WI: Britain goes Fascist in 1970s

A military coup and/or junta in the UK in the 1970s is not ASB. Walter Walker "taking the plunge", in 1972, being backed, and succeeding, that is ASB. You need a very different 1960s, or a huge PoD, like the IRA assassinating the queen.
 
In the early hours of March 16 1976

...a little past 2 in the morning in fact a rodent was born. A few short hours later the Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Harold Wilson MP would resign. Coincidence? I think not....:p

Being serious though in even in his paranoid depressive states to which he was prone Harold Wilson never seems to have really believed a coup might succeed merely that it would make him look bad. Also it is much more fun to look back and conclude you were done down by mysterious enemies rather than your own mistakes might have had something to do with the end of your political career.

There probably were disgruntled officers and civil servants willing to to conduct a whispering campaign against Wilson, contrary to regulations, yet it is worth noting we never had any willing to push the matter towards seeking trial/court martial and gain the kind of publicity someone with the backing of a true conspiracy would have relished.
 
It's rather like the old Sea Mammal. Operation Sea Lion is ASB. It is after the Fall of France, and likely is from the moment German troops enter Polish territory. However, a German invasion of the UK in 1940 is not ASB, provided that there is a sufficiently early POD or PODs. Of course, the butterflies from this divergence may well make the whole thing moot.
 
A military coup and/or junta in the UK in the 1970s is not ASB. Walter Walker "taking the plunge", in 1972, being backed, and succeeding, that is ASB. You need a very different 1960s, or a huge PoD, like the IRA assassinating the queen.

Well with an early enough POD pretty much anything is possible.

The OP specifically mentions what if Walker had've taken the plunge in 1972, which we agree, is ASB.

Also, with regard to the OP, Walker was not "Hitler-esque", he was not a neo-Nazi, or even a fascist in the European sense. He was a hard right ultra conservative - and something of an eccentric - in fact probably quite similar to the mindset Churchill had in the 20s and 30s.
 
I have had this idea of Heath winning in Feb 74 with a narrow majority (they won votes than Labour anyway), the Unions get more and more militant, Heath loses control and Walker could have lead a quasi Military gov to restore law and order.
 
I have had this idea of Heath winning in Feb 74 with a narrow majority (they won votes than Labour anyway), the Unions get more and more militant, Heath loses control and Walker could have lead a quasi Military gov to restore law and order.

Even in that scenario its ASB, Walker had pretty much no support at all within 1. The Media 2. The Military 3. The political establishment.

In that scenario either another election or some form of grand coalition would happen. In otl 1974-76 there was a lot of talk (without much actual evidence, but still a lot of talk) of the left wing of the conservative party (Health, Whitelaw, Carr, Peter Walker) and the right wing of the labour party (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams) breaking off and forming a national government with the liberals.
 
From what I read out of this, it seems that Sir Walter was thinking more of a military-run government led by either a strongman general or by a junta... 'kind of what was going on in about every other South-American country at that time. From the quote, I do not see Sir Walter contemplating a Nazi ideology of racial purity and purging of all un-German (un-British) thinking. In fact I do not even see him endorsing Italian Fascist or even Spanish Franco-ist ideals.

...

Agreed, and further, Walker was against military led governments as well.
 
... I was saying the most likely Fuhrer would be Bowie. Which is, of course, to say that it is quite impossible there would have been any Fuhrer at all.

But would a fascist England actually need a führer? Or could it - just like Spain - keep the King/Queen as a symbolic head of state with an English Generalissimo or a junta of Generals in charge of daily affairs? I mean both Italy and Germany had a strong populist dictator, but there weren't many other fascist states other then those two, so you could just as well say that 'only two' fascist regimes had an absolutist dictator.

Also, England is still a momarchie. Both Germany and Italy had done away with their royalties at least yen years before Nazism/Fascism came to power
 
Er, Fascist Italy was a monarchy. Please be careful before making statements like that.

Bowie was satisfied being a Duke so would keep the Queen...assuming she would be willing to remain in this situation, something which is often overlooked - what's to say she wouldn't pull a Carlos? As PA says the original Fascist state was a monarchy so nothing to stop Blighty going the same way.
 
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