Harold Wilson: The Winner

Product Information

As Kavanagh notes, Wilson’s period in government was one of the most diarised in modern British political history, and the picture that generally emerged from these productions was of a somewhat devious individual, ‘a Prime Minister associated with tactical manoeuvres, lack of strategy, and short-termism’ (p. But I think, of the biographies, this book most achieves the aim of guiding the reader through Wilson’s whole story. p. 38: Here we come to a totally avoidable feature of many books that grates on me: unnecessarily imposing modern-day idiom on decades-ago events. At the moment when the announcement was made, in 1976, I was standing to attention on the runway of Sofia’s airport, clutching a sheaf of giant gladioli and listening to the eighth or ninth verse of Bulgaria’s national anthem. 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.

p. 422: Wilson’s appearance as a host of the talk show Friday Night… Saturday Morning in 1979 is certainly worth covering, but I think the discussion here overlooks a few important aspects.Hindsight says he should have done so, but he was fearful of the consequences for a party whose reputation was already scarred by two previous devaluations, in 1931 and 1949.

An interesting series on the discovery and settlement of the Elizabeth Islands off the southern coast of Massachusetts. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.That does not mean, however, that it is not a fine book in its own right and one that sets outs its points of differentiation from Pimlott clearly. It is a major plus for a book on any major figure that the author comes from the same field as the subject.

Inscribed by Wilson to the title page: "For Richard Dalby Harold Wilson", the recipient being the notable bibliophile of that name, and, as with many books from Dalby's library, this one comes with some bonus ephemera tucked into the rear of the book, in this case several leaflets on the subject of the 1974 referendum on Britain's future relationship with Europe, as well as a number of press cuttings. He lost, but in 1963, after Gaitskell’s death, Wilson took the leadership, and a year later led Labour to victory. As Thomas-Symonds argues, Britain under him became a more free, equal, tolerant and open society -- Leo McKinstry * DAILY EXPRESS * I would heartily recommend The Winner to anyone interested in postwar British politics. I do not know or wish to discover the nature of the Wilson-Williams relationship, though if pressed I would guess that it was not what the prurient press hoped it to be.As Robert Taylor puts it in his essay on Wilson and industrial relations, Wilson wanted to convince the trade unions to ‘shoulder responsibilities in restraining the material appetites of their own members for their own long term good’ (p. In this riveting and very readable biography, Thomas-Symonds con­firms that Wilson's governments created a kinder, fairer, and forward-thinking Britain.

Devaluation in 1964 may well have improved the trade balance (as it did in 1967), but the political cost would have been high, as devaluation tends to bring a ‘substantial blow to working class living standards’ (p. In spite of this, Thomas-Symonds argues, Wilson worked to prevent Labour becoming an explicitly anti-Europe party, leaving the way open for a referendum on EEC membership.And five years later, even Barbara Castle – his friend and constant champion – accused him of “betrayal”, because he would not support her plans for industrial relations reform. Arguably any British PM would have struggled to deal with the problem – the Tories were split over the issue during the same period – but Wilson’s high-profile failure to do so contributed to the view that, by the end of 1968, he was little more than a liability. Eventually Wilson was forced to climb down by the Cabinet; agreement was reached with the TUC over how to handle unofficial disputes, but it represented a humiliating defeat for Wilson, and Castle’s political career never recovered. This collection is a very stimulating contribution to any study of the Wilson years and Labour’s legacy as a political party. When Bevan and then Gaitskell died prematurely, Wilson was the unchallenged leadership candidate of the left in a party still dominated by the right.