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Media Format ‏ : ‎ DVD-Video
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01F45Z816

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LauderRay

Establishment insight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 August 2023

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Interesting insight in to British Establishment but hastily written

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A frightening glimpse of how the Establishment retains its power

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 August 2012

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I found this a very enjoyable and engaging novel. I was also intrigued to see how prophetic it was in many ways. It was written in 1982, some three years into Mrs Thatcher's first term in office, and is set in the year or so following a general election in 1989 at which the Labour party secured an unexpected landslide victory.
As the novel opens we are given the reactions of various Establishment stalwarts, including press barons, bankers, industrialists and several Civil Service mandarins, all of whom are appalled at the prospect of a genuinely socialist government assuming power. While they seethe with rage and fear we learn something of Perkins's background.
As a young man Harry Perkins had followed his father into employment in a Sheffield steel mill. Once there he became involved in the trade union movement and quickly rose through the local ranks. Spotted as a potential high flier he was awarded a union scholarship to Ruskin College in Oxford, and continued his rapid progress through the part machinery until he was selected as an MP for his home town. Following a spell as an energetic and diligent back bencher he enters what is clearly the Wilson/Callaghan Government of 1974 to 1979 (though neither of those two leaders is specifically named), eventually rising to Cabinet level with responsibility for maintaining the national grid. In this capacity, despite obstructions posed by officials in his own department, he awards a contract for a nuclear power station to British Industrial Fuels, and they duly build an installation by.
When the Conservatives return to power under Mrs Thatcher following ntheir own landslide victory in 1979 Perkins surprises everyone (perhaps including himself) by eventually becoming leader of the Labour Party. An election is called in 1989
Perkins certainly has a radical suite of policies and is eager to commence the withdrawal of the UK from NATO and the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal. He also threatens to dissolve the prevailing newspaper monopolies. As we have already read, the Establishment is appalled, and starts to fight back using its own range of weapons. Sir George Fison owns many of the most popular press titles and uses his papers to mount a concerted effort to undermine the new administration. Meanwhile the military Chiefs of Staff mobilise their own machinery, undertaking almost treasonous activities with Western Allies to circumvent the Government's planned reductions. The various Whitehall Permanent Secretaries work together to confound the administrative process wherever possible. These mandarins are steely, ruthless characters - very far from the popular perception of Sir Humphrey, but with all of his determination to have their own way.
The author, Chris Mullin, would subsequently become a Labour MP and would even serve in Government himself, though at the time that he wrote this novel he was an investigative journalist fighting high profile alleged miscarriages of justice. However, his understanding of the Whitehall machinery is very clear, and he paints a very plausible picture of the relationship between Ministers and senior officials. The novel is always entirely credible, and often very humorous.
The novel is also rather alarming as it displays the relative ease with which the combined forces of the banks, the press and senior officialdom can confound the aims of government, regardless of the size of the electoral mandate. One thinks of the persistent rumours, fuelled by memoirs from the likes of Peter Wright, of concerted campaigns by the intelligence community to undermine the Wilson government in the 1970s.

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The TV Version Was Better

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 September 2021

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interesting to read this in 2021 post Corbyn's time as leader. In that sense, there is a lot in this book that was written a long time ago that has been proven by facts. Clearly for too many parts of the establishment, democracy is severely limited and basically falls within the very narrow bounds decided by a clique of self appointed experts. We saw this too with Brexit.

That said this book is interesting up to a point but I didn't find the writing all that good. The idea behind it as the author himself mentions was not unique and several people were working on similar books but he got there first.

Too many parts of it were just confined to the chapter they were in and in my view, there would have been far bigger repercussions - the section on the run on Sterling being one was obviously a really issue but the solution was ludicrous in how it came about. I won't say more and spoil other's reading of the book.

It was also a bit OTT in that there were too many major disasters/crises happening in a very short period.

As for the main character, I'd naturally have sympathy for his politics but from the way it is developed in the book, I'd be hard pressed to understand how on earth he got to the top.

This I suppose is a big problem for many people who have a good idea for a novel but not necessarily the full range of skills for telling the tale.

One person found this helpful

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Gary Jones

A Very British Coup

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 June 2023

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Reread A Very British Coup and now wonder whether it is fiction!
Very good, thought provoking read about what MAY happen!

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Kindle Customer

From nostalgic history to current affairs

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2015

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I remember watching Channel 4's (fabulous) adaptation of A Very British Coup in 1988. Then it seemed almost wistfully nostalgic: hard-left Bennitism was on the retreat, as Neil Kinnock modernised the Labour party. Fast-forward a quarter of a century and Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader suddenly makes the book appear current once again.

For this is the tale of a socialist, pacifist leader of the Labour party, Harry Perkins, committed to taking on the City and adopting unilateral disarmament, who suddenly finds himself propelled into Number 10 and fighting for survival -- against not only the Establishment, but also his own side. As Mullin wittily asides: "One reason why the British ruling class have endured so long is that every so often it opens its ranks and absorbs a handful of its own worst enemies."

The IMF comes knocking, a right-wing union leader sparks an energy crisis, the Americans play dirty. There's enough of a grain of truth to keep it just about plausible -- even if the overall effect is one of paranoid conspiracy, a very 1980s' trope (see also Edge of Darkness and Defence Against the Realm).

It's pacily told, with twists and turns a plenty. If the book has a problem, it's that it fades out with a rather whimperingly downbeat ending. Actually, the TV series does the story a service, with a last-minute surprise and a deliciously enigmatic cliffhanger which leaves us guessing whether Harry Perkins triumphs or fails.

3 people found this helpful

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Paul Ellmes

Corbyn was told this was happening to him.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2023

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The book opens with some reviews. The Telegraph's says simply 'Preposterous!' Sarcasm we can suppose.
I would say this book hits the nail on the head in regard to power, politics, and change in Britain.

Read along with The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist,Smear, and The Strange Case of Victor Grayson.

And stay in your place! Where the establishment
keeps you

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A Very British Coup [DVD] by Ray McAnally

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A Very British Coup [DVD] by Ray McAnally

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