By Max Blumenthal / AlterNet. “One of your responsibilities,” he claimed to have been told, “is to make certain that the Ford factory is kept clean of subversives.” Robinson went on to say that a policy was pursued to prevent strike action at Ford throughout the period. The limited horizons of the Ed Miliband years made it impossible to imagine shadowy interests would care much about the ordinary operations of a Labour government — so instead we get a fantastical plot replete with James Bond villains bent on global domination. Despite its growing unpopularity and its growing distance from the British people – exposed starkly by the referendum in Scotland, Corbyn’s election as Labour leader and by the Brexit referendum – the political class clings to the levers of power in Westminster with an almost obsessive fanaticism. The republished front cover now describes how the book “foretold” the events of recent years. He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator. First published in 1982, Mullin's A Very British Coup starts well and shows some real insights into how an extremist politician could take hold of a major political party and end up as PM. This is the real story of a ‘very British coup’, which is now taking place against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Revisiting A Very British Coup in the Age of Corbyn, Get a $20 discounted print subscription today, The CIA’s Secret Global War Against the Left. Read LaterAdd to FavouritesAdd to CollectionReport. Establishment won’t destabilise a Corbyn government says author of “A Very British Coup” Posted on November 13, 2018 by davidhencke. However, following the 2017 general election, he revised this opinion. Its head of MI5, Sir Peregrine Craddock, was secretly blacklisting BBC employees deemed to have left-wing sympathies. Tout à coup, Corbyn et ses alliés, qui ont commencé leurs carrières dans des batailles anti-racistes et populaires, ... Comme Perkins l’a montré dans ’A Very British Coup’ : ’Le temps que vous prouviez quoi que ce soit, le mal est déjà est fait. “Now, I am not so sure.”. Jeremy Corbyn is far more Tony Benn than Harry Perkins, a union militant from England’s “steel city” of Sheffield. ’ Le coup de grâce de Ken-le-Rouge. _g1 = document.getElementById('g1-logo-inverted-img'); The Door Has Been Opened to a More Democratic UAW, The Business Class Has Never Liked Democracy, Donald Trump Was Always a Plutocratic Fraud, Joe Biden Is Not Ready to Confront Corporate America, If Biden Is to Succeed Where Obama Failed, He’ll Have to Fight the GOP, The Sheer Absurdity of Trump’s “1776 Commission” Report Is Hard to Overstate, 1,400 Workers in the Bronx Are on Strike for a Livable Wage, Joe Biden Lifted His Health Care Plan From Insurance Industry Lobbyists. A Very British Corbyn Coup As one military general waves an anonymous fist at a potential Corbyn government in 2020, much to the indifference of the mainstream media, secret service and government Aaron Bastani asks isn’t it time to propose far more substantial cuts to defence and build a people’s GCHQ to investigate these sinister threats. Sadly, McAnally died of a heart attack, aged 63, the following year. Owen Jones. Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British Labour Party politician and has been a member of Parliament for Islington North since 1983. LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 16: Jeremy Corbyn poses for a portrait on July 16, 2015 in London, England. var _g1; Ronan Burtenshaw is the editor of Tribune. In 1988 this was adapted into a popular TV series. The novel is A Very British Coup written by Chris Mullin, later the MP for Sunderland South and, at the time of its publication, 1982, a journalist and close political ally of Tony Benn. Since none of this can of course be the publicly given reason for challenging Corbyn, the challenge is being framed around the nebulous concept of “competence” and the false concept of “electability”. Our new issue, “Biden Our Time,” will be out soon. Despite the legal advice and the all-too transparent reasons for doing it, it seems Corbyn’s opponents are nonetheless still determined to try to get a ruling from the party’s national executive to exclude Corbyn from the leadership contest. A Very British Coup was made into an award winning television series in 1988. Prime Minister Corbyn would face his own very British coup. _g1 = document.getElementById('g1-logo-mobile-inverted-img'); As for the motives of the plotters, they have entirely failed to set out any sort of alternative programme to Corbyn’s, and though they repeatedly say he is too left wing they have failed to identify a single domestic policy of his they say they disagree with. } As the story unfolds, Perkins struggles against a conspiracy to engineer his downfall by vehement opponents of his agenda, including figures from intelligence agencies, the … IN CHRIS MULLIN’S televised 1982 novel A Very British Coup, Harry Perkins — played by an entirely convincing Ray McNally — is a left-wing Sheffield MP. Get a $20 discounted print subscription today! A Very British Coup emerged in 1982. The plot which is seeking to oust him has been under preparation for months – since before he was elected leader – and the plotters were unwise enough to give the game away that they were planning to launch their coup in the hours following the Brexit referendum in a leak to the Daily Telegraph made 10 days before the vote happened. Help us grow. If Corbyn seeks a cautionary tale, he need look no further. Police spies engaged in this activity deceived women into sexual relationships and even fathered children. And it’s been decades in the making. The book was adapted for television first in 1988 with Channel 4’s excellent series of the same name, starring Ray McAnally as the socialist prime minister. Mullin was initially reticent to draw direct comparison. _g1.classList.remove('lazyload'); Many today in the British establishment hold a similar view regarding a possible Corbyn government. Last year we found out that undercover police officers had spied on at least twenty-two left-wing organizations since 1968. Last year we found out that undercover police officers had spied on at least twenty-two left-wing organizations since 1968. Not mentioned, of course, was the fact that Corbyn had been among the campaigners who humiliated Dearlove’s MI6 for the central role it played in instigating the Iraq War. That this is wrong and makes no sense has apparently been confirmed by a legal opinion provided to Corbyn by Doughty Street Chambers, one of Britain’s leading chambers of constitutional and human rights lawyers. Already articles are starting to appear purportedly contrasting Labour’s supposed “problem” with women with the supposed lack of such a problem in the Conservative party, where by pure chance both the current leadership contenders are women. A Very British Coup is a 1982 novel by British politician Chris Mullin. was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. Professor Kate Jenkins. The truth of the build up to the Iraq War was far more mundane: almost all of the plotting was done in the open, because even when the orchestrators were revealed to have lied they faced no consequences. Switch to the dark mode that's kinder on your eyes at night time. _g1 = document.getElementById('g1-logo-inverted-source'); Follow him on Twitter @georgegalloway. Here you'll find all collections you've created before. July 11, 2016 But A Very British Coup tells the story of more serious meddling in the democratic process — and has proven remarkably accurate. Should its coup against Corbyn succeed it will distance the political class from the people of Britain even more, paving the way for more political instability in the future. These were largely dismissed as conspiracies at the time. In the decades he has been an MP Corbyn has established himself as a principled opponent of the neocon/liberal humanitarian military adventures his Blairite opponents in the Labour party remain obsessed with. The Patient-to-Staff Ratios Won By California Nurses Save Lives. What all these bizarre manoeuvres against Corbyn ultimately show is the extraordinary level of entitlement of Britain’s political class of which the Blairite wing of the Labour party is fully a part. Simultaneously stories emerged suggesting Cecil King, chairman of the Daily Mirror newspaper group, had hatched plans for a coup. In A Very British Coup, Harry Perkins is toppled by a combination of the energy strike, a run on the sterling organized by sympathetic Treasury officials, and, ultimately, revelations about a love affair that appear to suggest a conflict of interest. In post-modern Britain history repeats itself the first time as fiction, the second time as fact. Already on our list? Inside the pro-Israel campaign to crush Labour’s left-wing insurgency. The Duran A former Tribunite, like Chris Mullin himself, Wilson was considered by the British establishment to be suspiciously left-wing. if ( localStorage.getItem(skinItemId ) ) { Since that failed an attempt is now being made to exclude Corbyn from the leadership contest through a creative reinterpretation of the party’s rules. Our new issue –  on the incoming Biden administration – will be out soon. These included antiwar, antiracist, and environmental organizations that counted Jeremy Corbyn as a member and supporter. Rattles along with speed and great credibility - The Times. Years later we would learn that an MI5 official, Brigadier Ronnie Stonham, was doing the same thing by stamping personnel files. For a long time, A Very British Coup seemed likely to amount to little more than the “delicious fantasy” the Observer described it as on its release. More QE Needed, The British election outcome will not stop Brexit. How Opponents of U.K. Labour Leader Corbyn Advanced a Political Coup With Antisemitism Smears. Comrade Corbyn: a very unlikely coup Wednesday 03 February 2016 6:30pm to 8:00pm Hosted by British Government @ LSE. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. In post-modern Britain history repeats itself the first time as fiction, the second time as fact. This would culminate in the New Labour governments of the late 1990s and early 2000s in which Mullin himself would serve, recording his experiences in a series of popular and largely sympathetic diaries about the Tony Blair years. For a … In that series, a reluctant center-left prime minister is catapulted into a conspiracy organized by global corporate leaders intent on starting a war. “Our ruling class have never been up for reelection before, but I hereby serve notice on behalf of the people of Great Britain that their time has come.” These were the concluding words of the Prime Minister’s election night address in Chris Mullin’s classic A Very British Coup, spoken by Harry Perkins, the lifelong socialist who had been catapulted into power. In 1982 a novel appeared about an establishment coup against a left wing Labour leader. Wilson suspected that covert plots were conducted against his governments — 1964–70 and ’74–’76 — and that he was the subject of spying by MI5. Around the same time, Harold Wilson was leading the Labour Party. In the documentary that made Gormley’s MI5 ties public, BBC’s True Spies, it was revealed that the Special Branch was talking to at least twenty leading trade unionists during the miners’ strikes of 1972 and ’74, and the three-day-week controversy. Comrade Corbyn: A Very Unlikely Coup continues as follows: It’s frustrating; because the thing about socialism, as the saying goes, is that it takes a lot of evenings, and nobody spent more evenings on it than Corbyn. Chair. Tony Benn, who Mullin collaborated closely with at the time, had narrowly missed out on election as Labour’s deputy leader. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. What About Stock Market? We’re Celebrating Our 10th Anniversary. He is currently a contender for the position as leader of the Labour Party. In recent months we have discovered that the British Foreign Office contributed millions of pounds to the Integrity Initiative, a shady operation based in Scotland which claimed to counter Russian propaganda. Eric Zuesse British Army 'could stage mutiny under Corbyn', says senior serving general. The dispute is in fact wholly about foreign policy and about power and patronage within the Labour party. My 1982 novel was predicated on the surprise election of a leftwing Labour government led by a … Unfortunately there is also the strong likelihood that because Angela Eagle is a woman and gay attempts will already be made to typecast Corbyn’s supporters as homophobic and misogynist despite Corbyn’s own impeccable record on both women’s rights and LGBT rights. A Very British Coup was up there with the best, going on to win four Baftas and an Emmy. Yet there are obvious parallels between Perkins’s experience of a shadowy establishment conspiracy involving British intelligence, newspaper magnates, elite civil servants, and a US government which sought to undermine his socialist administration and what many on the Left expect awaits a Corbyn. When Joe Biden Takes the White House, What’s Next for the Left? As fascinating as it was entertaining when it was first published ... it's disturbing how much still resonates. Comrade Corbyn: A Very Unlikely Coup; Jeremy Corbyn: Accidental Hero; Dangerous Hero; Personal life; Honours and awards; Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (/ ˈ k ɔːr b ɪ n /; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2020. By contrast it seems Corbyn’s opponents only have a letter of advice from a law firm to support them. On Corbyn’s emergence in 2015, he accurately predicted that the Labour leader would face opposition from within the ranks of the party, but felt it “unlikely” that British intelligence would intervene. His MI5 colleague James Miller would later say that the organization had promoted the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike to destabilize the Labour administration. Generals would not 'allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of the UK' The left underestimates the establishment backlash there would be if Corbyn … Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time. A Very British Coup comes from a slightly earlier era (Thatcher) but demonstrates Mullin has a keen eye for how power works in the British system and the writing chops to make a … The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in A Very British Coup had an MI5 spy on its general council. Former Special Branch officer Tony Robinson made clear that shop floor espionage was not an exception. Since none of this can of course be the publicly given reason for challenging Corbyn, the challenge is being framed around the nebulous concept of “competence” and the false concept of “electability”. if ( localStorage.getItem(skinItemId ) ) { _g1.setAttribute('srcset', _g1.getAttribute('data-srcset')); The coup plotters of 1968 were convinced that Britain was heading for catastrophe. Alexander Mercouris In the novel, an energy sector strike organized by the intelligence services is used to undermine the Perkins government. Smears and more smears. } Wright also claimed that British operatives planned a smear campaign against Wilson’s government, code-named “Clockwork Orange,” which involved the leaking of sensitive information. So ran the opening line from A Very British Coup. Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of foreign intelligence service MI6, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that Corbyn was “unfit to govern.” But more than that, he said the Labour leader wouldn’t pass the “vetting” his former intelligence colleagues conducted on public officials. Coronavirus Is an Occupational Disease That Spreads at Work. He was swayed by an intervention on the eve of the election. } catch(e) {}, by It's the story of the brief premiership of Harry Perkins, a former Sheffield steelworker who unexpectedly reaches Downing Street. It’s a reminder that the state is not neutral, and the ruling class has more than capital strikes at its disposal. Of course, Tony Benn was never to ascend to the Labour leadership, and with the emergence of Neil Kinnock, the party began a long move to the right. Many have dubbed this a battle between the Parliamentary Labour … Moments of sharp political commentary — such as Perkins’s conversation about his grandfather’s death in the steel mill, for which his family hadn’t received compensation “yet” — speak to the enduring relevance of Mullin’s writing. This article is more than 3 years old . Should that happen there will almost certainly be a court challenge, prolonging the confusion further. - Val McDermid, New Statesman. A very British coup: The spies who went out to the cold – by George Galloway George Galloway was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. In 2016 we are now witnessing precisely that: an establishment led coup against a real left wing Labour leader. None of the reasons given for the attempt to oust Jeremy Corbyn from the leadership of Britain’s Labour party stack up. From our users by British politician Chris Mullin a quarter of a century and Jeremy Corbyn and the class! 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