Harold Wilson: The Winner

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Some minor tape damage to front, minor scuffing to top and bottom of spine, otherwise very little scuffing or shelfwear. 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.

There are a few small nicks to the extremities of the dust wrapper and the inverse is lightly age toned. Fiscal policy may affect the payments balance rapidly, but even so, fiscal policy actions are sometimes put into effect well after Budget day. He lost, but in 1963, after Gaitskell’s death, Wilson took the leadership, and a year later led Labour to victory. 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. Harold Wilson: The Winner is at least partly intended to remind today’s Labour movement of the virtues of subordinating differences to the cause of winning power.Although it is fair to say that early devaluation could have prevented some of the economic problems that beset the 1960s Wilson governments, ‘addressing the problems of the international role of sterling and overseas government spending was bound to be constrained by the political complexity surrounding any solutions, which had defeated previous post-war governments’ (p. Second, Wilson’s scope to engage in writing activity did not decisively falter until the mid-1980s, when his health decline became very steep.

Trade unions represented the sectional interests of their members; said members saw their unions as ‘guardians for what they regarded as limited, piecemeal objectives in a competitive labour market’ (p. His role as a winner is emphasised - the fact that he didn't know what to do with his victories receives less attention. Wilson concentrated on quietly accruing power within the party, identifying with the left but never totally severing links with the right.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. It is divided into three sections: themes, policies, and perspectives, with the section on policies taking up the lion’s share of the book. p. 429: The quoted remark by Wilson in response to a 1988 letter that he received was apparently a note to his staff (see Ziegler, p.

An interesting series on the discovery and settlement of the Elizabeth Islands off the southern coast of Massachusetts. Preventing, or at least postponing, a Labour party split is probably more important to Thomas-Symonds and me than it is to posterity.Thomas-Symonds, in detailing Wilson’s handling of a variety of events, would seem to draw implicit comparison with later politicians fumbling their handling of similar situations. In general the 50s through the 70s were a period of relative decline and all the post-war governments of the period, Conservative and Labour, failed. This books aims to describe how the parliamentary system of Britain works and identifying the essential differences of other presidential systems such as that of the United Sates.

This copy signed by Harold Wilson on the title-page (no other marks or inscriptions) CONDITION: An extremely well preserved almost AS NEW very clean and tight copy (very thin sliver of sunning to spine ends, hint of tanning to leaves) in an almost AS NEW complete Dust Jacket (barely noticeable vertical crease to front inner flap, looks new in its removable transparent protector). 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. Here are good lessons to learn from the leader who held together a party riven between right and left.

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. Thomas-Symonds, however, would like us to see Wilson’s Britain as a different place to Thatcher’s: a modern country, socially liberal, anti-racist and in Europe.