What! You seriously want the military to run the whole country?
Actually my post was, in the spirit of this thread, entirely frivolous. However, having read 'An Honourable Deception' by Clare Short M.P. I understand that Tony Blair has appropriated power for himself in a manner that is like a coup d'état' in all but name.
I quote the following lines from her book:
'Unaccountable young officials would propose ideas to the Prime Minister and departments would be instructed to implement them' P. 71.
'The centralisation of power continues to grow remorselessly with No.10 trying to control the selection of candidates to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly as well as for the London Mayor and the European Parliament'. P.73.
'All promotion now depends on supporting the leader unquestionably' P. 74.
'Blair came to enjoy the drama and glory that goes with military action' P.91.
'There is a feel of a group of boys who have taken over and find it exciting to exercise power over others through their own little gang' P.102.
'Tony Blair's unwillingness to stand up firmly to the US' P.118.
I looked 'coup d'état' up in the dictionary and came up with the following definition:
'coup d'état' 'A sudden appropriation of leadership or power; a take-over: a boardroom coup.'
Not far off what has already happened it would seem.
I recently met Clare Short at a book signing. Her mission seemed to be to explain what had actually happened to our Parliament. She took questions for 45 minutes. The mood amongst the (mostly) middle aged audience was frankly one of anger that deomcracy had been subverted.
Of course we don't want either revolution or military coup in Britain. We need a full turnout at the next election. The most useful result might be a hung parliament as this would force our directly elected representatives to use the established democratic processes that the British people own.
Room 101? We are already in it.