Mutinous Army, Treacherous Conservatives

Britain stands on the brink of civil war. After decades of campaigning, a region of the country is about to be granted limited autonomy. However, sections of the population within that area, who oppose any extra powers, are so furious with the decision they create their own army to oppose any attempt by the government to enforce the law. This army begins buying weapons from a foreign country, which would love to see Britain divided. They are also egged on by the Conservative party, which is still reeling from successive general election defeats and looking for any way it can to frustrate the government of the day. In response, those campaigning for autonomy also begin to arm.

The government is in a corner; it would love to bury it's head in the sand and make it all go away, but is dependent on the support of MPs in favour of autonomy in order to survive in a hung parliament. The Prime Minister orders the army to prepare to disarm those trying to prevent the law coming into force. Senior army officers, encouraged by the Conservative party leadership, offer their junior officers a choice as to whether they will carry out these orders if conflict erupts. Somewhere between 60 and 100 resign rather than carry out their orders.

This sounds like the plot of a dystopian novel, or something from a new TV series on Sky Atlantic, or the direst of Daily Mail predictions on Scottish independence. But it isn't. This is what was playing out in the United Kingdom, one hundred years ago this week. The region is Ireland, with the Liberal government of Herbert Asquith struggling to enforce the Home Rule Act in the face of determined opposition from Ulster Unionists and the Conservative Party. German weapons and munitions were supplying both the Irish Nationalists and the Ulster Unionists, and German military circles took note at the crisis within the British army.

Asquith was forced into a humiliating climbdown. The orders to march on Ulster were never given. The Home Rule Act was later suspended pending the conclusion of the First World War. Ulster was successful in staying out of an autonomous Ireland, whilst the rest of Ireland rejected the union with Britain, instead becoming an independent nation.

It's hard to reach a balanced conclusion on this one, historians have certainly struggled; so I'll go the whole hog and give my personal opinion. The army had refused to carry out a lawful order from it's civilian bosses; that is mutiny. It had also become unacceptably politicised. The Ulster Unionists were entering into armed rebellion against the elected government to prevent it from enforcing the law, and the Conservative party was actively encouraging it. In my books, there is a crime which fits that bill, and yes it is an antiquated one, but nevertheless...: treason.