<P> Eden's major mistake had been not to strike in July 1956 when there was widespread anger at Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company, as by the fall of 1956 public anger had subsided, with many people in Britain having come to accept the fait accompli, and saw no reason for war . This was especially the case as Eden's claims that the Egyptians would hopelessly mismanage the canal had proven groundless, and that by September 1956 it was clear that the change of management had not affected shipping . Even more importantly, Eden's obsession with secrecy and his desire to keep the preparations for war as secret as possible meant that the Eden government did nothing in the months running up to the attack to explain to the British people why it was felt that war was necessary . Many of the reservists who were called up for their National Service in the summer and fall of 1956 recalled feeling bewildered and confused as the Eden government started preparing to attack Egypt while at the same time Eden insisted in public that he wanted a peaceful resolution of the dispute, and was opposed to attacking Egypt . The British author David Pryce - Jones recalled that as a young officer, that after the ultimatum was submitted to Egypt he had to explain to his troops why war with Egypt was necessary without believing a word that he was saying . Only one British soldier, however, refused to fight . </P> <P> Gaitskell was much offended that Eden had kept him in the dark about the planning for action against Egypt, and felt personally insulted that Eden had just assumed that he would support the war without consulting him first . On 31 October he cited in Parliament the fact that, despite Eden's claim that the British government had consulted closely with the Commonwealth, no other member nation did; in the Security Council, not even Australia had supported the British action . He called the invasion </P> <P> an act of disastrous folly whose tragic consequences we shall regret for years . Yes, all of us will regret it, because it will have done irreparable harm to the prestige and reputation of our country...we shall feel bound by every constitutional means at our disposal to oppose it </P> <P> The stormy and violent debates in the House of Commons on 1 November 1956 almost degenerated into fist - fights after several Labour MPs compared Eden to Hitler . Yet the Prime Minister insisted, "We (are not) at war with Egypt now. (...) There has not been a declaration of war by us . We are in an armed conflict ." The British historian A.N. Wilson wrote that "The letters to The Times caught the mood of the country, with great majority opposing military intervention ..." The journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and actor Robert Speaight wrote in a public letter that </P>

In 1956 britain france and control of the suez canal. signed a secret agreement to seize