A Short History of British Military Coups and Conspiracies
Preamble
Recent comments in a recent edition of the Sunday Times
attributed to a serving British army general contained the not so veiled
threat of mounting a military rebellion in the event of a Jeremy
Corbyn-led Labour government getting close to exercising the levers of
power. The anonymous general painted a scenario which would involve
“mass resignations” by high level officers in the British armed forces
in what he claimed would “effectively be a mutiny.”
Although a source for the Ministry of Defence sought to dampen
the remarks by issuing a condemnation of the comments, they have caused
much alarm.
The comments come in the midst of a concerted media campaign
aimed at discrediting the leader and proposed policies of the Labour
opposition party. While there is some room for treating words expressed
anonymously with some caution, events in the recent political history of
Britain suggest that they should not be readily dismissed.
There is much evidence that elements within the British military
and the security services have acted against serving governments which
the Establishment have viewed as threatening the interests of the United
Kingdom as they perceive it. Targeted were the Labour administrations
headed by Harold Wilson in the 1960s and 1970s. Threats of coups and
efforts geared towards destabilising Wilson’s government have been
credibly corroborated over the years.
