Each of these chapters in this book of political counterfactuals
describes a premiership that never happened, but might easily have done
had the chips fallen slightly differently. The contributors, each of
them experts in political history, have asked themselves questions like:
what shape would the welfare state and the cold war have taken if the
Prime Minister had been Herbert Morrison instead of Clement Attlee? What
would have been consequences for Northern Ireland had Norman Tebbit
succeeded Margaret Thatcher? How would our present life be different
without New Labour - a name we would never have heard if either Kinnock
or Smith had become Prime Minister and not Tony Blair? Each of the
chapters in this book describes events that really might have happened.
And almost did.
FRANCIS BECKETT is an author, journalist, broadcaster and contemporary
historian. His books include Gordon Brown, The Great City Academy Fraud
and Clem Atlee.