WI/AHC: Tories win 1945 Election.

Has anyone else seen the mini-series and knows the title?:confused:

I think you mean the excellent A Very British Coup, a Channel 4 adaption of a novel by Chris Mullin. And it was based on a lot of rumours and suspicions, not only about what would happen if a stridently left-wing Labour leader became PM, but also about what actually had happened during the two premierships of Harold Wilson.

There certainly were a couple of interventions in British politics (CIA funding for Gaitskellite periodicals like Encounter and Socialist Commentary) and this is a very convoluted area with many unanswered questions - whether Michael Stewart was passing state secrets to the American embassy when he was Foreign Secretary, for instance. There's a fascinating book called Smear! by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay that puts together a huge amount of information on alleged domestic and US attempts to subvert Labour in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
 
I think you mean the excellent A Very British Coup, a Channel 4 adaption of a novel by Chris Mullin. And it was based on a lot of rumours and suspicions, not only about what would happen if a stridently left-wing Labour leader became PM, but also about what actually had happened during the two premierships of Harold Wilson.

There certainly were a couple of interventions in British politics (CIA funding for Gaitskellite periodicals like Encounter and Socialist Commentary) and this is a very convoluted area with many unanswered questions - whether Michael Stewart was passing state secrets to the American embassy when he was Foreign Secretary, for instance. There's a fascinating book called Smear! by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay that puts together a huge amount of information on alleged domestic and US attempts to subvert Labour in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

It sounds fascinating. I would say considering CIA activity elsewhere, it wouldn't surprise me a bit. Just remember, everybody spies on everybody. I would think that an agent of Canada or the UK would find the USA the easiest country on Earth to infiltrate (and recruit agents).

The trouble is as a historian/investigator, trying to sift out the differences between those who are "paid agents" (along the lines described in "A Very British Coup") and those who are simply trying to spill the beans to Big Brother (on the QT). The idea being in the latter case of getting one's own government to change policy in some area. Usually foreign policy in this case. If it was a domestic area, expect the person in question to leak to the newspapers or go to relevant interests adversely affected by new policies.

In the case of national security issues, an individual cabinet minister (of any Western Allied Power-in the Cold War) might decide that leaking to the largest power (in terms of military defense) of the Western Alliance/Free World/First World could provoke a highly negative reaction. Such as military trade retaliations. "We've changed our minds, we don't need those 800+ Harriers! We're going with Comanche helicopters instead! Hooray Sikorsky! Bye-bye Hawker Aerospace! See you on the breadlines!":( Or worse, provoke Isolationism in the US. Hello, President Buchanan.:eek: Goodbye NATO. Hello, People's Democratic British Republic (PDBR).:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::rolleyes: Just kidding on the PDBR part. Unless Britain had embraced full nuclear unilateral disarmament.
 
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