Coup in the United Kingdom: What would it be like?

British Coup?

Some points would be:

1/ Parliamentary democracy:...

2/ Imprisonment/house arrest of high-profile dissidents: ...

3/ Limited powers for the judiciary: ...

4/ Independent judiciary: Insofar as the judiciary maintained its powers, it would be relatively free to exercise those powers without fear or intimidation. ...

5/ Rule of law: The rule of law would be maintained. The laws might be authoritarian and unjust, however I think any authoritarian UK would still have police, etc, following the law. ...

I'm afraid this is getting increasingly (and depressingly) familiar.

On fictional versions, there was a novel called "When the Kissing had to Stop", also televised, based on a left wing CND supporting government lead by a Bertrand Russell look alike, being duped and subverted by the Soviet Union.
 
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The CPGB were a major force in postwar British politics, working inside the Labour party, and at all levels within the Trade Union movement, with literally thousands of active members and various front organisations, from homeless movements to unemployed workers unions. The CPGB was also despite it's reputation a major break on working class anger, as the policy of Stalin's CPSU was to get Labour governments elected whatever.

Really, the CPGB had literally thousands of members, eh? I'm surprised I didn't notice that in my readings of the era of the great Attlee Labour landslide, when there were literally millions of actively self-identifying democratic socialists in Britain.

I think in your enthusiasm for the party you exaggerate how influential it was with the broader community, comrade. No doubt they had some appeal as a ginger group to intellectuals and the more alienated militants in the unions, and as you state they were keen to parasitise official Labour, but considering the ILP and Red Clydeside tendencies died off/were in decline in the late forties I don't see how the Communists were anything but living on borrowed time with regards their wartime popularity, which of course was bound to dwindle during the peace.

Spike Torch said:
The POD is no marshall plan, or maybe a slightly harder WWII because of a more reluctant US - leading to no marshall plan, this causes Churchill t hang on with an austerity programme, which then really starts to bite.

Once again, these are multiple points of divergence... Or is this a double-blind what if? "This causes Churchill to hang on with an austerity programme." You're posting from a TL where there was no economic austerity in postwar Britain, are you?

Or perhaps you'd have us believe that Labour's austerity was viable because the all popular CPBG rallied the workers around it?

Also, I'm pretty certain British full employment policies were not contingent on the US aide program implemented only in 1947.
 
British Coup? - fictional versions

Deos anyone know of other fiction on this theme other than 'A Very British Coup' by Chris Mullins and 'When the Kissing Had to Stop' by Constantine Fitzgibbon?

ISTR something by Douglas Hurd on this theme. Was it 'The Smile on the Face of the Tiger'?
 
Peter Wright, who wrote Spycatcher, claimed he talked with a group like that (made up by old buissnessmen and spooks). Their plan wasn't really that scary, he would use his access to secret MI5 files and leak them to the press.
 
There is a short story I read that had a military coup in Britain. (Or was it a counter-coup?) I'm not sure who wrote it. It was in a collection of escape stories, published by Octopus Press. (The collection included "An Awkward Sortie" by Antione de Saint-Exeupery and "Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl, among other stories.
 
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