Agent Lavender: The Flight of Harold Wilson

All I can say about the TL and this update is wow.:eek: Things are spiraling out of control very quickly, with Thatcher appearing not to be up to the job at the moment and Mountbatten being told (possibly unintentionally) to stop her. A large portion of the country probably believe Wilson has been framed and that this is a coup.

I really can't see how the new Government can hold things together. Mountbatten needs to be very reassuring if they're to have any chance of doing so. I await the next installment with baited breath.

I'm glad the tension is rising. My lips are sealed for now on what's coming next, I'm afraid.
 
I'm glad the tension is rising. My lips are sealed for now on what's coming next, I'm afraid.
I understand your taciturn replies, and I'm not asking you to give anything away, but this is in danger of really kicking off. I don't know whether it would be better for the police and secret services to catch Wilson as he's about to escape, or for him to get out to the USSR. Then again, if he does the latter, he may well be hidden away for quite a while by his handlers...

This could get really ugly. The betting shop scene could be writ larger, angrier, and more violent across huge swathes of the country.
 

Garrison

Donor
Never heard of the World in Action before. I'm sure some in America wil call Margaret the BBritish Gerald Ford

It was a series dedicated to investigative journalism and something of a thorn in the side of the establishment. It was not needless to say a favourite of Mrs Thatcher even in OTL.

Chris Mullins was later a labour MP but before that as a journalist with WIA he played a leading role in the 'Birmingham Six' case and he wrote the novel 'A Very British Coup' which was about a left wing government being destabilized by the establishment...
 
Google Translate says "خوش" simply means 'good'. Is it used by itself as a greeting? I'm well aware of its limitations, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were wrong.

Hmmm... considering that it thinks it means "there" in Urdu (presumably the language being used here), so I'm guessing Google is way off here.

Enough of pickiness. Ouch. Mega-ouch.

Minister for Information, eh? Formally establishing MiniTru, are we? As I say, mega-ouch.

By the way, I'm guessing from reading between the lines, that OTL there was enough time to soften Maggie's presentation?

Yeah, I think something buggered up the Arabic when I pasted it into the Google Doc we use, I'll ask Meadow to change it when he has a spare moment.

"Minister of Information" is a bit of a sop to get Mountbatten into the Cabinet, whilst also affording him more gravitas than he would get as Lord Privy Seal or something. It also gives him a formal purview to act as the government spokesman, as well as allowing the Establishment to do something about the "You were governed by a Leninist" vibe that most people are simply refusing to believe at the present time.

I hope Meadow and Lord Roem don't mind me adding this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6FR03BqIQ

It's a BBC documentary on the Wilson Plot with secret recordings of Wilson stating he wanted it investigated.

Cheers for this Fletch. A good watch, if any of you are interested.

Also, to whet your appetites for the next week or so;

ford_promo_by_lordroem-d62hoq2.jpg
 
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"Minister of Information" is a bit of a sop to get Mountbatten into the Cabinet, whilst also affording him more gravitas than he would get as Lord Privy Seal or something. It also gives him a formal purview to act as the government spokesman, as well as allowing the Establishment to do something about the "You were governed by a Leninist" vibe that most people are simply refusing to believe at the present time.

It does seem like the Establishment is taking advantage of this, sidelining Thatcher until (maybe even without) the improvement in her self-image beyond being the anti-Heath candidate. Mountbatten's views on Northern Ireland may need to be kept in the dark though, following a Soviet spy with a sympathiser for the IRA (in some of the Cabinet's eyes) wouldn't exactly aid in the fallout management.

From what I can assume, it does seem to be the Labour voters that are having a hard time believing this to be other than a coup (naturally since the face, brain and spine of the party have just been imprisoned) and it all depends on what happens between Wilson and/or the KGB. If the Soviets decide to leave Wilson to dry, perhaps that's what Kissinger is going to help convince them to do judging by the poster, there may be some red faces. Not before eggs reach other faces with Mullins and Caroline on the government's case.

Great update, though that probably doesn't need to be said, the Lady being brought out before the iron gets forged was a bad move, Powell preventing himself from leaping into this mess, Jenkins being forces, Benn playing the detective and Heath probably now running out of celebration wine by that point were all fascinating to read. Any other compliment has already been said.
 

The Vulture

Banned
I also like that Powell is being given a much more nuanced and realistic portrayal than he gets in a lot of other AH works, wherein the authors seem to be familiar with "Rivers of Blood" and nothing else he ever did.
 
I also like that Powell is being given a much more nuanced and realistic portrayal than he gets in a lot of other AH works, wherein the authors seem to be familiar with "Rivers of Blood" and nothing else he ever did.

They've got the spring in his step dead accurate.

209327.jpg
 
Just realised I haven't commented on this at all yet. Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of praise.

One question that really comes out of this for me; just what on Earth are the McWhirters up to? On a related note, the scene between Powell and the Record Breakers was genius.
 
Just realised I haven't commented on this at all yet. Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of praise.

One question that really comes out of this for me; just what on Earth are the McWhirters up to? On a related note, the scene between Powell and the Record Breakers was genius.

I hadnt realized until i googled them, but they apparently dabbled in some pretty far right politics. I fear they dont think Maggie is far enough right and want 'properthinking' leadership, make the coup effective.
 
Just realised I haven't commented on this at all yet. Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of praise.

One question that really comes out of this for me; just what on Earth are the McWhirters up to? On a related note, the scene between Powell and the Record Breakers was genius.

Either they're emissaries of the now-vindicated part of the Establishment that always suspected Wilson of being a darker shade of red and who see Powell as a more eloquent figure to replace Thatcher with or are trying to start their own little conspiracy and have just failed.

I wonder what Walter Walker and the other Civil Assistance types are up to, one would think that they have been contacted and are probably going to start announcing their loyalty to the National Government. Ironically, we could see Civil Assistance being seen by some who are suspicious of the accusations as a secret police.
 
NO clue who the McWarters are or the Record Breakers. One image that I think would be funny is if Wilson gets into the sub, he bangs his head on a hatch or something.
 

The Vulture

Banned
NO clue who the McWarters are or the Record Breakers.

The McWhirters were twin brothers whose main claim to fame is establishing the Guinness Book of Records. They also threw a lot of their money and influence behind various rightist causes, to the point that Ross was eventually assassinated by the IRA.

Learn to use Google.
 
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