Abandoned 1974 British Coup

DarkyHughes

Have people heard about this supposed coup that was suppose to take place back in 1974? That was arranged by right-wing people who were in positions of power who were afraid of all the concessions be given to labor unions & other left-wing groups. Lord Mountbatten was suppose to be figurehead of the new government. The Plotters were also alarmed that a left wing government would go soft & ruin "their war" against the IRA especially after a truce with the IRA.

There was a 90 minute documentary on it on BBC in 2006 (I think) called "The Wilson Plot"

Over 400 British Troops set up checkpoints about a mile away from Heathrow because of a supposed eminent large scale IRA attack was going to take place, of course it didn't this was at the peak of all the rumors & the real purpose of the British Army being there was training for a military takeover. So I've read, might be bull****.

http://www.academia.edu/4603271/The_British_Coup_Conspiracy

The plan was to seize Heathrow, the BBC and Buckingham Palace. The Queen would recite a statement urging the public to support the armed forces because the government could not keep order. An internment camp would be set up on the far-flung Shetland Islands. The cabinet would be imprisoned on the QE2, one particular left-wing Labour leader assassinated and Wilson's government replaced with one headed by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip's uncle

This was when there was lots of large protests & riots. And when the most effective IRA ASU (The Balcome Street 4) ever to hit the British mainland was in full swing from August 74 & tried to assassinate Ed Heath around November.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/mar/15/comment.labour1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_politics/4789060.stm

riffmongous

Sounds mad, and the sort of thing you'd just dismiss out of hand, but then again I would have done the same to any stories of a paedophile ring in westminster too until recently

Of course people are always making plans too, but it doesnt mean they will ever be implemented

jonniebgood1

Conspiracy theory, not history.

Manach

I'd never heard of this myself but would recommend the TV series which had a plot similar to this: A Very British coup - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_British_Coup.

Fratton Fred

I would file this event in the same location as the plans to relocate the entire population of Hong Kong to Strabane.

tabbey

My memory of a feared coup was more in 1975 than 74. This fear was based on the theory that democratic governments did not survive when inflation went over 30%. Inflation in both Ireland and the UK was out of control in the mid seventies, because of the failure of governments to take unpopular measures following the oil crisis of 1973. In Ireland inflation reached about 25% in 1975, it was a little higher in the UK under the Wilson government, perhaps partially due the fact that the prime minister, Harold Wilson, was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Also there was no shortage of manipulative rumour mongers fuelling the gossip machine with the idea of a coup. These rumours were on the lines of military, secret service etc, having no alternative but to step in, to save the nation, that they should not shirk their duty, and so forth.
I do not believe that the military leaders had any such intentions, but many people in the UK had some anxiety in this regard, at the time.

Arsemageddon

The Peter Wright book Spycatcher mentioned that the security services were engaged in a plot to discredit Wilson. When the book was published in 1987 the Thatcher government made a ham-fisted attempt to ban it's publication. It was banned in England and Wales, but not in Scotland and the papers were not allowed to report on the allegations contained in the book. This only served to push sales of Spycatcher through the roof and it provided cover up gold for conspiracy theorists.

Opinion's on Wright's credibility vary greatly. He was undoubtedly a high ranking counter-intelligence officer in MI5, but many of his colleagues have publicly stated that he was a bit of an arrogant gobshyte.

Given the turmoil that Britain was facing in the 1970's (Oil Crisis, Inflation, Unions, Northern Ireland, withdrawing from colonies, Cold War, etc) and the state of Wilson's mental health I would be amazed if the intelligence services were not engaged in all sorts of contingency planning. However, I doubt anything approaching a coup would ever have come to fruition. Save for a few dingbats talking gibberish over brandy and cigars at the gentleman's club I don't think the British military would ever consider taking part in a coup. Frankly, it's just not cricket.

By the by if anyone is looking for a good overview of this turbulent period you could do worse than get hold of Dominic Sandbrook's book State of Emergency (or any of his other books on modern British history)

donaghs

The 1974 plot doesn't sound credible. Hard to believe it could come to pass.

Also, David Stirling the ex-SAS founder did claim to have a small group of ex-military men ready to take over in the event of a breakdown of law and order -GB-75.
But it doesn't seem to have amounted to much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stirling

The plot to discredit Harold Wilson seems far more believable:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_Orange_%28plot%29

After the unmasking of Kim Philby and others, British Intelligence began searching for other possible agents in their midst, including Harold Wilson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Wilson_conspiracy_theories

Coillte_Bhoy

donaghs wrote: »

The 1974 plot doesn't sound credible. Hard to believe it could come to pass.

Also, David Stirling the ex-SAS founder did claim to have a small group of ex-military men ready to take over in the event of a breakdown of law and order -GB-75.
But it doesn't seem to have amounted to much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stirling

Decent documentary by Adam Curtis on Striling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=234H8X1-JiA

Snickers Man

Arsemageddon wrote: »

Opinion's on Wright's credibility vary greatly. He was undoubtedly a high ranking counter-intelligence officer in MI5, but many of his colleagues have publicly stated that he was a bit of an arrogant gobshyte.

You don't have to solicit the views of his contemporaries to conclude that he was an arrogant gob****e; you just have to read his book. He comes across as a thoroughly hideous person.

He was initially recruited as a scientist and worked on dreaming up gizmos that would be of use to intelligence operatives. In one sense he was a bit like Q from the James Bond films. But he was a horrible little man who thought nothing of killing people as long as somebody else went and did the dirty work. He just smelled to me like the sort of weedy little nerd who liked to talk tough because he had an in with some of the big boys.

And of course the main reason for his book was that he thought he didn't get a big enough pension.