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Harold Wilson

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson (of Rievaulx)
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(born March 11, 1916, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, Eng. — died May 24, 1995, London) British politician and prime minister (1964 – 70, 1974 – 76). The son of an industrial chemist, he was educated at the University of Oxford, where he collaborated with William H. Beveridge on work that led to the latter's 1942 report. In World War II he was drafted into the civil service and produced a study of the mining industry. His book New Deal for Coal (1945) was the basis for the Labour Party's plan to nationalize the coal mines. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1945 and appointed president of the Board of Trade (1947 – 51). Elected leader of the Labour Party in 1963, he became prime minister in 1964. He widened the party's voting majority in 1966 but his popularity declined in the late 1960s, partly because of his assumption of direct responsibility for the economy shortly before the pound was devalued in 1967. In his second term, he confirmed Britain's membership in the European Economic Community (1975). He resigned unexpectedly in 1976 and was created a life peer in 1983.

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Political Biography: James Harold Wilson
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(b. Huddersfield, 11 Mar. 1916; d. 24 May 1995) British; Prime Minister 1964 – 70, 1974 – 76; Kt. 1976, Baron (life peer) 1983 Harold Wilson won more (four) general elections than any other Labour leader and is the party's longest-serving Prime Minister (eight years). His reputation fluctuated greatly during his life. At the time of his retirement and his death his stock was low. Yet in the mid-1960s he was regarded as a British John F. Kennedy. Wilson reached the top in politics without any family connections and on his own merits. He was the son of a works chemist, educated at Wirral Grammar School, and an academic success at Oxford. As a wartime civil servant he drew on his economic background and by 1945 was director of economics and statistics at the Ministry of Fuel and Power. Although a successful career as a civil servant or university teacher beckoned, he opted for Labour politics. He was returned as MP for Ormskirk in 1945 and then for Huyton on Merseyside from 1950 until his retirement in 1983.

In parliament Wilson enjoyed a meteoric rise. Within two years of entering the Commons at the age of 31 he was president of the Board of Trade and in this post he removed many wartime controls on industry. In 1951 he resigned from Cabinet, along with Bevan, in protest at Gaitskell's budget, which proposed to finance a large armaments programme in part by cutting social spending. This act made Wilson's reputation as a man of the left and was reinforced in 1960 when he challenged Gaitskell in the annual election for the party leadership. In fact, Wilson was too much the pragmatist to be associated clearly with any ideology. Gaitskell was fighting to reverse the party conference vote for unilateral disarmament, a policy supported by the left. Wilson was not a unilaterist, but thought that Gaitskell was being divisive. He lost the contest by a two to one margin. Gaitskell looked set to lead Labour to victory at the next general election when he died, unexpectedly, in January 1963. Wilson, recently shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, but now shadow Foreign Secretary, won the leadership on the second ballot by appealing to the centre. Labour's right had no credible standard bearer and the left was similarly bereft since the death of Bevan in 1960. He led the party to victory in the 1964 election, but by a majority of only four seats.

At the start of his premiership in October 1964, Wilson promised dynamic action, planning, economic growth, and the harnessing of science to the service of socialism. He was probably at his best in his first (1964 – 6) spell of office. Labour's tiny majority meant that he necessarily had to think of the short term, capture the press headlines, and create an impression of activity. In the 1966 general election he gained a landslide majority.

The government staked its reputation on maintaining the value of the pound. In spite of deflation and a statutory incomes policy the pound was eventually devalued in 1967, the economic plan collapsed, and the pursuit of economic growth abandoned. Planned reforms of the House of Lords and industrial relations were aborted and an attempt to enter the European Community also failed. Much time was spent in handling the unilateral declaration of independence in 1965 by Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Annual average economic growth in the six years 1964 – 70 was just over 2 per cent, worse than the rate during the much disparaged years of the previous years of Conservative administration. Among the achievements were the creation of the Open University, changes in laws affecting homosexuals and obscene publications, and the ending of capital punishment.

Wilson bore a heavy responsibility for the failures. It was his decision not to consider devaluation on taking office in October 1964 and when, almost inevitably, devaluation came in 1967, he refused the necessary follow-up measures to make it a success. He was deeply conservative about political institutions, the Commonwealth, and the Anglo-American relationship. Social programmes were sacrificed to protect the pound, and he hankered after an international role for Britain. He always seemed to be looking for scapegoats; party critics were dismissed as "plotters" and other opponents as members of the "sell Britain short" brigade. The left was disillusioned by his support for the American military campaign in Vietnam, incomes policies, and cuts to social spending.

In spite of the record, Labour's defeat in the 1970 general election came as a surprise. In Opposition, the left gained ground in the party and Wilson had to acquiesce in the repudiation of many of his government's policies. The party was split over Europe and his apparent change of mind over Britain's membership of the European Community cost him much credit with the pro-European wing of the party. Having ruled out a referendum on Britain's membership, he then accepted one. Keeping the party together meant accepting compromises, however unheroic they looked. Yet he led the party to an unexpected election victory in February 1974. This produced a minority government and another election victory in October 1979 produced only a small majority.

The government had to cope with an unenviable economic legacy from the Heath government and deal with an international recession. It relied on a "social contract" with the TUC to moderate wage claims. It had little success in reducing inflation while Wilson was in charge. He managed to stave off a party split on continued British membership of the European Community by holding a referendum in 1975; this convincingly backed British membership. In announcing his surprise resignation in March 1976, Wilson stated that he was bored with confronting the same problems he had dealt with a decade earlier. Colleagues had noted a marked decline in his energy and interest in major issues. His departure from office was marred by his controversial final honours list and complaints by party workers about the lucrative book contracts that he had negotiated. He left many problems to his successor as Prime Minister, Callaghan.

Critics accused Wilson of being an opportunist and not standing for any principles beyond gaining and holding office and making Labour the natural party of government. After his resignation at the age of 60, he cut a lonely figure in the House of Commons, and even more so in the House of Lords, which he joined as Lord Wilson of Rievaulx after the 1983 general election.

Biography: James Harold Wilson
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The English statesman Harold Wilson (1916-1995), who served as prime minister and leader of the Labour party, was one of the most skillful political tacticians in 20th-century British history.

James Harold Wilson was born on March 11, 1916, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. He distinguished himself early, capturing a scholarship to Oxford University, where he earned a first-class honors degree in politics, philosophy, and economics. In 1937, at a mere 21 years of age, Wilson became a lecturer in economics at New College, Oxford, and a fellow of University College the following year. When World War II broke out he was drafted into the civil service, where he first became director of the manpower, statistics, and intelligence branch of the Ministry of Labour, then switched to the directorship of statistics at the Ministry of Fuel and Power. Here he compiled his extensive research on the coal industry into a statistical digest, which was published in 1945 under the title New Deal for Coal.

Parliamentary Career

The same year the Labour party ousted the aristocratic Sir Winston Churchill from office in a landslide victory. Wilson made his debut in parliament at the age of 29 as the representative of Ormskirk. He spent his first two years as parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Works (1945-1947), following this appointment with two as president of the Board of Trade (1947-1951).

A Man for the Middle Class

By the beginning of the 1950s Wilson was becoming a familiar figure on the parliamentary scene. Proud of his middle-class roots, he had long since simplified his identity by dropping his first name, "James," in favor of a simpler "Harold Wilson." Now other signs of his determinedly middle-class image became instantly recognizable. Among them included the Yorkshire accent he did not bother to smooth, the raincoat he invariably wore over a rumpled suit, and his preference for beer rather than champagne.

In 1951 Wilson's unpretentious image received a further boost when the government announced that the National Health Service would bill its patients for the first time since its introduction in 1946. This change of policy caused two resignations from the government. The first came from Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan, who had designed the plan with the express intention that it offer free service. The second was from Wilson, whose gesture was seen then as support for the middle class. Voters later remembered this gesture when the time came to elect a new leader for the Labour party.

The occasion arose in 1963 with the death of Party leader Hugh Gaitskell. Wilson faced off against competitor George Brown for the top slot. Despite Brown's popularity with the labour unions, Wilson defeated him to take Gaitskell's place as leader of the opposition until his election victory in October 1964.

A Prime Minister Without Pretension

From his first months in office Prime Minister Wilson handled his responsibilities with flair. He worked well with the cloistered Queen Elizabeth II, introducing her to the middle-class viewpoint for the first time. Furthermore, he managed his party with dexterity, replacing conflict in the ranks with the first unity Labour had known since the early 1950s. Pragmatic and willing to listen to all viewpoints, Wilson ended a vicious round of miners' strikes, froze rents, announced government subsidies on certain food staples, and imposed price controls, all to convey to the electorate that each governmental decision was motivated by an idea of the national interest rather than by an idea of socialism. Later, he was not only credited with the establishment of the Open University which allowed working people to study for degrees by correspondence, but was also praised by supporters for refusing to join America in sending troops to Vietnam.

Nevertheless, by the end of the decade Wilson's popularity was fading because of growing tensions in Northern Ireland, a breakaway white minority government in colonial Rhodesia, and abrasiveness between the domestic government and the powerful British trade unions. Rising unemployment spurred Wilson to gamble by calling for general elections in 1970, but the Labour party was resoundingly defeated by Edward Heath.

His defeat proved temporary, for in February 1974 a miners' strike in response to a wage freeze brought Wilson and the Labour party back into power. He seemed to be on solid political ground, but in 1976 he suddenly chose to resign and largely disappeared from public view despite his elevation to a baron's status in 1983.

His decision led to a rash of speculation in the media. One rumor had him fighting cancer, while a second stated that the British counter-intelligence agency was trying to destabilize his government. The truth was concealed until after Wilson's death in 1995. According to the influential British medical journal The Lancet, Harold Wilson was one of 500,000 British patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Further Reading

Books by Harold Wilson include Purpose in Politics: Selected Speeches, Houghton Mifflin, 1964; A Personal Record: The Labour Government 1964-1970, Little, Brown, 1971; The Governance of Britain, Harper & Row, 1976; The Chariot of Israel: Britain, America and the State of Israel, Norton, 1981. The popular biography by Leslie Smith, Harold Wilson: The Authentic Portrait (1964), is a sympathetic "inside" view by an admirer. There are two predominantly hostile books about him, one from the political right by Dudley Smith, Harold Wilson: A Critical Biography (1964), the other from the left by Paul Foot, The Politics of Harold Wilson (1968), the latter a brilliant example of political journalism at its polemical but accurate best.

Additional Sources

New York Times Biographical Service (May, 1995); The Lancet (June 10, 1995).

British History: Harold Wilson
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Wilson, Harold, 1st Baron Wilson (1916-95). Prime minister. The son of an industrial chemist, Wilson won an exhibition in history to Jesus College, Oxford, taking a first in PPE. In 1940 he joined the war cabinet secretariat as an economist. Elected MP for Ormskirk in 1945, Wilson became parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Works and in 1947 entered the cabinet as president of the Board of Trade, aged only 31. He resigned from the government in 1951 along with Aneurin Bevan, which established his credentials—not entirely deserved—as a left-winger when Labour began to factionalize in the 1950s.

In opposition Wilson progressed steadily up the hierarchy of the National Executive Committee and shadow cabinet and was made shadow chancellor in 1956 soon after Gaitskell became party leader. He was out of sympathy with Gaitskell's efforts to ‘modernize’ the party following Labour's third successive electoral defeat in 1959 and unsuccessfully challenged him for the leadership in 1960. Wilson's opportunity came with Gaitskell's unexpected death in January 1963: in the contest for the succession he emerged victorious over George Brown and James Callaghan.

With hindsight it is clear that Wilson was the right man for the time. His position on the centre-left enabled him to unite the Labour movement in a way Gaitskell would have found difficult. His comparative youth and his call for a technological revolution struck a chord with the optimism of the 1960s. In the circumstances, Labour's victory in the election of 1964 was less surprising than the narrowness of the overall majority of four seats.

Yet hopes that Wilson's election might mark a new beginning for Britain were largely disappointed. Wilson remained wedded to many traditional attitudes, especially Britain's role as a world power and the importance of sterling as an international currency. The creation of a new Department of Economic Affairs, designed to shake off the overweening control of the Treasury, proved a failure. The electorate, however, was ready to give Labour the benefit of the doubt, and in 1966 Labour achieved a comfortable majority at the polls.

Increasingly, however, Wilson seemed to lose any sense of direction, particularly after the belated devaluation of the pound in 1967. Politics by gesture appeared to replace long-term planning. Wilson maintained party unity, but at the expense of blurring over internal differences. There was no transformation of the national economy, though Roy Jenkins, as chancellor, established a reputation for prudent administration. Britain's application to join the Common Market in 1967 came up against General de Gaulle's veto. The qualities of the government seemed to be encapsulated in Labour's attempt to reform the trade union movement. Wilson and his employment secretary, Barbara Castle, invested much of their credibility in the proposed ‘In Place of Strife’ legislation but were obliged to accept humiliating defeat.

Nevertheless, Wilson's defeat in 1970 at the hands of Edward Heath came as a considerable shock. He returned to power in 1974 still exuding self-confidence but lacking the apparent dynamism of a decade earlier. The most threatening issue, however, as far as the internal dynamics of the party were concerned, was membership of the EEC. Wilson had opposed Heath's action in taking Britain into the community on the somewhat spurious grounds that the terms of entry were unacceptable. In 1975, Wilson allowed the issue of continuing membership to go to a referendum with members of the cabinet openly opposing one another.

There seems little reason to doubt Wilson's assertion that he had decided to stand down early from the premiership at the time he returned to office in 1974. Yet his resignation in 1976 was met with disbelief. He stayed on in the Commons until 1983 without playing much of a role, perhaps because of the onset of a debilitating illness.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Harold Wilson
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Wilson, Harold (James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx), 1916-95, British statesman. A graduate of Oxford, he became an economics lecturer there (1937) and a fellow of University College (1938). Wilson entered Parliament (1945) as a Labour member, and as president of the Board of Trade (1947-51) he ended many of the wartime controls on industry. In 1951 he resigned with Aneurin Bevan, opposing the introduction of changes within the National Health Service. He thus became a spokesman for the left-wing of the Labour party, later opposing party leader Hugh Gaitskell's stand against unilateral nuclear disarmament.

After Gaitskell's death (1963), Wilson won the leadership of the party and became prime minister in 1964. At first his government had only a four-seat majority in Parliament, but it was reelected with a large majority in 1966. The Labour government under Wilson sought to offset Britain's diminishing role outside Europe by increasing its role in Europe, and in 1967 it reapplied for membership in the European Community (EC). Wilson also tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with the white supremacist regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which unilaterally declared itself independent of Britain in 1965. Domestically, Wilson imposed strict controls on wages and prices, raised taxes, and devalued (1967) the pound to end the growing economic crisis. By the spring of 1970 the economy seemed to be recovering, and Wilson scheduled a June election, which resulted in an unexpected defeat for the Labour party.

In opposition, Wilson led his party to reverse its stand on entry into the EC, but a significant minority voted with the Conservative government in favor of entry. Another divisive issue arose with the party's espousal (1973) of wide-scale nationalization. Nonetheless, in the general election of Feb., 1974, held at a time of severe economic crisis, Labour was returned to power, and Wilson again became prime minister.

Despite the fact that he headed a minority government (and was therefore very vulnerable to defeat in Parliament), Wilson announced his intention of implementing the controversial policies of renegotiation of the terms of Britain's membership in the EC and nationalization. His government faced continuing economic difficulties as well as a deterioration of the situation in Northern Ireland (which required the reimposition of direct British rule). It was also obliged to mediate between Greece and Turkey in the tense crisis created by the overthrow of Archbishop Makarios III in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion of that island in July, 1974. Wilson called another election in Oct., 1974, and secured a narrow majority in Parliament. In 1975 he called and won an unprecedented referendum on Britain's membership in the EC, largely silencing left-wing Labour critics who favored withdrawal. Wilson unexpectedly resigned in 1976 and was knighted later the same year. The longest serving Labour prime minister, he retained his seat in Commons until he was created a life peer in 1983.

Bibliography

See Wilson's Personal Record (1971), Final Term: The Labour Government 1974-1976 (1979), and Memoirs: The Making of a Prime Minister, 1916-64, (1986). See also biographies by A. Howard (1965) and E. Kay (1967).

Quotes By: Harold Wilson
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Quotes:

"The monarchy is a labor intensive industry."

"This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing."

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery."

"In politics a week is a very long time."

"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase."

Wikipedia: Harold Wilson
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For other persons named Harold Wilson, see Harold Wilson (disambiguation).
The Right Honourable
 The Lord Wilson of Rievaulx 
KG OBE FRS PC

In office
4 March 1974 – 5 April 1976
Monarch Elizabeth II
Preceded by Edward Heath
Succeeded by James Callaghan
In office
16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970
Monarch Elizabeth II
Preceded by Alec Douglas-Home
Succeeded by Edward Heath
In office
14 February 1963 – 16 October 1964
Monarch Elizabeth II
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by Hugh Gaitskell
Succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home
In office
19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Monarch Elizabeth II
Prime Minister Edward Heath
Preceded by Edward Heath
Succeeded by Edward Heath
Born 11 March 1916(1916-03-11)
Huddersfield, England
Died 24 May 1995 (aged 79)
London, England
Birth name James Harold Wilson
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Mary Baldwin
Alma mater Jesus College, Oxford
Profession Academic
Religion Congregationalist
Signature

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British Labour politician; one of the most prominent British politicians of the latter half of the 20th century, he served two terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, firstly from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1976. He emerged as Prime Minister after more general elections than any other 20th century premier, contesting five general elections and winning four of them (in 1964, 1966, February 1974 and October 1974). He is the most recent British Prime Minister to have served non-consecutive terms.

Harold Wilson first served as Prime Minister in the 1960s, during a period of low unemployment and relative economic prosperity (though also of significant problems with the UK's external balance of payments). His second term in office began in 1974, when a period of economic crisis was beginning to hit most Western countries. On both occasions, economic concerns were to prove a significant constraint on his governments' ambitions. Wilson's own approach to socialism placed emphasis on efforts to increase opportunity within society, for example through change and expansion within the education system, allied to the technocratic aim of taking better advantage of rapid scientific progress, rather than on the left's traditional goal of promoting wider public ownership of industry. While he did not challenge the Party constitution's stated dedication to nationalisation head-on, he took little action to pursue it.

Though generally not at the top of Wilson's personal areas of priority, his first period in office was notable for substantial legal changes in a number of social areas, including the liberalisation of censorship, divorce, homosexuality, immigration and abortion (see Social issues, below), as well as the abolition of capital punishment, due in part to the initiatives of backbench MPs who had the support of Roy Jenkins during his time as Home Secretary.

Overall, Wilson is seen to have managed a number of difficult political issues with considerable tactical skill, including such potentially divisive issues for his party as the role of public ownership, British membership of the European Community, and the Vietnam War. Nonetheless, his stated ambition of substantially improving Britain's long-term economic performance remained largely unfulfilled.

Contents

Early life

Wilson was born in Huddersfield, England on 11 March 1916, an almost exact contemporary of his rival, Edward Heath (born 9 July 1916). He came from a political family: his father James Herbert Wilson (1882–1971) was a works chemist who had been active in the Liberal Party and then joined the Labour Party. His mother Ethel (née Seddon; 1882–1957) was a schoolteacher prior to her marriage. When Wilson was eight, he visited London and a later-to-be-famous photograph was taken of him standing on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.

Education

Wilson won a scholarship to attend the local grammar school, Royds Hall Secondary School, Huddersfield. His education was disrupted in 1931 when he contracted typhoid fever after drinking contaminated milk on a Scouts' outing and took months to recover. The next year his father, working as an industrial chemist, was made redundant and moved to Spital on the Wirral to find work. Wilson attended the sixth form at the Wirral Grammar School for Boys, where he became Head Boy.

Wilson did well at school and, although he missed getting a scholarship, he obtained an exhibition; which, when topped up by a county grant, enabled him to study Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1934. At Oxford, Wilson was moderately active in politics as a member of the Liberal Party but was later influenced by G. D. H. Cole to join the Labour Party. After his first year, he changed his field of study to Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He graduated with "an outstanding First Class Bachelor of Arts degree, with alphas on every paper" in the final examinations.[1] He also received exceptional testimonials from his tutors, including a comment from one that "he is, far and away, the ablest man I have taught so far".

Although Wilson had two abortive attempts at an All Souls Fellowship, he continued in academia, becoming one of the youngest Oxford University dons of the century at the age of 21. He was a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a Research Fellow at University College during the period 1938 to 1945. For much of this time, he was a research assistant to William Beveridge, the Master of the College, working on the issues of unemployment and the trade cycle.

Marriage

In 1940, in the chapel of Mansfield College, Oxford, he married (Gladys) Mary Baldwin who remained his wife until his death. Mary Wilson became a published poet. They had two sons, R. J. Wilson and Giles (named after Giles Alington); Robin became a Professor of Mathematics, and Giles became a teacher. Both his sons went to the same independent school, University College School, in Hampstead. In their twenties, his sons were under a kidnap threat from the IRA. After becoming a teacher at a comprehensive school for two years, Giles later returned to teaching, becoming a Maths master at Salisbury Cathedral School. In November 2006 it was reported that Giles had given up his teaching job and become a train driver for South West Trains.[2] He is a devotee of rail restoration, specifically the Tarka Line.

Wartime service

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Wilson volunteered for service but was classed as a specialist and moved into the Civil Service instead. Most of his war was spent as a statistician and economist for the coal industry. He was Director of Economics and Statistics at the Ministry of Fuel and Power 1943–4, and received an OBE for his services.[3]

He was to remain passionately interested in statistics. As President of the Board of Trade, he was the driving force behind the Statistics of Trade Act 1947, which is still the authority governing most economic statistics in Great Britain. He was instrumental as Prime Minister in appointing Claus Moser as head of the Central Statistical Office, and was president of the Royal Statistical Society in 1972–73.

Member of Parliament

As the War drew to an end, he searched for a seat to fight at the impending general election. He was selected for Ormskirk, then held by Stephen King-Hall. Wilson accidentally agreed to be adopted as the candidate immediately rather than delay until the election was called, and was therefore compelled to resign from the Civil Service. He served as Praelector in Economics at University College between his resignation and his election to the House of Commons. He also used this time to write A New Deal for Coal which used his wartime experience to argue for nationalisation of the coal mines on the basis of improved efficiency.

In the 1945 general election, Wilson won his seat in the Labour landslide. To his surprise, he was immediately appointed to the government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works. Two years later, he became Secretary for Overseas Trade, in which capacity he made several official trips to the Soviet Union to negotiate supply contracts. Conspiracy-minded commentators would later seek to raise suspicions about these trips.

In government

On 14 October 1947, Wilson was appointed President of the Board of Trade and, at 31, became the youngest member of the Cabinet in the 20th century. He took a lead in abolishing some of the wartime rationing, which he referred to as a "bonfire of controls". His role in internal debates during the summer of 1949 over whether or not to devalue sterling, in which he was perceived to have played both sides of the issue, tarnished his reputation in both political and official circles.[4] In the general election of 1950, his constituency was altered and he was narrowly elected for the new seat of Huyton, Merseyside.

Wilson was becoming known as a left-winger and joined Aneurin Bevan and John Freeman in resigning from the government in April 1951 in protest at the introduction of National Health Service (NHS) medical charges to meet the financial demands imposed by the Korean War. After the Labour Party lost the general election later that year, he was made chairman of Bevan's 'Keep Left' group, but shortly thereafter he distanced himself from Bevan. By coincidence, it was Bevan's further resignation from the Shadow Cabinet in 1954 that put Wilson back on the front bench (as a spokesman, initially, on finance).

Opposition

Wilson soon proved to be a very effective Shadow Minister. One of his procedural moves caused the loss of the Government's Finance Bill in 1955, and his speeches as Shadow Chancellor from 1956 were widely praised for their clarity and wit. He coined the term "gnomes of Zurich" to describe Swiss bankers whom he accused of pushing the pound down by speculation. In the meantime, he conducted an inquiry into the Labour Party's organisation following its defeat in the 1955 general election, which compared the Party organisation to an antiquated "penny farthing" bicycle, and made various recommendations for improvements. Unusually, Wilson combined the job of Chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee with that of Shadow Chancellor from 1959 , holding the chairmanship of the PAC from 1959 to 1963.

Wilson steered a course in intra-party matters in the 1950s and early 1960s that left him fully accepted and trusted by neither the left nor the right. Despite his earlier association with the left-of-centre Aneurin Bevan, in 1955 he backed the right-of-centre Hugh Gaitskell against Bevan for the party leadership [5] He then launched an opportunistic but unsuccessful challenge to Gaitskell in 1960, in the wake of the Labour Party's 1959 defeat, Gaitskell's controversial attempt to ditch Labour's commitment to nationalisation in the shape of the Party's Clause Four, and Gaitskell's defeat at the 1960 Party Conference over a motion supporting Britain's unilateral nuclear disarmament. Wilson also challenged for the deputy leadership in 1962 but was defeated by George Brown. Following these challenges, he was moved to the position of Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Hugh Gaitskell died unexpectedly in January 1963, just as the Labour Party had begun to unite and to look to have a good chance of being elected to government. Wilson became the left candidate for the leadership. He defeated George Brown, who was hampered by a reputation as an erratic figure, in a straight contest in the second round of balloting, after James Callaghan, who had entered the race as an alternative to Brown on the right of the party, had been eliminated in the first round.

Wilson's 1964 election campaign was aided by the Profumo Affair, a 1963 ministerial sex scandal that had mortally wounded the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan and was to taint his successor Sir Alec Douglas-Home, even though Home had not been involved in the scandal. Wilson made capital without getting involved in the less salubrious aspects. (Asked for a statement on the scandal, he reportedly said "No comment... in glorious Technicolor!"). Home was an aristocrat who had given up his title as Lord Home to sit in the House of Commons. To Wilson's comment that he was the 14th Earl of Home, Home retorted, "I suppose Mr. Wilson is the fourteenth Mr. Wilson".

At the Labour Party's 1963 annual conference, Wilson made possibly his best-remembered speech, on the implications of scientific and technological change,[6] in which he argued that "the Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated measures on either side of industry". This speech did much to set Wilson's reputation as a technocrat not tied to the prevailing class system.

First term as Prime Minister (1964–1970)

Labour won the 1964 general election with a narrow majority of four seats, and Wilson became Prime Minister. This was an insufficient parliamentary majority to last for a full term, and after 18 months, a second election in March 1966 returned Wilson with the much larger majority of 96.

Domestic affairs

Economic policies

In economic terms, Wilson's first three years in office were dominated by an ultimately doomed effort to stave off the devaluation of the pound. He inherited an unusually large external deficit on the balance of trade. This partly reflected the preceding government's expansive fiscal policy in the run-up to the 1964 election, and the incoming Wilson team tightened the fiscal stance in response. Many British economists advocated devaluation, but Wilson resisted, reportedly in part out of concern that Labour, which had previously devalued sterling in 1949, would become tagged as "the party of devaluation".[7]

After a costly battle, market pressures forced the government into devaluation in 1967. Wilson was much criticised for a broadcast in which he assured listeners that the "pound in your pocket" had not lost its value. It was widely forgotten that his next sentence had been "prices will rise". Economic performance did show some improvement after the devaluation, as economists had predicted. The devaluation, and austerity measures successfully restored the balance of payments to surplus by 1969. However, this unexpectedly turned into a small deficit again in 1970. The bad figures were announced just before polling in the 1970 general election, and are often cited as one of the reasons for Labour's defeat.[7]

A main theme of Wilson's economic approach was to place enhanced emphasis on "indicative economic planning." He created a new Department of Economic Affairs to generate ambitious targets that were in themselves supposed to help stimulate investment and growth. The government also created a Ministry of Technology (shortened to Mintech) to support the modernisation of industry. Though now out of fashion, faith in this approach was at the time by no means confined to the Labour Party—Wilson built on foundations that had been laid by his Conservative predecessors, in the shape, for example, of the National Economic Development Council (known as "Neddy") and its regional counterparts (the "little Neddies").[8]

Harold and Mary Wilson with Richard and Pat Nixon at the White House in 1970.

The continued relevance of industrial nationalisation (a centerpiece of the post-War Labour government's programme) had been a key point of contention in Labour's internal struggles of the 1950s and early 1960s. Wilson's predecessor as leader, Hugh Gaitskell, had tried in 1960 to tackle the controversy head-on, with a proposal to expunge Clause Four (the public ownership clause) from the party's constitution, but had been forced to climb down. Wilson took a characteristically more subtle approach. He threw the party's left wing a symbolic bone with the renationalisation of the steel industry, but otherwise left Clause Four formally in the constitution but in practice on the shelf.[7] Wilson made periodic attempts to mitigate inflation through wage-price controls, better known in the UK as "prices and incomes policy"[7] (as with indicative planning, such controls—though now generally out of favor—were widely adopted at that time by governments of different ideological complexions, including the Nixon administration in the United States). Partly as a result of this reliance, the government tended to find itself repeatedly injected into major industrial disputes, with late-night "beer and sandwiches at Number Ten" an almost routine culmination to such episodes. Among the more damaging of the numerous strikes during Wilson's periods in office was a six-week stoppage by the National Union of Seamen, beginning shortly after Wilson's re-election in 1966, conducted he claimed by "politically motivated men".

With public frustration over strikes mounting, Wilson's government in 1969 proposed a series of changes to the legal basis for industrial relations (labour law) in the UK, which were outlined in a White Paper "In Place of Strife" put forward by the Employment Secretary Barbara Castle. Following a confrontation with the Trades Union Congress, however, which strongly opposed the proposals, and internal dissent from Home Secretary James Callaghan, the government substantially backed-down from its intentions. Some elements of these changes were subsequently to be revived (in modified form) during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.[7]

Wilson's administration made a variety of changes to the tax system. Largely under the influence of the Hungarian-born economists Nicholas Kaldor and Thomas Balogh, an idiosyncratic "selective employment tax (SET)" was introduced that was designed to tax employment in the service sectors while subsidising employment in manufacturing (the rationale proposed by its economist authors derived largely from claims about potential economies of scale and technological progress, but Wilson in his memoirs stressed the tax's revenue-raising potential). The SET did not long survive the return of a Conservative government. Of longer term significance, Capital Gains Tax (CGT) was introduced for the first time in the UK on 6 April 1965.[9]

Social issues

Wilson's first period in office witnessed a range of social reforms, including the abolition of capital punishment, decriminalisation of sex between men in private, liberalisation of abortion law and the abolition of theatre censorship. The Divorce Reform Act was passed by parliament in 1969 (and came into effect in 1971). Such reforms were mostly via private member's bills on 'free votes' in line with established convention, but the large Labour majority after 1966 was undoubtedly more open to such changes than previous parliaments had been. The government effectively supported the passage of these bills by granting them the necessary parliamentary time.[7]

Wilson personally, coming culturally from a provincial non-conformist background, showed no particular enthusiasm for much of this agenda (which some linked to the "permissive society"),[10] but the reforming climate was especially encouraged by Roy Jenkins during his period at the Home Office.

Wilson's 1966-70 term witnessed growing public concern over the level of immigration to the United Kingdom. The issue was dramatised at the political level by the famous "Rivers of Blood speech" by the Conservative politician Enoch Powell, warning against the dangers of immigration, which led to Powell's dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet. Wilson's government adopted a two-track approach. While condemning racial discrimination (and adopting legislation to make it a legal offence), Wilson's Home Secretary James Callaghan introduced significant new restrictions on the right of immigration to the United Kingdom.

Education policies

Education held special significance for a socialist of Wilson's generation, in view of its role in both opening up opportunities for children from working class backgrounds and enabling the UK to seize the potential benefits of scientific advances. Wilson continued the rapid creation of new universities, in line with the recommendations of the Robbins Report, a bipartisan policy already in train when Labour took power. Alas, the economic difficulties of the period deprived the tertiary system of the resources it needed. However, university expansion remained a core policy. One notable effect was the first entry of women into university education in significant numbers.

Wilson also deserves credit for grasping the concept of an Open University, to give adults who had missed out on tertiary education a second chance through part-time study and distance learning. His political commitment included assigning implementation responsibility to Baroness Jennie Lee, the widow of Aneurin Bevan, the charismatic leader of Labour's Left wing whom Wilson had joined in resigning from the Attlee cabinet.

Wilson's record on secondary education is, by contrast, highly controversial. A fuller description is in the article Education in England. Two factors played a role. Following the Education Act 1944 there was disaffection with the tripartite system of academically-oriented Grammar schools for a small proportion of "gifted" children, and Technical and Secondary Modern schools for the majority of children. Pressure grew for the abolition of the selective principle underlying the "eleven plus", and replacement with Comprehensive schools which would serve the full range of children (see the article Debates on the grammar school). Comprehensive education became Labour Party policy.

Labour pressed local authorities to convert grammar schools, many of them cherished local institutions, into comprehensives. Conversion continued on a large scale during the subsequent Conservative Heath administration, although the Secretary of State, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, ended the compulsion of local governments to convert. While the proclaimed goal was to level school quality up, many felt that the grammar schools' excellence was being sacrificed with little to show in the way of improvement of other schools. Critically handicapping implementation, economic austerity meant that schools never received sufficient funding.

A second factor affecting education was change in teacher training, including introduction of "progressive" child-centered methods, abhorred by many established teachers. In parallel, the profession became increasingly politicised. The status of teaching suffered and is still recovering.

Few nowadays question the unsatisfactory nature of secondary education in 1964. Change was overdue. However, the manner in which change was carried out is certainly open to criticism. The issue became a priority for ex-Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher when she came to office as prime minister in 1979.

Another major controversy of the first Wilson term was the decision that the government could not fulfil its long-held promise to raise the school leaving age to 16, due to the investment required in infrastructure such as extra classrooms and teachers. Baroness Jennie Lee considered resigning in protest, but narrowly decided against this in the interests of party unity. It was left to Margaret Thatcher to carry out the change, during the Heath government.

In 1966, Wilson was created the first Chancellor of the newly created University of Bradford, a position he held until 1985.

External affairs

Europe

Wilson with West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard.

Among the more challenging political dilemmas Wilson faced during his two terms in government and his two spells in Opposition before 1964 and between 1970 and 1974 was the issue of British membership of the Common Market, as the EU was then known. An entry attempt had been issued in July 1961 by the Macmillan government, and negotiated by Edward Heath as Lord Privy Seal, but was vetoed in 1963 by French President Charles de Gaulle. The Labour Party in Opposition had been divided on the issue, with former party leader Hugh Gaitskell having come out in 1962 in opposition to Britain joining the Community.[11]

After initially hesitating over the issue, Wilson's Government in May 1967 lodged the UK's second application to join the EC, as it was now called. Like the first, though, it was vetoed by de Gaulle in November that year.[7]

Following his victory in the 1970 election (and helped by de Gaulle's fall from power in 1969), the new prime minister Edward Heath negotiated Britain’s admission to the EC, alongside Denmark and Ireland in 1973. The Labour Party in opposition continued to be deeply divided on the issue, and risked a major split. Leading opponents of membership included Richard Crossman, who was for two years (1970-72) the editor of the New Statesman magazine, at that time the leading left-of-center weekly journal, which published many polemics in support of the anti-EC case. Prominent among Labour supporters of membership was Roy Jenkins.

Wilson in opposition showed political ingenuity in devising a position that both sides of the party could agree on, opposing the terms negotiated by Heath but not membership in principle. Labour's 1974 manifesto included a pledge to renegotiate terms for Britain's membership and then hold a referendum on whether to stay in the EC on the new terms. This was a constitutional procedure without precedent in British history.

Following Wilson's return to power, the renegotiations with Britain's fellow EC members were carried out by Wilson himself in tandem with Foreign Secretary James Callaghan, and they toured the capital cities of Europe meeting their European counterparts (some[who?] commentators have suggested that their co-operation in this exercise may have been the source of a close relationship between the two men which is claimed to have assisted a smooth change-over when Wilson retired from office). The discussions focused primarily on Britain's net budgetary contribution to the EC. As a small agricultural producer heavily dependent on imports, the UK suffered doubly from the dominance of:

(i) agricultural spending in the EC budget,
(ii) agricultural import taxes as a source of EC revenues.

During the renegotiations, other EEC members conceded, as a partial offset, the establishment of a significant European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), from which it was clearly agreed that the UK would be a major net beneficiary.[12]

In the subsequent referendum campaign, rather than the normal British tradition of "collective responsibility", under which the government takes a policy position which all cabinet members are required to support publicly, members of the Government were free to present their views on either side of the question. A referendum was duly held on 5 June 1975, and the proposition to continue membership was passed with a substantial majority[13]

Asia

Prior United States military involvement in Vietnam intensified following the Tonkin Resolution in 1964. US President Lyndon Johnson brought pressure to bear for at least a token involvement of British military units in the Vietnam War. Wilson consistently avoided any commitment of British forces. His government offered some rhetorical support for the US position (most prominently in the defence offered by the Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart in a much-publicised "teach-in" or debate on Vietnam). On at least one occasion the British government made an unsuccessful effort to mediate in the conflict. On 28 June 1966 Wilson 'dissociated' his Government from American bombing of the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong. In his memoirs, Wilson writes of “selling LBJ a bum steer” a reference to Johnson’s Texas origins , which conjured up images of cattle and cowboys in British minds.[14] Wilson's approach of maintaining close relations with the US while pursuing an independent line on Vietnam has attracted new interest in the light of the different approach taken by the Blair government vis-a-vis Britain's participation in the Iraq War (2003).

Since World War II, Britain's presence in the Far East had gradually been run down. Former British colonies, whose defense had provided much of the rationale for a British military presence in the region, moved towards independence under British governments of both parties. Successive UK Governments also became conscious of the cost to the exchequer and the economy of maintaining major forces abroad (in parallel, several schemes to develop strategic weaponry were abandoned on the grounds of cost, for example, the Blue Streak missile and the TSR2 aircraft). In 1967, as the result of a defence review made by Defence Secretary Denis Healey, Wilson announced that Britain would withdraw its military forces from major bases “East of Suez”, primarily in Malaysia, Singapore and Aden. While criticised in right-wing circles at the time, over the longer-term the decision can be seen as a logical culmination of the withdrawal from Britain's colonial-era political and military commitments in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere that had been underway under British governments of both parties since the Second World War—and of the parallel switch of Britain's emphasis to its European identity.

Wilson was known for his strong pro-Israel views. He was a particular friend of Israeli Premier Golda Meir, though her time in office largely coincided with Wilson’s 1970–1974 hiatus. Another associate was German Chancellor Willy Brandt; all three were members of the Socialist International.[15]

Africa

In 1960, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made his important Wind of Change speech to the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town. This heralded independence for many British colonies in Africa. The British “retreat from Empire” had made headway by 1964 and was to continue during Wilson’s administration. However, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland came to present serious problems.

The Federation was set up in 1953, and was an amalgamation of the Protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the colony of Southern Rhodesia. After struggles for independence, the Federation was dissolved in 1963 and the states of Zambia and Malawi achieved independence. However, the colony of Southern Rhodesia, which had been the economic powerhouse of the Federation, was not granted independence, principally because of the regime in power. The colony bordered South Africa to the south and its governance was heavily influenced by the apartheid regime, then headed by Hendrik Verwoerd. Wilson refused to grant independence to the white minority government headed by Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith which showed little inclination to extend political influence to the native African population, let alone to grant majority rule.

Smith’s defiant response was a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, timed to coincide with Armistice Day at 11.00am on 11 November 1965, an attempt to garner support in the UK by reminding people of the contribution of the colony to the war effort (Smith himself had been a Spitfire pilot).[7] Smith was personally vilified in the British media.[16] Wilson’s immediate recourse was to the United Nations, and in 1965, the Security Council imposed sanctions, which were to last until official independence in 1979. This involved British warships blockading the port of Beira to try to cause economic collapse in Rhodesia. Wilson was applauded by most nations for taking a firm stand on the issue (and none extended diplomatic recognition to the Smith regime). A number of nations did not join in with sanctions, undermining their efficiency. Certain sections of public opinion started to question their efficacy, and to demand the toppling of the regime by force. Wilson declined, however, to intervene in Rhodesia with military force, believing the UK population would not support such action against their "kith and kin". The two leaders met for discussions aboard British warships, Tiger in 1966 and Fearless in 1968. Smith subsequently attacked Wilson in his memoirs, accusing him of delaying tactics during negotiations and alleging duplicity; Wilson responded in kind, questioning Smith's good faith and suggesting that Smith had moved the goal-posts whenever a settlement appeared in sight.[14] The matter was still unresolved at the time of Wilson’s resignation in 1976.

Elsewhere in Africa, trouble developed in Nigeria, brought about by the ethnic diversity of the country and the wealth being generated by the nascent oil industry. Wilson's government felt disinclined to interfere in the internal affairs of a fellow Commonwealth nation and supported the government of General Yakubu Gowon during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970.[7]

Electoral defeat and opposition

By 1969, the Labour Party was suffering serious electoral reverses. In May 1970, Wilson responded to an apparent recovery in his government's popularity by calling a general election, but, to the surprise of most observers, was defeated at the polls by the Conservatives under Edward Heath.

Wilson survived as leader of the Labour party in opposition. Economic conditions during the 1970s were becoming more difficult for the UK and many other western economies, and the Heath government in its turn was buffeted by economic adversity and industrial unrest (notably including confrontation with the coalminers).

Second term as Prime Minister (1974–1976)

When Labour won more seats than the Conservative Party in February 1974, and Heath was unable to form a coalition, Wilson returned to 10 Downing Street on Monday, 4 March 1974 as Prime Minister of a minority Labour Government. He gained a majority in another election shortly afterwards, in October 1974. One of the key issues addressed during his second period in office was the referendum on British membership of the EEC (see Europe, above).

Northern Ireland

In the late 1960s, Wilson's earlier government had witnessed the outbreak of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In response to a request from the Stormont government, the government agreed to deploy the British Army in an effort to maintain the peace.

Out of office in the autumn of 1971, Wilson formulated a 16-point, 15 year programme that was designed to pave the way for the unification of Ireland. The proposal was welcomed, in principle, by the Heath government at the time but never put into effect.[17]

In May 1974, back in office, Wilson condemned the Unionist-controlled Ulster Workers' Strike as a "sectarian strike" which was "being done for sectarian purposes having no relation to this century but only to the seventeenth century". However he refused to pressurise a reluctant British Army to face down the loyalist paramilitaries who were intimidating utility workers. In a televised speech later, he referred to the "loyalist" strikers and their supporters as "spongers" who expected Britain to pay for their lifestyles. The strike was eventually successful in breaking the power-sharing Northern Ireland executive.

On September 11, 2008, BBC Radio Four's Document programme claimed to have unearthed a secret plan - codenamed Doomsday - which proposed to cut all constitutional ties with Northern Ireland and transform the province into an independent dominion. Document went on to claim that the Doomsday plan was devised mainly by Wilson and was kept a closely guarded secret. The plan then allegedly lost momentum, due in part, it was claimed, to warnings made by both the then Foreign Secretary, James Callaghan and the Taoiseach as to its viability.[18]

Resignation

On 16 March 1976, Wilson surprised the nation by announcing his resignation as Prime Minister (taking effect on 5 April 1976). He claimed that he had always planned on resigning at the age of sixty, and that he was physically and mentally exhausted. As early as the late 1960s, he had been telling intimates, like his doctor Sir Joseph Stone (later Lord Stone of Hendon), that he did not intend to serve more than eight or nine years as Prime Minister. Roy Jenkins has suggested that Wilson may have been motivated partly by the distaste for politics felt by his loyal and long-suffering wife, Mary.[4] Beyond this, by 1976 he might already have been aware of the first stages of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which was to cause both his formerly excellent memory and his powers of concentration to fail dramatically.[19]

Garter Banner of Lord Wilson of Rievaulx, Jesus College Chapel, Oxford

Queen Elizabeth II came to dine at 10 Downing Street to mark his resignation, an honour she has bestowed on only one other Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill (although she did dine at Downing Street at Tony Blair's invitation, to celebrate her 80th birthday).

Wilson's Prime Minister's Resignation Honours included many businessmen and celebrities, along with his political supporters. His choice of appointments caused lasting damage to his reputation, worsened by the suggestion that the first draft of the list had been written by Marcia Williams on lavender notepaper (it became known as the "Lavender List"). Roy Jenkins notes that Wilson's retirement "was disfigured by his, at best, eccentric resignation honours list, which gave peerages or knighthoods to some adventurous business gentlemen, several of whom were close neither to him nor to the Labour Party."[20] Some of those whom Wilson honoured included Lord Kagan, the inventor of Gannex, who was eventually imprisoned for fraud, and Sir Eric Miller, who later committed suicide while under police investigation for corruption.

Six candidates stood in the first ballot to replace him, in order of votes they were: Michael Foot, James Callaghan, Roy Jenkins, Tony Benn, Denis Healey and Anthony Crosland. In the third ballot on 5 April, Callaghan defeated Foot in a parliamentary vote of 176 to 137, thus becoming Wilson's successor as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party.

As Wilson wished to remain an MP after leaving office, he was not immediately given the peerage customarily offered to retired Prime Ministers, but instead was created a Knight of the Garter. On leaving the House of Commons in 1983, he was created Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, after Rievaulx Abbey, in the north of his native Yorkshire.

Death

Not long after Wilson's retirement, his mental deterioration from Alzheimer's disease began to be apparent, and he did not appear in public after 1988 when he unveiled the Clement Attlee statue at Limehouse Library. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1985, and died a decade later from it in May 1995, at the age of 79.

His memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey on 13 July 1995.

He is buried at St. Mary's Old Church, St. Mary's on the Isles of Scilly. His epitaph is Tempus Imperator Rerum (Time Commands All Things).

Political "style"

Wilson regarded himself as a "man of the people" and did much to promote this image, contrasting himself with the stereotypical aristocratic conservatives who had preceded him. Features of this portrayal included his working man's Gannex raincoat, his pipe (though in private he smoked cigars), his love of simple cooking and overuse of the popular British relish, 'HP Sauce', his support for his home town's football team, Huddersfield, and his working-class Yorkshire accent. Eschewing continental holidays, he returned every summer with his family to the Scilly Isles. His first general election victory relied heavily on associating these down-to-earth attributes with a sense that the UK urgently needed to modernise, after "thirteen years of Tory mis-rule....". These characteristics were exaggerated in Private Eye's satirical column "Mrs Wilson's Diary".

Wilson exhibited his populist touch in 1965 when he had The Beatles honoured with the award of MBE. (Such awards are officially bestowed by The Queen but are nominated by the Prime Minister of the day.) The award was popular with young people and contributed to a sense that the Prime Minister was "in touch" with the younger generation. There were some protests by conservatives and elderly members of the military who were earlier recipients of the award, but such protesters were in the minority. Critics claimed that Wilson acted to solicit votes for the next general election (which took place less than a year later), but defenders noted that, since the minimum voting age at that time was 21, this was hardly likely to impact many of the Beatles' fans who at that time were predominantly teenagers. It did however cement Wilson's image as a modernistic leader and linked him to the burgeoning pride in the 'New Britain' typified by the Beatles. The Beatles mentioned Wilson rather negatively, naming both him and his opponent Edward Heath in George Harrison's song "Taxman", the opener to 1966's Revolver—recorded and released after the MBEs.

One year later, in 1967, Wilson had a different interaction with a musical ensemble. He sued the pop group The Move for libel after the band's manager Tony Secunda published a promotional postcard for the single "Flowers In The Rain", featuring a caricature depicting Wilson in bed with his female assistant, Marcia Williams (later Baroness Falkender). Wild gossip had hinted at an improper relationship, though these rumours were never substantiated. Wilson won the case, and all royalties from the song (composed by Move leader Roy Wood) were assigned in perpetuity to a charity of Wilson's choosing.

Wilson had a knack for memorable phrases. He coined the term 'Selsdon Man' to refer to the anti-interventionist policies of the Conservative leader Edward Heath, developed at a policy retreat held at the Selsdon Park Hotel in early 1970. This phrase, intended to evoke the "primitive throwback" qualities of anthropological discoveries such as Piltdown Man and Swanscombe Man, was part of a British political tradition of referring to political trends by suffixing 'man'. Another famous quote is "A week is a long time in politics": this signifies that political fortunes can change extremely rapidly. Other memorable phrases attributed to Wilson include "the white heat of the [technological] revolution" and his comment after the 1967 devaluation of the pound: "This does not mean that the pound here in Britain — in your pocket or purse — is worth any less....", usually now quoted as "the pound in your pocket".

Reputation

Despite his successes and onetime popularity, Harold Wilson's reputation has yet to recover altogether from the low ebb reached immediately following his second premiership. Some accuse him of undue deviousness, some claim he did not do enough to modernise the Labour Party's policy positions on issues such as the respective roles of the state and the market or the reform of industrial relations. This line of argument partly blames Wilson for the civil unrest of the late 1970s (during Britain's Winter of Discontent), and for the electoral success of the Conservative party and its ensuing 18-year rule. His supporters argue that it was only Wilson's own skillful management (on issues such as nationalisation, Europe and Vietnam) that allowed an otherwise fractious party to stay politically united and govern. In either case this co-existence did not long survive his leadership, and the factionalism that followed contributed greatly to the Labour Party's electoral weakness during the 1980s. The reinvention of the Labour Party would take the better part of two decades, at the hands of Neil Kinnock, John Smith and—electorally, most conclusively -- Tony Blair.

In 1964, when Wilson took office, the mainstream of informed opinion (in all the main political parties, in academia and the media, etc.) strongly favored the type of technocratic, "indicative planning" approach that Wilson endeavored to implement. Radical market-oriented reforms, of the kind eventually adopted by Margaret Thatcher, were in the mid-1960s backed only by a 'fringe' of enthusiasts (such as the leadership of the later-influential Institute of Economic Affairs), and had almost no representation at senior levels even of the Conservative Party. Fifteen years later, disillusionment with Britain's weak economic performance and troubled industrial relations, combined with active spadework by figures such as Sir Keith Joseph, had helped to make a radical market programme politically feasible for Margaret Thatcher (which was in turn to influence the subsequent Labour leadership, especially under Tony Blair). To suppose that Wilson could have adopted such a line in the late 1960s or early 1970s is, however, anachronistic: like almost any political leader, Wilson was for the most part fated to work (sometimes skillfully and successfully, sometimes not) with the ideas that were in the air at the time.

Discussion of possible plots and conspiracy theories

Main article: Harold Wilson conspiracy theories

MI5 plots?

In 1963, Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn is said to have secretly claimed that Wilson was a KGB agent.[21] The majority of intelligence officers did not believe that Golitsyn was a genuine defector but a significant number did (most prominently James Jesus Angleton, the Deputy Director of Counter-Intelligence at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and factional strife broke out between the two groups. The book Spycatcher (an exposé of MI5) alleged that 30 MI5 agents then collaborated in an attempt to undermine Wilson. The author Peter Wright (a former member of MI5) later claimed that his ghostwriter had written 30 when he had meant 3. Many of Wright's claims are controversial, and a ministerial statement reported that an internal investigation failed to find any evidence to support the allegations.

Several other voices beyond Wright have raised claims of "dirty tricks" on the part of elements within the intelligence services against Wilson while he was in office. In March 1987, James Miller, a former MI5 agent, claimed that MI5 had encouraged the Ulster Workers' Council general strike in 1974 in order to destabilise Wilson's Government. See also: Walter Walker and David Stirling. In July 1987, Labour MP Ken Livingstone used his maiden speech to raise the 1975 allegations of a former Army Press officer in Northern Ireland, Colin Wallace, who also alleged a plot to destabilise Wilson. Chris Mullin, MP, speaking on 23 November 1988, argued that sources other than Peter Wright supported claims of a long-standing attempt by the intelligence services (MI5) to undermine Wilson's government.[22]

A BBC programme The Plot Against Harold Wilson, broadcast in 2006, reported that, in tapes recorded soon after his resignation on health grounds, Wilson stated that for eight months of his premiership he didn't "feel he knew what was going on, fully, in security". Wilson alleged two plots, in the late 1960s and mid 1970s respectively. He said that plans had been hatched to install Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Charles's uncle and mentor, as interim Prime Minister (see also Other conspiracy theories, below). He also claimed that ex-military leaders had been building up private armies in anticipation of "wholesale domestic liquidation".

In the documentary some of Wilson's allegations received partial confirmation in interviews with ex-intelligence officers and others, who reported that, on two occasions during Wilson's terms in office, they had talked about a possible coup to take over the government.

On a separate track, elements within MI5 had also, the BBC programme reported, spread "black propaganda" that Wilson and Williams were Soviet agents, and that Wilson was an IRA sympathiser, apparently with the intention of helping the Conservatives win the 1974 election.

In 2009, Defence of the Realm, the authorised history of MI5 by Christopher Andrew, held that while MI5 kept a file on Wilson from 1945, when he became an MP – because communist civil servants claimed that he had similar political sympathies – there was no bugging of his home or office, and no conspiracy against him.[23]

Other conspiracy theories

Richard Hough, in his 1980 biography of Mountbatten, indicates that Mountbatten was in fact approached during the 1960s in connection with a scheme to install an "emergency government" in place of Wilson's administration. The approach was made by Cecil Harmsworth King, the chairman of the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), which published the Daily Mirror newspaper. Hough bases his account on conversations with the Mirror's long-time editor Hugh Cudlipp, supplemented by the recollections of the scientist Solly Zuckerman and of Mountbatten’s valet, William Evans. Cudlipp arranged for Mountbatten to meet King on 8 May 1968. King had long yearned to play a more central political role, and had personal grudges against Wilson (including Wilson's refusal to propose King for the hereditary earldom that King coveted). He had already failed in an earlier attempt to replace Wilson with James Callaghan. With Britain's continuing economic difficulties and industrial strife in the 1960s, King convinced himself that Wilson's government was heading towards collapse. He thought that Mountbatten, as a Royal and a former Chief of the Defence Staff, would command public support as leader of a non-democratic "emergency" government. Mountbatten insisted that his friend, Zuckerman, be present (Zuckerman says that he was urged to attend by Mountbatten’s son-in-law, Lord Brabourne, who worried King would lead Mountbatten astray). King asked Mountbatten if he would be willing to head an emergency government. Zuckerman said the idea was treachery and Mountbatten in turn rebuffed King. He does not, however, appear to have reported the approach to Downing Street.

The question of how serious a threat to democracy may have existed during these years continues to be contentious—a key point at issue being who of any consequence would have been ready to move beyond grumbling about the government (or spreading rumours) to actively taking unconstitutional action. Cecil King himself was an inveterate schemer but an inept actor on the political stage. Perhaps significantly, when King penned a strongly worded editorial against Wilson for the Daily Mirror two days after his abortive meeting with Mountbatten, the unanimous reaction of IPC's directors was to fire him with immediate effect from his position as Chairman. More fundamentally, Denis Healey, who served for six years as Wilson's Secretary of State for Defence, has argued that actively serving senior British military officers would not have been prepared to overthrow a constitutionally-elected government.

By the time of his resignation, Wilson's own perceptions of any threat may very well have been exacerbated by the onset of Alzheimer's disease; his inherent tendency to chariness was undoubtedly stoked by some in his inner circle, notably including Marcia Williams. He reportedly shared with a surprised George H. W. Bush, at the time the Director of the CIA, his fear that some of the portraits in 10 Downing Street (specifically including Gladstone's portrait in the Cabinet Room) concealed listening devices being used to bug his discussions.[24] Files released on 1 June 2005 show that Wilson was concerned that, while on the Isles of Scilly, he was being monitored by Russian ships disguised as trawlers. MI5 found no evidence of this, but told him not to use a walkie-talkie.

Wilson's Government took strong action against the controversial, self-styled "Church" of Scientology in 1967, banning foreign Scientologists from entering the UK, a prohibition which remained in force until 1980. In response, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology's founder, accused Wilson of being in cahoots with Soviet Russia and an international conspiracy of psychiatrists and financiers. Wilson's Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson, subsequently won a libel suit against the Scientologists and Hubbard.[25]

Harold Wilson's first government, October 1964 – June 1970

Initial Cabinet

Changes

  • January 1965 — Michael Stewart succeeds Patrick Gordon Walker as Foreign Secretary. Anthony Crosland succeeds Stewart as Education Secretary.
  • December 1965 — Barbara Castle succeeds Thomas Fraser as Minister of Transport. Anthony Greenwood succeeds Castle as Minister of Overseas Development. Lord Longford succeeds Greenwood as Colonial Secretary. Sir Frank Soskice succeeds Lord Longford as Lord Privy Seal. Roy Jenkins succeeds Soskice as Home Secretary.
  • April 1966 — Lord Longford succeeds Sir Frank Soskice as Lord Privy Seal. Frederick Lee succeeds Longford as Colonial Secretary. Richard Marsh succeeds Lee as Minister of Power. Douglas Houghton resigns as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. His successor is not in the cabinet. Cledwyn Hughes succeeds Jim Griffiths as Welsh Secretary.
  • July 1966 — Tony Benn succeeds Frank Cousins as Minister of Technology.

After reshuffle, August 1966

Changes

  • January 1967 — Lord Shackleton and Patrick Gordon Walker enter the cabinet as Ministers without Portfolio.
  • August 1967 — Peter Shore succeeds Michael Stewart as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. Stewart remains First Secretary of State. George Thomson succeeds Herbert Bowden as Commonwealth Secretary. Anthony Crosland succeeds Douglas Jay as President of the Board of Trade. Patrick Gordon Walker succeeds Anthony Crosland as Education Secretary. Arthur Bottomley, Minister of Overseas Development, leaves the cabinet. His successor in that office is not in the cabinet.
  • November 1967 — Roy Jenkins succeeds James Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Callaghan succeeds Jenkins as Home Secretary
  • January 1968 — Lord Shackleton succeeds Lord Longford as Lord Privy Seal.

After reshuffle, April 1968

Changes

  • July 1968 — Roy Mason succeeds Ray Gunter as Minister of Power.
  • October-November 1968 — Fred Peart succeeds Richard Crossman as Lord President. Lord Shackleton succeeds Fred Peart as Lord Privy Seal. Judith Hart succeeds Shackleton as Paymaster-General. The Foreign and Commonwealth Offices are merged, with Michael Stewart as Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. Jack Diamond, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, enters the cabinet. The office of Secretary of State for Social Services is created, with Richard Crossman as Secretary. George Thomson enters the cabinet as Minister without Portfolio.
  • October 1969 — Anthony Greenwood, Minister of Housing and Local Government, leaves the cabinet. George Thomson becomes Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Anthony Crosland, becomes the Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning. Roy Mason succeeds Crosland as President of the Board of Trade. His previous position of Minister of Power is abolished. Harold Lever succeeds Judith Hart as Paymaster General. Richard Marsh resigns as Minister of Transport. His successor is not in the cabinet.

Harold Wilson's second government, March 1974 – April 1976

Changes

  • October 1974 - John Silkin although working to the Secretary of State for Environment enters the cabinet as Minister of Planning and Local Government.
  • June 1975 - Fred Mulley succeeds Reginald Prentice as Secretary for Education and Science. Prentice becomes Secretary for Overseas Development. Tony Benn succeeds Eric Varley as Secretary for Energy. Varley succeeds Benn as Secretary for Industry.

Titles from birth to death

  • Harold Wilson, Esq (11 March 1916–1 January 1945)
  • Harold Wilson, Esq, OBE (1 January 1945–26 July 1945)
  • Harold Wilson, Esq, OBE, MP (26 July 1945–29 September 1947)
  • The Right Honourable Harold Wilson, OBE, MP (29 September 1947–6 December 1969)
  • The Right Honourable Harold Wilson, OBE, FRS, MP (6 December 1969–23 April 1976)
  • The Right Honourable Sir Harold Wilson, KG, OBE, FRS, MP (23 April 1976–9 June 1983)
  • The Right Honourable Sir Harold Wilson, KG, OBE, FRS (9 June–16 September 1983)
  • The Right Honourable The Lord Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (16 September 1983–24 May 1995)

Wilson on television

  • Shortly after resigning as Prime Minister Wilson was signed by David Frost to host a series of interview/chat show programmes. The pilot episode proved to be a flop as Wilson appeared uncomfortable with the informality of the format.
  • Wilson also hosted two editions of the BBC chat show Friday Night, Saturday Morning. He famously floundered in the role, and in 2000, Channel 4 chose it as one of the 100 Moments of TV Hell.
  • In 1978, Harold Wilson appeared on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. Eric Morecambe's habit of appearing not to recognise the guest stars was repaid by Wilson, who referred to him throughout as 'Morry-camby' (the mis-pronunciation of Morecambe's name made by Ed Sullivan - who read announcements from cue-cards - when the pair appeared on his famous American television show).
  • Journalist and broadcaster Francis Wheen scripted a BBC Four 2006 drama The Lavender List, a fictionalised account of the Wilson Government of 1974–76. Kenneth Cranham played Wilson, Gina McKee Marcia Williams and Celia Imrie has a supporting role as Wilson's wife. The play concentrated on Wilson and Williams' relationship and her conflict with the Downing Street Press Secretary Joe Haines.
  • Also in 2006, The Plot Against Harold Wilson aired on BBC Two at on Thursday 16 March. The drama detailed previously unseen evidence that rogue elements of MI5 and the British military plotted to take down the Labour Government, believing Wilson to be a Soviet spy. Harold Wilson was portrayed by James Bolam.
  • Again in 2006, Wilson was portrayed by Robert Pugh in the Channel 4 drama Longford, which depicted the life of Lord Longford. In one scene, Wilson was seen dismissing Longford from his cabinet in 1968, in part because of the adverse publicity the latter was receiving for his public campaign to support the Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.

Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (October 2008)

Bibliography

Main article: Harold Wilson: Bibliography

There is an extensive bibliography on Harold Wilson. He is the author of a number of books. He is the subject of many biographies (both light and serious) and academic analyses of his career and various aspects of the policies pursued by the governments he led. He features in many "humorous" books. He was the Prime Minister in the so-called "Swinging London" era of the 1960s, and therefore features in many of the books about this period of history.

See also

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Notes

  1. ^ Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson, London: Harper-Collins, 1993, p.59.
  2. ^ "Son of former PM Harold Wilson swaps teaching for a career as train driver". Gordon Rayner. /www.dailymail.co.uk. 2006-09-19. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=417349&in_page_id=1770. Retrieved 2007-07-28. 
  3. ^ David Kynaston (2008). Austerity Britain 1945–51. Bloomsbury. p. 236, 237. ISBN 9780747599234. 
  4. ^ a b Roy Jenkins, ‘Wilson, (James) Harold, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (1916–1995)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 3 August 2008
  5. ^ Geoffrey Goodman (25 May 1995). "Harold Wilson: Leading Labour beyond pipe dreams". The Guardian. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicsobituaries/story/0,,563492,00.html. Retrieved 2007-12-24. 
  6. ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 9. ISBN 0465041957. 
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thorpe, Andrew. (2001) A History Of The British Labour Party, Palgrave, ISBN 0-333-92908-x
  8. ^ "A History Of The British Labour Party"/
  9. ^ http://www.warr.co.uk/Changes-To-Capital-Gains-Tax.htm
  10. ^ Wilson's 790 page "The Labour Government 1964-70: a Personal Record" contains no index entry for abortion, or for David Steel MP who sponsored abortion law reform, no index entry for homosexuality or for Leo Abse MP who sponsored reform in this area, no entry for divorce, or for censorship. The exception to this pattern is the abolition of capital punishment, which Wilson had consistently supported, and which is discussed at some length in his book.
  11. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "Hugh Gaitskell".
  12. ^ Andrew Moravcsik, "The Choice for Europe" (Cornell, 1998)
  13. ^ 1975: UK embraces Europe in referendum BBC On This Day
  14. ^ a b Harold Wilson, "The Labour Government, 1964-70: a Personal Record"
  15. ^ [1] Wilson pictured with Golda Meir and Willy Brandt in Eastbourne during the International Socialist's Convention
  16. ^ Smith caricatured on the cover of Private Eye Number 163 15 March 1968
  17. ^ http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/72may/donoghue.htm
  18. ^ Wilson had NI "Doomsday plan http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7610750.stm
  19. ^ http://www.alzheimers-research.org.uk/news/article.php?type=News&id=316
  20. ^ Roy Jenkins, ‘Wilson, (James) Harold, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (1916–1995)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 22 Feb 2008
  21. ^ Vasili Mitrokhin, Christopher Andrew (2000). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Gardners Books. ISBN 0140284877
  22. ^ House of Commons Handard Debates for 23 November 1988
  23. ^ MI5 kept file on former PM Wilson, BBC News, 3 October 2009
  24. ^ See, e.g., Financial Times obituary of Lord Hunt, the cabinet secretary at the time: 2 August/3, 2008.
  25. ^ [2]
  26. ^ "A 2012 Chance for David Beckham?", OhMy News International Sports, 16 January 2007
  27. ^ "War on Want's history"

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Reginald Manningham-Buller		 Parliamentary Secretary
to the Ministry of Works
1945–1947		 Succeeded by
Evan Durbin
Preceded by
Hilary Marquand		 Secretary for Overseas Trade
1947		 Succeeded by
Arthur Bottomley
Preceded by
Sir Stafford Cripps		 President of the Board of Trade
1947–1951		 Succeeded by
Hartley Shawcross
Preceded by
Hugh Gaitskell		 Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
1955–1961		 Succeeded by
James Callaghan
Preceded by
Denis Healey		 Shadow Foreign Secretary
1961–1963		 Succeeded by
Patrick Gordon Walker
Preceded by
George Brown
Acting Leader after the death of
Hugh Gaitskell		 Leader of the Opposition
1963–1964		 Succeeded by
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by
Sir Alec Douglas-Home		 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970		 Succeeded by
Edward Heath
Preceded by
Edward Heath		 Leader of the Opposition
1970–1974
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
4 March 1974 – 5 April 1976		 Succeeded by
James Callaghan
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Stephen King-Hall		 Member of Parliament for Ormskirk
1945–1950		 Succeeded by
Ronald Cross
New constituency Member of Parliament for Huyton
1950–1983		 Constituency abolished
Party political offices
Preceded by
Richard Crossman		 Chair of the Labour Party
National Executive Committee
1961–1962		 Succeeded by
Dai Davies
Preceded by
George Brown
Acting Leader after the death of
Hugh Gaitskell		 Leader of the British Labour Party
1963–1976		 Succeeded by
James Callaghan
Academic offices
New institution Chancellor of the University of Bradford
1966–1985		 Succeeded by
John Harvey-Jones
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Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
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