Harold Wilson.

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Much maligned by Andrew Marr in a recent book. He did not do his homework, which I would expect from an establishment lacky fawning for a tainted gong.
My memories of  him  are somewhat different.

Relatively early during the troubles in Northern Ireland Harold Wilson correctly predicted that there were storm clouds gathering. Presenting his '15 point plan' in the House of Commons, the central point of which was that the final settlement of the Irish question lay in unity, he stated that new initiatives had to be brought forward speedily because, 'if men of moderation had nothing to hope for, men of violence will have something to shoot for'.


He won more elections (four) than any other 20th century Prime Minister and some of his governments initiatives have proved to be far-reaching achievements. These include:-

the foundation of the Open University;

the liberalising of laws affecting homosexuals and obscene publications;

the ending of capital punishment;

the holding of a refendum which ensured that we remained in the European Union.

He also gave us a national holiday to celebrate May Day and his coming to power in 1964 heralded the birth of the swinging sixties and in 1966 we won The World Cup.

He was a powful orator and some of his more legendary quotes survive to this day:-

A week is a long time in politics;

I'm an optomist, but an optomist who carries a raincoat;

The monarchy is a labour intensive industry;

The Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing;

Get your tanks off of my lawn;

N0 comment - in glorious technicolour;

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

Whichever party is in office, the Treasury is in power.

When hit in the eye by a stink bomb thrown by a schoolboyhis response was, 'With an arm like that he ought to be in the England cricket team.'

His premiership was frought with problems however. He managed devisive cabinets many of whom had sharp intellects and inflated egos and, although he was thought to be paranoid at the time, it has since been proved that he was undermined by parts of the military and the security services.

He kept us out of the Vietnam war, despite American demands for the presence of British troops and it was also under Wilson that, for the first time in a century or so, a whole year passed without a British soldier being killed on active service.

How different to the cringing subservience by Tony Blair to George Bush and his recent assertion that Britain had a moral duty to go to war anywhere in the world where western values (whatever those are) are threatened.

Nice one Harold

Your old friend Gordon.