Owen Jones and others have been debating the precise significance of this statement from an unnamed general reported by the Sunday Times:
It’s not only Corbyn’s supporters who find the general’s words troubling, although his statements can be read in different ways. ‘Direct action’ sounds a bit alarming, although if this will only take the form of the ‘mass resignations’ he goes on to foretell then there is nothing particularly sinister here. His choice of the word ‘mutiny’ is an interesting one – it’s often used in a loose way to imply various forms of dissent, but obviously has particularly charged overtones in a military context. And, although some are asserting that it’s ridiculous to read hints of a coup into the general’s words, the last sentence with its insistence that the general staff ‘would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country’ and its reference to using ‘whatever means possible, fair or foul’ is easily open to such an interpretation. Whatever one thinks of Corbyn’s views on defence (not much, in my case) hints at a Very British Coup style subversion of democracy really don’t help.
