Harold Wilson: The Winner

Product Information

One tends to see Pimlott being described as the most celebrated volume and Ziegler’s book as having been overshadowed by the prior appearance of Pimlott’s biography. Head and heel of spine and corners of boards lightly bumped, mild bow to rear board, page edges foxed, top edge dusty, small spot on frontispiece also offset to title page. This year marks the centenary of Harold Wilson’s birth, the fiftieth anniversary of his most impressive general election victory and forty years since his dramatic resignation as Prime Minister. In the event, it seems that it wasn’t until after the 1966 election that the board became statutory. This seems to suggest that failure was inevitable; while few historians would perhaps go this far, it would be nonetheless fair to say that the Wilson governments operated within a set of practical circumstances that didn’t leave them with much room for manoeuvre.

Wilson concentrated on quietly accruing power within the party, identifying with the left but never totally severing links with the right.The flipside of the memoirs being authentic is that most of the time Thomas-Symonds quotes material that appeared in the Wilson early-1980s manuscript, one can find the same, or nearly the same, quotation in the 1986 published memoirs. A fascinating history of British politics and its governance from the perspective of the former Prime Minister. Here are good lessons to learn from the leader who held together a party riven between right and left. Wilson’s 1964–70 governments were highly dependent on the United States in terms of keeping the British economy propped up – as we have seen, in 1964 the Americans put pressure on Wilson not to devalue the pound due to fears that as a consequence they would have to devalue the dollar (p. Fiscal policy may affect the payments balance rapidly, but even so, fiscal policy actions are sometimes put into effect well after Budget day.

Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket signed by author and dedicated to Tony Honore on title page in pen. It is a major plus for a book on any major figure that the author comes from the same field as the subject. Of course, people read books by serving politicians to understand the author’s political positions and thinking, as much as they do to learn about the book’s topic. Of course, social reforms are always a double-edged sword; the legislation that Wilson’s governments passed in the 1960s ‘liberated millions of people from repressive prejudice and puritan intolerance’, but have also been decried as unleashing ‘an era of licentious behaviour and moral depravity’ (p.It is perhaps to Wilson’s credit that he stood by Barbara Castle when her sacking would have allowed the unions to blame the crisis on her and let him off the hook. His role as a winner is emphasised - the fact that he didn't know what to do with his victories receives less attention.

Third, to those making the program, and perhaps some of the viewership, the program provided a clear inkling of Wilson’s diminished command of reality.Mixing anecdote and fact, Thomas-Symonds paints a vivid picture of the era that is hard to find elsewhere -- Victoria Honeyman * HISTORY TODAY * Nick Thomas-Symonds' excellent new biography puts Harold Wilson in his rightful place as a crucial figure in Labour Party history, winning four General Elections and introducing important reforms that have endured. For completeness and for reference, I would have preferred that he had added a “see also Wilson, 1986, page…” in these instances, rather than citing the MS alone.

Yet his publicly projected image of being ‘a kindly, informal man, with not too many airs and graces, had such purchase because it was largely true’ (p. He was one of the longest-serving premiers of the twentieth century, having won a staggering four general elections, yet, despite this monumental record, his place in Labour’s history remains somewhat ambiguous.

p. 222: It seems precipitate to judge the effectiveness of the April 1965 budget using the May balance-of-payments data.