most part been eliminated, the Red Terror that followed had yet to show signs of stopping with most of the aggression of the the radicalized and armed militias being turned to counterrevolutionaries, primarily the de facto outlawed Conservative Party. Wheatley had put out a special decree ordering any members of "prohibited organizations" to be taken into custody by the militias and turned over to the Republican Army for processing at temporary internment camps, though many would die or be savagely beaten before being turned over. The temporary camps themselves proved to be of low quality and often were situated in damaged buildings. Appalling conditions in the camps led to numerous deaths from disease, malnutrition, and neglect by the authorities.

The aftermath of the anti-insurrection campaign terrified George Lansbury, who had already grown tired of bloodshed. Already alienated from the revolution, after having witnessed its turn from his prophesied "peoples' social revolution" into what he deemed a "bloody coup", the senior Labour leader announced his resignation from the Presidency and Leadership of the Labour Party. Lansbury would condemn the revolutionary terror for "killing Britain's own sons", earning him and his followers much contempt from Lansbury's more fanatical comrades. In a critical speech Lansbury went on to declare that if he had his way with the Union he would

Close every recruiting station, disband the Army and disarm the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world: "Do your worst".

With one of his final actions as Chairman of the Labour Party, he would appoint the promising young Clement Attlee to serve as President of the Union and Interim Chair of the Labour Party until an Emergency Party Congress would be held. Perhaps hoping that Attlee would serve as a bridge between the workers' movement of the old and the workers' movement of the new. The handful of fanatical Labour loyalists left in the party scoffed at Lansbury's decision, with former Nelson and Colne MP Arthur Greenwood and former Hackney mayor Herbert Morrison having handed in their bids for leadership and Chairman Cook throwing his hat into the ring as well. Attlee also declared his intention to run as well, desiring to pursue leadership of the party in earnest and not just as interim leader, though it was expected that Chairman Cook would win. A few weeks later Cook took a majority of the votes thanks to the support of his Syndicalist allies, signaling the effective end of Labour as an independent political party, having been completely subsumed into the apparatus of the SPGB by Cook. Shortly after the Congress, as part of the Constitutional Convention, the Presidency was abolished and the Chairman became the head of state and the Deputy Chairman was made into an official position in government.

As 1926 came to a close, the political scene would dramatically change as various socialist parties were absorbed and split from Labour effectively becoming an arm of the SPGB, with the Independent Labour Party and Liberal Parties becoming the main opposition in the Constituent Convention. Around this time Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was formed as a small regionalist party with the principle aim of furthering the expansion of the Welsh language and eventually supplanting English in Wales. While it initially was not a notable party, its small and dedicated membership began a campaign for recognition of the Welsh language and to eliminate any restrictions against it seeing an opportunity in the leftist government.

Shaping the Future

Cook Ministry
Date formed	10 April 1926
Date dissolved	3 January 1931
People and Organisations
Chairman	Arthur Cook
Deputy Chairman	John Wheatley (1926-1930) J.R. Clynes (1930-1931)
Total no. of members	36 appointments
Member Parties	Labour Party Independent Labour Party Popular Revolution Party (from 1930)
Status in legislature	Majority (coalition)
Opposition party	Liberal Party (UoB)
Opposition leader	Herbert Samuel
History
Election(s)	1926 Constitutional Convention
Outgoing election	1931 General Election
Legislature term(s)	1st National Trade Union Congress
Predecessor	Provisional Government
Successor	First Mann Ministry

After months of drafting and debates the constitution of the Union of Britain was formally brought into force, establishing the following key points:

1. Elections to the Federal Congress would occur every five years, with the first election considered to have taken place in 1926 via the Constitutional Convention. Elections shall be by single transferable vote across both chambers.
2. The Union of Britain is a socialist federation of ten equal provinces, to consist of the North East, North West, Yorkshire, East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, South West, East Anglia, and South East. With London serving as the Capital Territory.
3. The entry of Scotland as a province of the federation is to be proposed in a plebiscite whose result shall be binding and respected by all sides.
4. The franchise shall be extended to all men and women aged 21 or over. All property and wealth restrictions are to be abolished.
5. There is no state religion, but the Church of England is permitted to continue operating. The Archbishop of Canterbury is made the official head of the Church, not the former King, and continues to be bound by the Church Assembly. Archbishop Randall Davidson is allowed to remain in his position and the government is forbidden from interfering with Church affairs. Likewise the Church shall respect the secular nature of the government.
6. Federal assemblies are conducted on the basis of a single transferable vote system with the permissible candidates being approved by the Ministry of Information.
7. The Federal Congress is to be a bicameral governing body consisting of the Provincial Parliament, consisting of representatives from all the provinces, and the Trade Union Congress which represents the unions. TUC representatives are elected in local workplaces and provincial TUCs.
8. Either chamber may introduce legislation and pass it via simple majority, however to come into force it requires the approval of both chambers. If necessary the Chairman may prorogue either chamber and permit the other to act as sole authority while fresh elections for the other are held. This is intended only to be used in times of national emergency so that legislation can be passed more easily or if a chamber has become gridlocked.
9. The position of Chairman is to be appointed by a vote of both chambers, with a candidate to be proposed by the TUC and approved by the Provincial Parliament.

The new government had quickly set up proper governance in the various provinces, each of which largely adopted the county-based system of the former administration and switched over to the new voting system. Wheatley oversaw the founding of the Internal Security Service (ISS) and Revolutionary Exportation Directory (RED) as replacements for the Special Operations Executive, employing many former military personnel from the former United Kingdom as long as they were able to prove they were "trustworthy" and not part of the reactionary fifth column. Responsibility for the work of explaining the new voting system, government, and educating the rural regions on the benefits of socialism fell to the Revolutionary Education Commission (REC), a subsidiary department of the ISS. Cook and Wheatley formed a strong coalition and vastly increased the power of their respective groups, and with some support from the Clydeside Clique diminished the influence of the remaining permissible parties: Snowden's wing of the Independent Labour Party and the Liberal Party. After numerous debates on how to formulate the new security services, eventually a compromise was reached in which the ISS and RED would be overseen by the Central Intelligence Committee (CIC), headed by the Deputy Chairman who was to be held accountable for scrutinizing its actions and appointing directors to be voted on by the TUC and Provincial Parliament.

During the first real meeting of the Federal Congress, a number of laws were rapidly brought into force that orchestrated the nationalization of all mines, roads, railways, utilities, and other forms of industry, all of which was to be turned over to worker's self-management via the unions, with the TUC responsible for managing production and trade via the Manufacturing and Resources Commission, members of which are chosen from the TUC by the Chairman. An immediate issue facing the country was the lack of key resources that had been previously imported to boost industry, as well as a severe shortage of food and oil imports that had formerly come from the Dominions. While unrest in the Dominions ended, their policy towards the Union turned extremely cold and they refused to openly trade with the former United Kingdom. As a result significant restructuring was undertaken to British trade by attempting to compensate for deficits via trade with the Commune of France, Socialist Republic of Italy, and other neutral countries.

In the end no regime of long-term rationing was brought in, though some more exotic imports were placed under state control and sold when available. While in the short-term some basic food stuffs became difficult to acquire due to the trading situation, vegetables and cereals remained plentiful, with strict price controls brought into place. Petrol however had to be extremely rationed, which prompted the creation of a Commission to investigate the possibilities of synthetic replacements at Porton Down. Despite initial grumbles, the diets of the poorest citizens noticeably improved under the new regime of managed production and price controls and helped foster a sense of "revolutionary spirit" amongst the populace and also contributed to a growing sense of pacifism.

A series of People's Restaurants were set up where a full meal cost no more than nine Pence (which was an expansion of the nine penny loaf program), and the "Dig For Revolution" campaign began to encourage people to grow food and take up farming with many domestic gardens doubling as vegetable and fruit patches. As a result a migration to the countryside took place as more land was placed under cultivation. For many people this, and a program of housing reform and slum clearances, actually managed to improve their quality of life, as they received education in recycling and reusing various products and the quality and quantity of their diet rose. Fishing also benefited from the fall in meat consumption, with the town of Grimsby experiencing an economic boom which turned the town into the largest fishing port in the world, producing the largest tonnage of ice per day. As part of various attempts to compensate for the limited supply of textiles, a small movement began to discard the wearing of hats as an institution, though its traction was limited.

The last vestiges of the Poor Laws were abolished with the institution of workhouses following suit. Across the country, ceremonial demolitions took place, though many buildings were repurposed into provisional re-education camps with the old "total institutions" providing an ideal setup for education in the new communal way of life. As the REC began to move operations further into the countryside in specialized agricultural camps, the converted workhouses slowly disappeared and were often replaced with shelters for the destitute, though some continued on as specialized urban REC camps.

In the field of foreign policy the fledgling Republic found itself naturally at odds with the remnants of the British Empire, and faced a deeply hostile German Empire across the North Sea. Very early on a treaty of friendship was established with the Commune of France followed later on through further treaties with the Socialist Republic of Italy, while a military alliance was formed between Britain and France. Politically the year also saw the formation of the Popular Revolution Party by John Beckett and Oswald Mosley, with key support being drawn from Birmingham and the surrounding Midlands. Beckett would assume initial leadership of the party while Mosley would act as the charismatic face of the party, allowing it to dominate the provincial assemblies of the East and West Midlands and initially garner support among those dissatisfied among the left and many who would go on to join the underground far right opposition. Less notably, a small clique of the intelligentsia, enamoured with Henry Hyndman's "National Socialism", would link up with the PRP.

Both Scotland and Wales experienced limited state-sponsored cultural revivals, though the former's proved far more successful than the latter's. Celtic customs began to reemerge back into the mainstream in a limited capacity with celebrations of Scotland and Wales' Celtic history. In Wales, any and all legislation prohibiting the usage of the Welsh language, already not being enforced in practice, was officially rescinded from all legislation and Welsh was given full linguistic status with equal status to English with the latter's usage slowly rising. Although similar revivals were attempted in Scotland, they were quickly abandoned due to a general sense of apathy and disuse by the general public, despite the fact it was incorporated into the education system as an optional subject. In Wales, with the new cultural and national awareness taking hold, poet, preacher, and dentist Thomas Evan Nicholas, also known by his Bardic name Niclas Y Glais, became a prominent figure in the Welsh Cultural Revival with his Welsh translation of the Red Flag becoming popular amongst Welsh militias.

Betrayal at Falkirk

The following year would see a flurry of activity as the Scottish Plebiscite loomed in Autumn. Under immense pressure to finally end the Highland Disturbances, General Tom Wintringham and a group of new cadets engaged in a campaign of finally rooting out the remaining resistance, finally putting an end to the two-year Bandit Crisis.

By late spring, campaigns for the plebiscite were well underway as heavy political canvassing began on both sides with the Unionists having an early advantage. Due to strong economic stability and fears that an independent Scotland would become a stepping stone for a Canadian or Royalist invasion of Britain, the Unionists had a good showing early on but soon found themselves falling to infighting. Affiliates and members of Labour found themselves in an odd alliance with the old Unionist Party, who themselves were horrified by the notion of being cut adrift from Britain proper. Despite initially welcoming all the help they could get, the syndicalists soon came to see the old Unionists as a major liability. Amid accusations of class collaboration from the Nationalists, the syndicalists would exclude the old Unionists from the movement, with brawls between "Tory Unionists" and the syndicalists erupting as a result. This would quickly devolve into more widespread violence as armed and radicalized mobs became swept up in the debate.

On the other side, a broad coalition of left, centrist, and right wing nationalists under the leadership of Cunninghame Graham formed and got off to a much better start. In alliance with the moderate "King" John MacCormick, who proved to be extremely popular, they formed the National Party of Scotland to lay out a vision for the future of an independent Scotland, taking up an Ireland-esque position of a neutral foreign policy capable of staying out of continental affairs and imperialist wars as a democratic and socialist nation. the NPS also promoted the idea of distancing an independent Scotland away from France in order to facilitate free trade globally which helped boost the popularity of their campaign. Early on in the campaign, Cunninghame Graham invoked the memory of John Maclean and publicly pled for Scottish voters to "do old John right", as well as citing the major losses of Scottish divisions in the Weltkrieg and British Revolution.

Despite initial popularity, cracks began to appear in the campaign when at a rally Cunninghame Graham boldly declared that "no Scotsman has ever walked the halls of power in this Union" and argued against Anglo-Welsh dominance of politics. When a heckler jibed that Deputy Chairman Wheatley was a Scotsman, Cunninghame Graham responded with "no true Scotsman has walked the halls of power", only to be widely ridiculed by the press for the stunt, with Wheatley jokingly saying that he had been found out and was a secret Yorkshireman all along. Allegations of a smear campaign against the nationalists had become all the more common among the more hotheaded members of the NPS, and violent clashes between nationalists and unionists became a regular occurrence owing to the presence of sectarian militias. The final nail in the coffin of the nationalist cause came when MacCormick publicly stated that Scotland would gladly accept some form of Windsor Restoration if it meant securing the place of Scotland in the world. After a period of neutrality, de facto head of the old Unionists, Walter Elliot instructed all "loyal Scotsmen" to vote for the nationalists and swing the tide in favor of a monarchist restoration. After a unionist campaigner was stabbed to death in August, Wheatley declared the referendum delayed until 25^th of September so an investigation into the death could take place amidst rising tensions.

With each passing day the situation became more of a fiasco, reaching a boiling point when a bomb was detonated at Glasgow University, though no one was killed. The next day was marked by fighting on the streets between nationalists and unionists, though spectacularly no one was killed. Fearing the situation was spiraling out of control and afraid that with the loss of Ireland, already somewhat aligned with the Reichspakt, the further loss of Scotland would result in an intolerable weakening of their British allies, the French put immense pressure on Britain to prevent the secession of Scotland, particularly if it would lead to the allies of the Entente gaining a foothold on the doorstep of the Union. With the Unionist campaign in disarray and fears of a fluke Nationalist victory, Wheatley felt he had no choice but to take decisive action and reluctantly ordered Graham and MacCormick's arrests for "counterrevolutionary activities" and alleged contact with the British Exiles in Canada. Both would be sent to Lincoln Prison, where Graham would later die due to poor health while MacCormick became a living martyr for the Scottish cause.

In the immediate aftermath of the arrests the fate of the plebiscite was up in the air and Incumbent Premier Willie Gallacher declared its indefinite suspension on guidance from London, and was granted emergency powers by the Scottish Council of State to manage the political unrest sweeping the region. In exchange for his cooperation he began negotiating various concessions with the Federal Congress in an attempt to mollify the Nationalists, allowing for Scotland to have further regional autonomy and culminating in the passage of the controversial Scottish Governance and Affairs Act. Shortly after its passage Gallacher resigned and David Kirkwood would be elected as his successor. The situation soon stabilized, though the so-called "Betrayal at Falkirk" became cause célèbre for Scottish nationalists, who likened the arrests of Graham and MacCormick to the alleged betrayal of William Wallace by the Scottish nobility at the 13^th century Battle of Falkirk.

In the aftermath the NPS experienced its first split, with the Scottish Workers Republican Party returning under the leadership of James Maxton. Maxton was not an obscure figure in the political scene, being notable for having his parliamentary privileges revoked in 1924 when he called Conservative MP Sir Frederick Banbury a "murderer" following the government's decision to withdraw school milk, and being assaulted by a parliamentary aide. Maxton became an occasional ally and foe to Gallacher, often pushing for even more radical reforms than him and even advocating for Scottish secession. In the past Maxton had been a close ally and friend of Cook, but shortly after the incident he wrote to the Chairman simply describing his disappointment and asked if he could truly call himself a man of the workers. Afterward the two men never spoke to one another again.

News of the repressive crackdown soon reached Wales, where tempers would began to grow sour. Fearing a similar crackdown in Wales to the one in Scotland, T. E. Nicholas became more involved in Welsh politics and began organizing the "Rebeccarists", a loose group of leftist supporters and fellow travelers opposed to any limits to Welsh autonomy. Plaid Cymru's leadership was horrified by the events that had transpired in Scotland though ultimately did good of it as the party's support base slowly grew. Saunders Lewis, a prominent figure in the movement, grew increasingly erratic and eventually reestablished the Welsh Home Rule Army as an armed paramilitary within Plaid Cymru. Almost immediately the WHRA began carrying out low-level arsons and bombings across the country. Being the only group to embark on armed resistance to the Union government, a wave of mass-hysteria enveloped the press before quickly dissipating. Ideological tensions began to form within the party as its leader, Lewis Valentine, grew distrustful of Lewis's more authoritarian doctrine and ineffective leadership.

Later that year the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, formally announced his plans to retire. He would go down in British history as both the longest ever serving Archbishop of Canterbury, and the first to ever willfully retire. Although some alleged that the Union's government may have had a part to play Davidson stepping down, it was quite openly known that the 80 year old man wanted nothing more than to simply live out the rest of his days in peace, away from the revolutionary turmoil and theological drama that plagued his long career. Davidson was succeeded by the prominent Christian Socialist William Temple, who emerged as one the youngest ever Archbishops of Canterbury, in a surprise victory over the moderate candidate Cosmo Lang.

The Third Internationale Defense Review

In 1929 the members of the Third Internationale's military alliance conducted joint naval exercises and military drills in the English Channel and the North Sea, as well as on land in Kent and Normandy. This was the first real demonstration of the new British supercarrier: the Rebecca. Supported by French vessels, the Union made their return to the realm of naval warfare and caused consternation amongst the complacent German High Command. Feld Marshall Jones by then, in coordination with his French counterparts, published a relatively obscure book called The Gathering Storm, which predicted, among other things; a clash between the Reichspakt and Third Internationale in the coming decades and discussed the place of British and French forces in such a conflict, arguing that while France would make efficient use of her armies with an armored thrust through German defenses, Britain's role would be that of a supporter whose army would come second to a large air force and navy as vital assets of the war in combatting the German Kriegsmarine and warding off the Entente, should it still exist. By this time, General Tom Wintringham began more serious advocacy for the use of guerilla warfare in defensive planning, basing his advocacy off of experiences he had during the Highland Disturbances. After some internal discussion amongst the War Office, Wintringham's plans would be partially enacted and many militias would be reorganized into the Home Guard, which was tasked with preparing for any potential invasion of the British Isles and delaying any invasion forces until the Republican Army could mount a counter-offensive. Much to the General's dismay, his more ambitious plans for a multi-layered guerilla force and resurrection of the Operational Patrols was shelved indefinitely. Wintringham however would not relent, and published his own book, named "New Ways of War", which he routinely handed out to soldiers under his command.

Politically, 1929 oversaw a multitude of reforms of the British University system, opening tertiary education to all, free of cost, and provided for the expansion of technical and vocational educations to the proletariat at the expense of the liberal arts, which saw a string of new polytechnics open. The syndicalist-dominated Trade Union Congress was key to the initiative, as opposed to the more centrist Federal Congress which had significant participation on the part of the Liberal Party and Independent Labour Party. In Scotland, the NPS began to further fracture as dissent grew over the lack of action and stagnating activism, mostly concerned with securing the release of MacCormic from prison. In April, concerned with the party increasingly turning to the left, John Kevan McDowall called a vote to expel the openly radical Hugh MacDiarmid. Shortly after the failure to expel MacDiarmid, McDowall abandoned the NPS and reestablished the right-wing Scottish Party, and although his efforts were relatively unpopular a small but loyal support base formed in the face of ISS harassment. Later that year McDowall vanished amid speculation that he had been murdered by the ISS, and as a result leadership of the SP fell to Compton Mackenzie. Around August, with the NPS fracturing even further, MacDiarmid left the party citing the prior attempt to expel him, its moderate policies, and its "appeasement of England". MacDiarmid ultimately split the party by founding the socialist Scottish National Party, but left the party a week later, with leadership falling to Roland Muirhead. MacDiarmid then joined the Popular Revolution Party but was expelled shortly afterwards due to his Scottish nationalism.

In Autumn, English members of the Provincial Parliament proposed a bill to establish a "Secretary of State for English Affairs", similar in posting to the Welsh and Scottish positions which had been held by the Regional Chairmen for those regions. Owing to England's balkanized federal entities and the refusal of David Kirkwood and S. O. Davies to vacate either position, a proposal was eventually put forward by a growing group of radical cross-bench Devolutionists who put forward a proposal for an "English Council" to deliberate on England-wide affairs.

Death of Wheatley

By the end of 1929, it became clear to everybody that John Wheatley's health was deteriorating. Aged 60 and under immense stress as both the director of the CIC and de facto head of government, he suffered a heart attack in January that left him bedridden. As a result the hunt began for a suitable successor to the Union's primary architect. A great deal of debate and barracking was conducted in the halls of the Federal Congress, with Chairman Cook himself deeply involved in many discussions. While unable to attend the talks himself, Wheatley maintained constant correspondence with the TUC and initially put forward the respected and experienced Archibald Fenner Brockway, notable member of the Independent Labour Party, as his successor. Yet Wheatley was told to retract his proposal, after being warned by his more radical comrades that Brockway could align with Snowden's wing of the ILP and the Liberals, and in effect subvert the vital work of the revolution. While aware that he was in no position to reign in the excesses of his own party, Wheatley initially remained steadfast in his belief that Brockway would broaden and strengthen the Syndicalist Coalition. But after repeated back and forth communication with his close friend John Beckett, including a last minute meeting on his deathbed, Wheatley ultimately signed off on his final thoughts before dying in May. Afterwards it became clear who was to be his successor.

As the new Deputy Chairman of the Federal Congress, Oswald Mosley vowed publicly to "once and for all" root out the reactionary fifth column that sought to see the monarchy restored and the post-revolution order overthrown. In the immediate aftermath of Mosley's appointment no major moves were made, the REC continued its work of political reeducation in rural Britain and of promoting and enforcing class equality and political orthodoxy. However, many Liberal candidates for various by-elections and minor posts found themselves ineligible to run owing to their "political unsuitability". Cook voiced private criticism at what he referred to as "needless fervor" but toed the party line for the sake of unity. Their first major confrontation came when Mosley put forward a policy proposal to disband the ISS and integrate it directly into the apparatus of the CIC, making the Deputy Chairman the de facto head of the secret police. Cook resisted it and threatened to sack Mosley, forcing him to shelve the proposal.

In the wake of Wheatley's death and the fracturing of the Clydeside Clique, Philip Snowden ultimately secured control of the Independent Labour Party. Just as Wheatley and others had feared, he emphasized the party's commitment to new democratic reforms and the path towards evolutionary socialism. Snowden's ascendancy began to form severe rifts within the ILP, no longer just broad ideological divides as had happened under Wheatley but almost personal divides as many ILP members, including Brockway, began to doubt if Snowden had the best interests of the revolution in mind. The party members relegated themselves to cliques of likeminded peers, as a culture of paranoia seeped into the ILP. When news came out that Wheatley had initially intended for Brockway to become his successor , a significant following began to form around the young author, made up of who saw him as the legitimate successor to Wheatley's ideals. Brockway did little to distance himself from said support, and made no efforts to contest the leadership from Snowden, fearing that doing so would split the party in such a crucial moment.

Around the end of the year, attention had shifted to the elections of 1931, to be contested by the Labour Party, Popular Revolution Party, Independent Labour Party, and Liberal Party, alongside a host of other smaller political parties and regionalist political parties. A sudden wave of arrests was made in what was described as rooting out a "Monarchist Conspiracy", as part of which the Liberals were imprisoned and swiftly tried and convicted, as many confessed to having been in contact with Exiles in Canada in order to obtain backing for the overthrow of the syndicalist government and restoration the king. Herbert Samuel professed his party comrades' innocence but his pleas fell upon deaf ears.

Presenting taped and written confessions to the Federal Congress, Mosley warned that there were "traitors on the right among us" who intended to subvert the republic and foster a return to what he called "the politics of reaction, the politics of beggaring the masses in the name of the wealthy". Word spread that the Liberals were a target for Mosley and many members deserted to the ILP, which served to further inflate the ranks of Snowden's clique. Despite the arrests, Cook did his best to reign in Mosley and some amnesties were granted.

Sometime after the mass defections to the ILP, Brockway found his own faction increasingly sidelined and himself increasingly frustrated with Snowden's ineptitude. Having begun to align himself more with Labour Party dissidents, such as the Christian Socialists and local nationalists, Brockway defected for Labour in October citing "irreconcilable differences" with Snowden. While giving no orders to do so, Brockway's followers defected en masse to join him in the growing Labour Party, leaving Snowden's ILP a shadow of its former self. In Labour, Brockway formed his own minor clique that began to follow a somewhat ill-formed ideological trend advocating for further federalism, liberalization and agrarianism.

The New Syndicalist Mann

First Mann Ministry
People and Organisations
Chairman	Tom Mann
Deputy Chairman	J.R. Clynes
Member Parties	Labour Party
History
Predecessor	Cook Ministry
Successor	Second Mann Ministry

Earlier in the year, newly minted Labour member and rising star in the public eye, Brockway wrote a public letter denouncing Mosley's prior appointment to head the CIC as "granting a young man with overweening pride and no accountability the power to decide the future of the Union", referring to Mosley's flagrant abuses of power and warning that soon Britain would become a "tin-pot dictatorship" unless action was taken to avert it. He introduced a motion that would add replacing Mosley to Labour's election manifesto to the support of the growing dissident wing of the party.

With Cook in the hospital for treatment in his ongoing battle with cancer, Thomas Mann was selected to chair the party conference on account of being a veteran union organizer and major figure in the British union movement. Mann offered ferocious resistance to Brockway, arguing that Mosley's brief tenure of the office of Deputy Chairman saw the Union deepen ties with France, increased the pace of reeducation beyond what Wheatley had managed in his entire career, and promoted orthodox syndicalism as the "correct" British way of life. In the end the motion was removed and Brockway and his supporters came under suspicion of counterrevolutionary sympathies. Just before the election season Cook was "asked" by Mosley to ban Brockway from standing in the election, but it failed and notably irked Mann who, despite his prior resistance, regarded Brockway as a potential ally.

The elections were held without major incident, though in many constituencies, particularly in Yorkshire, Wales, and Scotland, only Labour, ILP, and regionalist candidates appeared on the ballot, as the Liberals were increasingly deemed as unsuitable and the Popular Revolution Party agreed to not stand candidates in places where it faced strong competition with Labour. Owing to his own failing health, Cook resigned leadership of Labour to Mann, who celebrated as the Labour-Popular Revolution Coalition won a landslide, gaining majority control of the TUC but fell short of a similar majority within the Provincial Parliament. As was expected, Mann reappointed Mosley as Deputy Chairman and head of the CIC, and formed a mixed cabinet of Labour and PRP notables, paying little heed to the rapidly declining ILP. Deeply impressed by Mosley's extensive record and taken in by his charisma, Mann greenlit Mosley's plans to disband the ISS and see its functions brought directly into the fold of the CIC. Citing TUC interference in the security process, Mann allowed the CIC to slowly escape TUC oversight as the organization became solely responsible to the Executive Committee. Also of note, David Kirkwood resigned his position as head of the Scottish TUC to join Mann's cabinet with the incumbent position passing to a Maclean ally, Harry McShane.

During his time within the rapidly evolving Labour Party, Attlee remained out of the spotlight, serving as Labour leader in the Provincial Parliament, observing and studying the development of the revolution. Whilst he offered the celebratory praise that all public politicians heaped on the great advancement of British history, Attlee began to express worry after Mann and Mosley came to power. While he had once positively likened the Union to the Protectorate and its ruler, Oliver Cromwell, in the way it utilized strength and the delegations of duties to lead England into the future, Attlee began to fear that history was repeating itself and that the Union was on the precipice of embracing the tyranny which Cromwell had later ushered in. Shortly after publicly praising a series of decrees strengthening the Trade Union Congress' emergency powers, Attlee privately confided to his friend Stafford Cripps that “the Bull Ring court will, should we carry on with tolerating Mosleyism, become the only court in currency”.

In the wake of the election, Mann publicly declared that "the true work for a syndicalist Britain begins today". What this meant was anyone's guess but in a private conversation with Attlee, Mann declared that "a Liberal is but a soft Tory". Mann never publicly retracted his statements, instead arguing that the Liberals must "fully embrace the fruits of socialism". The press, already under moderate censorship, was gradually brought under the control of the Ministry of Information, headed by key Mosley ally Wilfred Ridson. The Mann-Mosley coalition elected to try and maintain the level of self-sufficiency that Britain had reached by that point, making efforts to reverse deindustrialization and expand and modernize British industry to fill production gaps in the Internationale's capacity. A great deal of focus was placed on the military in their plans, with further naval expansions scheduled for a future date.

A new class of young and specialised engineers, scientists, and industrial professionals began to emerge from the new, technically demanding, industrial program as the syndicalist focus on polytechnic education payed dividends. Among those rising stars were Alan Turing, Norman Feather, and John Cockroft. The latter two were appointed to work under James Chadwick at Cambridge, researching atomic theory. Around the same time, Mann officialized Rajani Palme Dutt as Labour's chief theorist and granted him a seat on the National Executive Committee, becoming Mann's protégé and chief ideologue.

Syndicalist dominance assured

Second Mann Ministry
People and Organisations
Chairman	Tom Mann
Deputy Chairman	Oswald Mosley
Member Parties	Labour Party
Status in legislature	Majority
History
Predecessor	First Mann Ministry

As the first year of the new administration ended its leaders met frequently, and rumours began to spread that they were preparing some sort of major political move that would go beyond the destruction of the Liberal party as an electoral force. In the end, the rumors proved to be true, and in June 1932, rumors began to spread that Herbert Samuel, leader of the Liberal Party, and Philip Snowden, leader of the Independent Labour Party, planned to merge their parties to create a "super-organization" that would be able to form a majority in the Provincial Parliament and hold the TUC to ransom. As Mosley and Ridson brought various intercepted letters before Mann, he ordered the Provincial Parliament prorogued until further notice, following the advice of Dutt and allowing the TUC to have sole rule. In rapid succession he had the syndicalist-dominated body promulgate several new laws de facto outlawing opposition parties, as Mann declared the Union of Britain to be a nation founded on and committed to Syndicalism and thus not in need of "fractious ideological squabbling when the way forward is clear". Though Attlee ruled out publicly supporting the decrees, he endeared himself to Mann by promising not to impede their passage. In truth, Attlee, with the aid of Cripps, had already begun a plot to build up a political following independent of the Labour Party's own political system. Despite the reluctance of many TUC members, the bills passed fairly smoothly, often attributed to the fact that prior to the voting commencing Mosley ‘reminded' the TUC that traitors lurked among them. Mann himself championed the new laws and declared that the Union was moving ever closer to the creation of a true syndicalist state and declared, “Cook's greatest fault was his inability to end parliamentarianism. Let us fulfill his dream once and for all.” While the decrees did not officially ban opposition groups, several impediments on their ability to run candidates and organize, making any real opposition from outside the Labour Party all but impossible.

Shortly afterwards, another act to supplement the prior ones was proposed by Mosley and championed by Dutt that would permanently disband the Provincial Parliament, and cancel all future elections to it on the grounds that "parliamentarianism was a sin of the reactionary regimes of yesteryear". Mann was initially unsure of how to proceed, and consulted Labour leader in the PP, Clement Attlee, for his thoughts. Naturally, Attlee desired for Mann to reject the bill but seeing the writing on the wall he instead pushed Mann to adopt a lighter approach of simply limiting the chamber's powers. In the aftermath Mann eventually bent to pressure from Dutt and the rest of his Cabinet, and proceeded with plans to dissolve the Provincial Parliament, though inserted plans to replace it with a more "palatable" upper chamber per Attlee's advice, much to the chagrin of Mosley. The TUC voted the proposal through and Britain officially transitioned to a unicameral system for the foreseeable future.

Mosley was furious at the plans but little could be done at the time, and Mann later justified his Deputy's attempts on the grounds that all workers in Britain were, legally, in a union anyway so the franchise was not actually restricted terribly beyond in theory disenfranchising those who failed to pay union dues, were unemployed, or a majority of the female population. This latter oversight in regards to women's suffrage saw a small clique begin to form around Sylvia Pankhurst who began to push the hardest for some kind of upper chamber, and proposes a councilist political system based on that of France.

TUC delegate and ILP leader Philip Snowden attempted to protest these authoritarian measures on the floor of the house and referred to Mann as a tyrant betraying socialist values. For his trouble, he was escorted out by CIC agents and imprisoned. The rest of the chamber saw the writing on the wall and any criticism disappeared. The so-called “Thirty-twoers” from Independent Labour withdrew their membership en-masse before they could be prosecuted for membership of the party, with those who refused and the few who attempted to protest the laws inducted rapidly into Revolutionary Education Commission programs. Initially started as a joke, “rec room” quickly became a common British euphemism for an interrogation room.

The Rise of Pankhurst

1933 was the first year to see the new unicameral regime but also marked the end of the "experiment", as early in the year prominent politician Sylvia Pankhurst became somewhat of a rising star. Having been the leader of the British Section of the Third Internationale and a constant voice of opposition, Pankhurst had earned the respect of many of her peers and been a continuous thorn in the sides of various Union governments. After a trip to France in 1932, Pankhurst used her semi-official newspaper, the Workers' Dreadnought, to begin publishing in favor of adopting a councilist system akin to what was adopted in France. The TUC found itself divided as more liberal members favored a return to the bicameral system while more hardline and Francophobic members accused Pankhurst of reaction and careerism. The head of the Phalanstère economic division and de facto British representative to the organization, Harry Pollitt declared. "The woman seeks to import the great mess that is French councilism creating nothing but a new breed of red-dyed bourgeoisie politicians and exceptional political waste. She will go down as one of the great socialist wastrels of this generation.”

Much to the irritation of Mosley and Dutt, Mann found himself surprisingly aligned with the more liberal elements in the TUC and initially gave tacit support to the measure, speaking in favour of Pankhurst in the Executive Committee. By the middle of the year, the commission set up to establish the new upper house reconvened and as per Mann's instructions returned with proposals for a Councilist Assembly. So as not to alienate the more traditional syndicalists and hardliners, its powers were significantly cut back from anything akin to its French counterpart, having a drastically reduced membership to both the TUC and Provincial Parliament with only advisory and scrutiny-based powers. Despite this compromise, the chamber received ferocious resistance from the TUC hardliners for ‘forcing parliamentarianism through the backdoor', and the Brockway-Attlee clique for being a weak and vestigial organ of state.

While not the ambitious plans Pankhurst had proposed, she still fully embraced the new Chamber, become its first speaker and being informally referred to as the ‘Mother of the House'. The new Assembly found itself acting more as a hotbed for more dissenting elements within the Federationists and saw the introduction of many women to politics, much to the chagrin of the male dominated and "old-school" TUC. Ultimately 1933 marked the first pushback by Mann against his increasingly distrusted ‘allies' and set the stage for future cracks in the government's unity.

Growth and factionalization

With the Councilist Assembly defanged and the old political parties either shut out or absorbed into Labour, the TUC soon found itself developing distinctive political cliques even as Mann attempted to promote political orthodoxy and Ridson's Ministry of Information did its utmost to present the new regime as one unified and devoted to the wellbeing and protection of the British people. Mosley for his part bid his time, though the CIC continued to seek out monarchist plots. The dynamic between him and Mann became more strained as time went on and Mann interfered with his plans, stepping in to protect Fenner Brockway and William Temple out of a personal liking for them both and his own strong Anglican convictions as well as a general distrust of him. As Mosley began to seek out reactionary intrigue numerous prominent syndicalists found themselves in the firing line with Mann often having to rein him in.

The Mann-Mosley divide got progressively worse and became public knowledge after a short rally in the city of Hull. Despite putting up a brave face to the crowds, behind the scenes rumours of fervent arguments became public knowledge and leaked to the press which remained partially free. The next day, a cartoon by David Low depicting Mann as an irate schoolmaster and Mosley as a mischievous young boy became popular nationwide. Shortly after the cartoon comes out, more rumours emerged of a plan to sack Mosley and replace him with Ebeneezer Edwards, which Mann and Edwards both repeatedly denied, and Mann went as far as to declare his utmost support for Mosley. While their partnership became fractured and distrustful, the pair remained aligned for the time being.

Mosley and his tight-knit group of followers began to push more and more of his Birmingham Proposals, which stressed the need for “total commitment to Socialism and the maximum effort for the revolution”, becoming known as the “Maximists”. Effectively made up of the old Popular Revolution Party, it began to attract new followers dissatisfied with the current status of syndicalism and many women, often ex-suffragettes, disenchanted with their status and seeing "Maximism" as the progressive way forward. Followers of Beckett and to a lesser extent Hyndman remained influential, but the clique became dominated by a borderline cult of personality surrounding Mosley.

The small clique forming around Brockway was an odd grab-bag, discontented with the state of the syndicalist regime but unwilling to endorse an adoption of pre-federal parliamentarianism. They were heavily influenced by Christian socialism and the politics that insists that the Union of Britain owes “more to Methodism than Marx”. Brockway penned a manifesto he believes to be the solution to this, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Syndicalism, under the pseudonym Winston Smith. The book advocated for the restoration of the Provincial Parliament and implementation of a broader federal government composed of provinces based on county borders, as well as a rigorous system of checks and balances allowing the provinces to hold the central government to account and exercise power of veto over the executive. Brockway's authorship of the swiftly banned work was kept secret, though some suspect that the CIC were aware of it and were held back from action by Mann, whose Anglican convictions and friendship with key members of the clique made him somewhat sympathetic, even if they did count as opposition. Prominent members included the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, as well as three close friends of Brockway: Ada and Alfred Salter, alongside Richard Henry Tawney.

Finally the ostensibly smallest clique within the party and deeply attached to the Autonomists, but counting a great number of closet supporters from those who were horrified by Mann and Mosley and very popular with voters, was the “Parliamentarians”, so called because, though they rarely publicly espoused it, they opposed federalism in the first place and wished to restore the unitary parliament of the former United Kingdom. While certainly not monarchist, and radically in favour of the Third Internationale and socialism, they viewed the constitutional setup of the Union of Britain as unworkable and unmovable regional autonomy as a barrier to social reform. Their leader remained the pragmatic political operator, Attlee, who had proven too eloquent, patriotic and public a figure to simply be sidelined or disappeared.

Also of note was growing factionalism in the Scottish and Welsh TUCs, both far more "liberal" than their English counterparts. In Scotland, regional Chairman Willie Gallacher became an ever-increasing headache for Mann, often protesting against the latter's edicts and making no attempt to suppress factionalism in the Scottish TUC such as the growing and Brockway-aligned Maxton Clique, the spiritual successor to the SWRP. Despite being in prison, MacCormick maintained contact with his old allies within the illegalized NPS and Douglas Young had become a prominent local politician under the SNP. Ironically areas of Scotland became "hotbeds" of underground Tory activity on account of the looser restrictions and enforcement. In Wales, Horner was a popular figure and cultivated his persona of "one of the miners' own" though was often criticised for spending more time in London than Cardiff on account of his political grooming. Nicholas and his Rebeccarists, while irrelevant outside of Wales, became politically capable and hitched their wagon to Brockway's clique, having made great strides in seeing the Welsh cultural revival. Staunch Attlee ally, Aneurin Bevan was also of major prominence and something of a household name in the South but was forced to downplay his opposition to Welsh regionalism. Plaid Cymru found itself in the wilderness, meeting secretly, having formed an impromptu alliance with the Rebbecarists. The WHRA militia found its attacks fading into obscurity as its repeated arson attacks were chalked up to "local pyromanic madmen" slowly killing their momentum. Despite all this, Plaid Cymru's numbers slowly grew owing to its popularity with disaffected northerners and even some loyalists to the old order, desperate to fight back against the socialists.

These few years saw the British industrial economy make something of a resurgence while key research projects paid dividends, with synthetic fuels and rubbers nearing the point of usability while the Republican Navy presented a growing threat to Germany. Limited rearmament began on land and air as well as Britain heeded the warnings at last of the armed forces, which complained of being woefully unprepared for the next war. Britain enters 1936 with her home politics distant from the 1926 status quo with little desire for change, even as international relations begin to descend into chaos.