“Harold Wilson: The Winner” by Nick Thomas-Symonds is an excellent biography which, to a large degree, resets the reputation of Wilson with a skilled degree of fairness and precision.
Previous accounts have painted him as a manipulative fixer – often working out the lowest common denominator in any situation to find a way to muddle forward.
Thomas-Symonds, with access to more documents than were previously available, gives us a picture of a decent, honourable man who was also very clever. His concern for the under-privileged and for issues such as race and gender equality shine through his work. He retained support from the left of the Labour party throughout his political life. The book relates his close working relationship with Nye Bevin and Barbara Castle.
As well a four general election wins for Labour, Wilson notched up an impressive array of policy achievements, not least in the area of higher education and social reform.
I previously read Ben Pimlott’s 1992 book “Harold Wilson” which was itself excellent. But it is worth reading “Harold Wilson: The Winner” as it rebalances the historical view of Wilson, in an authoritative and readable way.
Finally, I can’t resist mentioning when I had a chat with “our ‘Arold”.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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After Harold McMillan , Harold Wilson is is my next favourite prime minister during my lifetime.
If I’m not much mistaken, Wilson was at one time Treasurer of the Oxford Uni Liberal Club. Wonder if that makes the biography!
Thanks for a very interesting article, Paul. Alan Johnson also write a recent biography of H.W.. Nick Thomas-Symonds is not only a distinguished historian and author (biographies of Attlee and Bevan), but also a cabinet member as Paymaster General in the current government.
As someone brought up in Huddersfield (Harold was brought up in a two up, two down in Cowlersley), when on holiday in in the Scillies in the early 70’s, I well remember queueing behind Harold in the Co-op in Hugh Town, St Marys, and seeing him collect his ‘Co-op stamps’. Later, I patted his dog ‘Paddy’ while chatting with the Wilsons during a walk round the island.
Harold, of course was a great Huddersfield Town football fan. In recent times his statue outside Huddersfield Station often carries a blue and white striped scarf….. appropriate this centenary week to remember he carried a photo in his wallet of the great Town team which became league champions for the third year running in 1926.
Harold’s great work included assisting Beveridge to draft the social reforms implemented by the great Attlee post-war government. Dominic is correct about Oxford.
Sadly his final years were marked with illness, and his headstone in St Mary’s graveyard is appropriately inscribed, ‘Tempus Imperator Rerum’…. Time is the Ruler of all things.
Dominic, you are quite correct.
This is great to hear about, Harold Wilson is my favourit Prime Minister and as David Raw says was an important researcher for the Beveridge Report.
Huddersfield has a connection with yet another Prime Minister, the Liberal H.H. Asquith.
Asquith’s father, Joseph Dixon Asquith, died at the very early age of 35 after being hit by a cricket ball playing in a match in Huddersfield. As a consequence, H.H.A. spent some of his early life living with relatives in Hudders before starting at the Moravian School at Fulneck near Pudsey.
Well, goodness me. I taught at the Moravian school at Fulneck for a year in 2000-2001 and I never knew that was where HHA went to school. An excellent school with a fine Moravian Chapel.
Hi Mick, You’ll probably know Len Hutton, Yorkshire & England, went to school there too.
@ Mick Taylor Should have added HHA went on to City of London School later.
Harold Wilson was indeed the foremost politician of his generation, hated and liked in equal proportions by most of his own party and the Conservatives also. However, he was the man who led the party to victory in the 1964 General Election, an election that reversed the course of over a decade of continuous Conservative rule after Labour’s post war breakthrough ended in 1951. That left him in a very strong position, strong enough for him to remain leader of the party for the four years in opposition between his loss in 1970 and regaining power in 1974.
Previously, in 1947 he had become the youngest Cabinet member of the 20th century as President of the Board of Trade, in part because of his work for William Beveridge, who he apparently worked for as a research assistant during the war years. After his win in 1964 he won a further three general elections (and lost one) when, along with several other inspirational figures including our own Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins, he implemented several seminal pieces of legislation including the Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 1968, the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
However, it is mistaken to indicate that ‘… issues such as gender equality shine through’. The issue to him was the adverse treatment of women, and sex discrimination was rightly the term used.
@ David Evans David, Harold was a great supporter of that fiery ex-pupil of Bradford Girls Grammar School, the wonderful late Barbara Castle – and, of course – Denis Healy (one of the best Prime Ministers we never had) was an old boy of Bradford Grammar school.
@David Raw. Well, well. My Dad was at City of London School in the thirties. He never mentioned such exalted former students.
Despite immense political and financial pressure from the US Harold Wilson kept my generation out of the Vietnam war..
Harold Wilson would be categorised as being on the extreme left by today’s standards, even though the extent of his government’s socialism was mild compared to the post war Government of Clement Attlee.
Probably the most successful of the Nationalisations was the creation of the Girobank. A bank run though the national network of post offices. It provided a marvelous service to many who didn’t have easy access to a branch of one of the main commercial banks.
They hated that of course. It was therefore high on the hit list of the Thatcher govt which was keen to remove this competition. They couldn’t, though, claim it was going to save the taxpayer any money as the Girobank was commercially successful. This wasn’t a positive in their eyes.
Curiously Girobank customers, like myself, and unlike those of the Building societies which were being ‘demutualalised’ at around the same time, didn’t get any sweeteners in the form of cheap shares etc.
I wonder (not really 🙂 ) why Mrs Thatcher didn’t think lefties like myself didn’t deserve anything!
Just noticed there was a double negative in my last sentence!
Should be “…..thought lefties like myself didn’t deserve anything!”
@ Peter Martin Completely agree about the Girobank, Peter. Always got excellent service from it and it was a dreadful Thatcher decision to sell it off without any consultation with the customers whatsoever. Credit to Tony Benn in the first place for introducing it.
Given the current axing of so many bank branches, and given many rural based elderly persons find it difficult to travel or to cope with the internet stuff (and that many rural areas have poor internet access anyway) …………….. a post office based replacement Girobank would be welcome to be restored today. I’d use it.
@ Mick Taylor Your Dad must have been a clever lad, Mick. There’s a strong radical tradition at both City of London School and London University. Jeremy Bentham’s preserved body still sits in a glass case at UCL. J.S. Mill and his father had much to do with the founding to counter the Anglican grip on such as Durham.
Dr. Edwin Abbott was the great headmaster of the City of London School from 1865 to 1889, and regarded Asquith as perhaps his most distinguished pupil. Abbott considered Asquith one of his most brilliant students, though he famously disclaimed credit for his success, stating, “I never had a pupil who owed less to me and more to his own natural ab. Asquith, who attended the school from 1864 to 1870, later remarked that he felt “under deeper obligations” to Abbott than to any other living man
@ David,
I met Barbara Castle when I was a student in Manchester (UMIST) in 1975. I wrote off to her in Parliament asking if she could give a talk to our Labour Students Society. She happily agreed.
I remember she was due to arrive at Piccadilly Station and one of the members, who had a car, offered to pick her up. It was real old banger and we struggled to get it started which caused a bit of a panic.
But she was a real good sport about it though, she climbed into the back with her luggage and with no complaints at all!
Her speech was good and full of fire as you’d expect.
Peter, you are largely right about Girobank, but of course as it was absorbed by Alliance and Leicester (then a building society) which then demutualised, you would (from what I recall as a fellow customer) have received your payment in due course.
I am not sure it is fair to charaterise all Girobank customers as lefties, but of course a large proportion were public sector workers.
@ Matt,
Girobank customers were specifically excluded from the deal when A&L demutualised in 1996.
We suspected a directive from the Tory govt that we should be.
“However, the Alliance & Leicester deal excludes a greater proportion of its customers – 2 million {those formerly with Girobank – PM} out of 5 million – than any other of the big deals announced to date.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/the-alliance-deal-all-you-need-to-know-1317218.html
David Raw. Well I must have got it from somewhere! My Dad was born in Putney and attended City of London School from 1930-1938. He thought a war was inevitable and rather than be conscripted he volunteered for the Signals. A short time before Dunkirk he was summoned by his commanding officer and told to pack his bags for his dental training at Guys Hospital. In a wonderful army signals cockup, the wrong man had been summoned as Guys had sent for Lt H B Taylor, rather than what they got, Pt B H Taylor. Rather than send him back they said he might as well stay! Who knows what his future (and mine) might have been if he’d still been with the Signals in France. As it was he met my mother at Guys and here I and my 2 sisters are.
@ Peter Martin There’s a lovely bit of film of Barbara on You Tube re-visiting B.G.G.S in her old age and meeting her old school pal who acted as agent when she stood in a school election as a Labour candidate. I bet that frightened the horses. I believe she got 19 votes.
It’s always amazing how many people’s lives are basically down to a Sliding Doors moment.
Though I’m just thinking of a Withnail-esque “I’ve become a dentist by mistake” moment 🙂
@ Mick,
” Who knows what his future (and mine) might have been……”
Your Dad would still have been the same, but as he would have probably married someone else, assuming he survived the conflict, then you would be someone else too! Or, no-one at all, depending on your philosophical view ! 🙂