Read on Twitter
Harold Wilson (11 March 1916-24 May 1995). I have lived through 14 PMs & 11 Labour Party leaders. The 25th anniversary of his death is as good a time as any to express the unfashionable view that Wilson was the best on both counts by some distance..
..I will add a caveat. I mean mainly for his first period as PM (1964-70). Wilson`s reputation would be much higher than it is now if he had resigned the Labour leadership when he lost the 1970 GE. His second period in office (1974-76) was much less successful..
..Wilson had the knack of winning GEs. He won 4 out of 5 in the face of media smears that makes the way Jeremy Corbyn was treated look trivial. During his 1st government unemployment was low, living standards rose and there was some redistribution of wealth from rich to poor..
..No government since then has achieved any such redistribution. This was a government of major social reform. Before his defection to the SDP Roy Jenkins was a liberal Home Secretary. The principle behind the reforms was that people should be free to live as they choose..
..Previously alternative lifestyles were strongly discouraged at best. The routine practice of making unmarried mothers give up their babies for adoption was ended. This had caused lifelong misery for parents & children alike..
..Divorce laws were relaxed. People no longer had to remain indefinitely in loveless or abusive marriages. Previously they were expected to keep up appearances. Homosexuality was legalised. Criminalising a person`s sexual orientation had previously exposed them to blackmail..
..Abortion was legalised. Previously unmarried women were shamed if they had their babies or they had to risk their lives at the hands of dangerous back street abortionists. The death penalty was abolished. Previously there were so many irreversible miscarriages of justice..
..All these reforms had a downside, but on balance they improved social justice and reduced social hypocrisy. The economy functioned well in comparison with later governments. 3 million unemployed under Thatcher, nothing like that under Wilson, yet some people revere Thatcher..
..I think Wilson`s 1st government was ultimately brought down by the balance of payments crisis. They inherited a deficit from the previous Conservative government & attempts to eliminate it did not succeed. James Callaghan was not the best choice of chancellor..
..In those days the exchange rate was fixed by the government. The devaluation was intended to make our exports more competitive & to encourage people to buy British goods, but the PR was mishandled. Wilson was undone by 1 sentence. "The £ in your pocket has not been devalued"..
..This was the truth but not the whole truth. It was true as long as a person only bought British goods & did not take a foreign holiday. The benefits of devaluation from an artificially high exchange rate were not made clear & Labour`s enemies exploited it...
..This was a bold reforming government that lost its way towards the end. Wilson had to spend too much time dealing with divisions in his party, for & against the Common Market, or between left & right wings. The `right wing` then were much further left than today`s Blairites..
..Despite this it was a much better government than the 1 it replaced & any government since. The 1951-64 Conservative government brought us the Suez crisis, the Profumo affair, the dismantling of a large part of the rail network & election material such as this..
..The 1970-74 Heath government was even worse. It took us into the EEC without a referendum, passed openly racist immigration legislation, supported the Smith regime in Rhodesia (Wilson & Ian Smith loathed each other), introduced internment in Ulster against international law..
..Bloody Sunday, confrontation with the miners, 3 day week, rising unemployment, corruption scandal (Reginald Maudling / John Poulson). Edward Heath was considered to be on the left of the Conservative Party but he was much further right than any modern leader would dare to be..
..Wilson`s 2nd spell as PM coincided with the economic problems brought on by the 1973 oil crisis, & it now seems obvious that he was suffering the first signs of early onset Alzheimers disease. The Education Act was this government`s only significant achievement..
..The centuries old practice of treating schoolchildren like prison inmates was discontinued in state schools. Wilson resigned unexpectedly in early 1976. He had held his party together, often by showing great generosity to his critics & promoting them..
..James Callaghan took over & immediately abandoned this policy. He sacked left wingers Tony Benn & Barbara Castle from the cabinet, Michael Foot only survived because he had been elected deputy leader, the left were hostile to Callaghan, the right split to form the SDP..
..the winter of discontent followed & everything fell apart in Callaghan`s hands. He lacked Wilson`s skill as a political tactician, to put it mildly, and we ended up with over a decade of Thatcherism & the ruinous divisions it created..
..To be fair to Margaret Thatcher she never attacked Wilson personally while he was suffering from Alzheimers. He was protected by a wall of secrecy about his condition. No one from the Scilly Isles spoke publicly about it as far as I am aware. The person who broke ranks was..
..Tony Blair! Who else? He spoke about not repeating the mistakes of the Wilson years as if he never made a mistake. Both Wilson governments made mistakes, as all governments do, but Wilson stood up to Lyndon Johnson and refused to send troops to Vietnam..
..Blair on the other hand did exactly what he was told by George W Bush`s administration & sent ill equipped troops to fight an illegal war in Iraq. Wilson & Blair are the only Labour leaders who have won a GE in my lifetime. 1 was a decent man & 1 isn`t..
..I will probably be criticised from left & right for this thread but whether you agree or not I hope everyone accepts that is was very sad that such an intelligent man was struck down by this cruel disease at a relatively young age...
