WI: A very British coup d'etat 1968?

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Paging @Meadow and @Lord Roem.

But generally, had King and Mountbatten accepted the offer, it would have simply been easier to push for a General election and watch Wilson leave Office. My understanding though is that the plot was generally there to take control if things went south (as in Agent Lavender). It was the sort of thing Airey Neave and his mates who ran right-wing Milita's were prepared for, and a National Goverment with Mountbatten ruling from the Lords was what would have resulted. Of course, 1968 wasn't MI5- the alleged show of force in 1974 was MI5 and the Army (who initialed Operation Clockwork Orange to smear Wilson and his Goverment), with the continuation plan of Mountbatton leading a National Goverment carrying over from that meeting. And as we see in Agent Lavender...
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Why exactly 1968?
In May 1968 Lord Mountbatten met Cecil King, Hugh Cudlipp, and Solly Zuckerman to discuss preparations for what King saw as an inevitable collapse of law and order as a result of Wilson's weak and socialist Goverment. Mountbatten was to lead a National Goverment in a sort of Ministry of All-Talents, however when Zuckerman said it would be treason Mountbatten declined.

King would write some headlines calling for Wilson to be removed, however this would result in him being removed later that month from his position as head of the IPC.

MI5 comes in a bit later, but the gist is that, had Mountbatten accepted, he would have been in the shadows to form a Goverment if a Constitutional Crisis happened, which MI5 is alleged to have been trying to engineer a destabilization of the Labour Goverment, as had the Secret Services done in 1924. Basically if the coup was put in place, it would have happened in the 1970's.
 
In May 1968 Lord Mountbatten met Cecil King, Hugh Cudlipp, and Solly Zuckerman to discuss preparations for what King saw as an inevitable collapse of law and order as a result of Wilson's weak and socialist Goverment. Mountbatten was to lead a National Goverment in a sort of Ministry of All-Talents, however when Zuckerman said it would be treason Mountbatten declined.

King would write some headlines calling for Wilson to be removed, however this would result in him being removed later that month from his position as head of the IPC.

MI5 comes in a bit later, but the gist is that, had Mountbatten accepted, he would have been in the shadows to form a Goverment if a Constitutional Crisis happened, which MI5 is alleged to have been trying to engineer a destabilization of the Labour Goverment, as had the Secret Services done in 1924. Basically if the coup was put in place, it would have happened in the 1970's.
This is accurate - it's common to conflate two things by accident. The MI5/Army stuff is the 1970s (and was being planned for, that's a matter of record - the dispute is over how senior the officers involved were). The Mountbatten '68 affair is rather more romantic and civilian-led.

So to the first: if Mountbatten had said yes (and you need big PODs to make him do so), he would have handed power to a Barbara Castle-led Labour government/national government as soon as possible. That's what the man himself said.

To the second (the 1970s MI5 coup): harder to say. Mountbatten probably wouldn't have been involved. It may well have just been done via blackmailing Wilson into resigning using fake evidence and smears. It is highly unlikely it'd get to the point of tanks on streets.

Either way, my book with @Lord Roem, called Agent Lavender, would probably be up the OP's street.
 
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