Thursday 11 November 2010

A very American coup?

In the past few months I've read both volunes of Chris Mullin's diaries - both a very good read and highly recommended.

One gem - Tony Benn on Neil Kinnock: "A vacuum surrounded by charisma." Unkind, and not really apt, but funny.

Quoi qu'il en soit (French for "Be that as it may" which contains a subjunctive and can be popped into an essay at almost any point and earn an extra mark at A level)the diaries prompted me to read Mullin's novel, "A very British coup." This, also highly recommended, tells a fictional story of how a combination of Britain's right wing press, senior civil servants, military chiefs, security services and at least one trade union leader conspire to overthrow a democratically elected left wing Labour prime minister whose policy is to remove US military bases from Britain.

We in the "rest of the world" find it incomprehensible that the US can turn against Obama's leadership. (I happened to be in the US when Reagan defeated Carter, and couldn't comprehend that either.) Maybe there's a similar sort of right wing anti-democratic conspiracy there.

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