Harold Wilson | Labour Party | Common Market | This Week | 1974

On the even of a snap election that eventually saw Harold Wilson with the largest party, Llew Gardner interviews the Leader of the Labour Party Harold Wilson.
First Shown: 20/02/1974
If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail:
[e-mail]
Quote: VT9130

[@johnmoorely7275]

Wilson was the Chancellor of Bradford University in 1970 when I was a B.U. student. As a member of the Socialist Society for one day, I got on a day trip to No. 10. Wilson showed us round. On a cold winter day, we left our coats in the cloakroom near the entry door when HW joined us. I put my coat on the only one which did not have a label. I asked HW if this peg was for the Minister without Portfolio. He was amused. He later took us to the banqueting room where there is a huge mural of Wellington defeating Napoleon. HW told us that he dined De Gaulle and seated him opposite the mural "because it gave me a distinct negotiating advantage". As we went upstairs where all former PMs are displayed, he pointed out Spencer Perceval and said "the only PM to be assassinated touch wood".

[@MrDavey2010]

Wilson is superb. He controls the interview effortlessly and without losing his temper. Perfect performance!

[@Bopsterboy]

Superb? lolololol

[@NickSBailey]

he was although the interviewers were generally calmer in these days, none of this demanding yes or no, all reductionist and tedious now

[@majorsharpe5208]

What a fabulous programme! Harold Wilson was a master interviewee and Llew Gardner a wonderful and classy interrogator.

[@MarkHarrison733]

Gardner was a very biased left-wing hack.

[@annurch558]

I just love listening to Harold.

[@davidbell6013]

Excellent leader

[@celestialteapot3310]

Best PM this country has ever had.

[@harmlessdrudge]

What did he achieve to be the country's best PM?

[@celestialteapot3310]

harmlessdrudge addressing poverty and equality, increasing access to education, keeping us out of unwinable American wars - nothing special.

[@celestialteapot3310]

James Henderson Details?

[@71hammyman]

@James Henderson the SAS have served everywhere, these are a select bunch of highly trained people that are made for these kind of situations, not just your average soldier.

[@jayd4ever]

not the greatest but defintley better than many pms we have had like theresa may, gordon brown, james callaghan, anthony eden,boris johnson,

[@billygiles3276]

I’m a right winger but reject both Conservative party and Labour Party of the modern day, they are disgraceful and treasonous. I would much rather Harold Wilson than Theresa may.

[@edmiliband2806]

If Harold Wilson was around today with exactly the same economic positions he'd be called even more of a Communist than Jeremy Corbyn, even by those on the left

[@princesshassim6009]

Well said Brotha. With you all the way.

[@dk-qx3ev]

Another Powellite I see

[@npc3po301]

@@dk-qx3ev Powellite? As in Enoch? the guy who caused uproar by vastly underestimating how bad it would get? seems you've got too much Jello between your ears

[@balladewilliams]

That makes literally no sense. How on Earth could you be right wing and support Harold Wilson

[@jonathanleblanc2140]

Thanks ThamesTV you're awesome!

[@ukpaul9221]

Like those who have commented before. I am truly sad that Harold became paranoid with good reason, oh that politicians today were half his calibre. Give a decent bloke the chance to govern and all the establishment go ape-sh---. May they have their reward - in this life or the next

[@ftorres93]

If you can fast forward Harold Wilson to the present day I can see landside victory for Labour with those policies Harold is advocating.

[@cassieearle9196]

wouldn't jermey corybn be a harold wilson labour pm

[@JD-Media]

@@cassieearle9196 No.

[@cassieearle9196]

@James Henderson they can win back scotland, they arn't too happy with tories

[@cassieearle9196]

@James Henderson oh cool me too

[@cassieearle9196]

@James Henderson possibility but they aren't voting for the tories either. the few seats tories have there they are gonna lose.

[@EdWood2006]

Wow another great upload Thames TV . Keep them coming.

[@sekeriyasharif6593]

he had a good economic knowledge, which benefited the country a lot

[@ThomasDanielsen1000]

How exactly? During his tenure, Britain slided further and further into economic chaos.

[@williamnethercott4364]

A proper Prime Minister, IMHO.

[@princesshassim6009]

The Tories launched plot after plot against him at Top level......they were so scared of him. WE on the other hand had more to be scared of in Margaret Thatcher, only at the time we didn't know it.

[@StuMas]

*When Labour used to be Labour*

[@andybray9791]

Better than Jeremy Corbyn

[@stevegasparutti8341]

Wilson was the ultimate slippery customer. He always knew that facts. He is very much like JR Mogg in the fact that he always kept his cool, because did his homework. He was a good guy, that was put in a very difficult situation.

[@th8257]

@James Henderson ???? No British troops were sent to Vietnam. Wilson caused major tensions with the USA by absolutely refusing to send British troops to Vietnam.

[@stevegasparutti8341]

@@th8257 Why should he have. That did not end well. I would suggest that was a wise move. Or would you call Vietnam a success??

[@humanchannel7825]

@@th8257 what would you suggest then?

[@andrewrobinson8305]

No they didn’t.

[@PatrickMcAsey]

You compare Harold Wilson with the loathsome Jacob Rees-Mogg. Are you serious?

[@buckspa]

This was a week before the election.

[@christopherlane2552]

The first election in which I voted What an exciting result

[@darryltester5376]

Harold Wilson looks fairly relaxed in this interview - insiders at the time and even Wilson himself thought privately they were going to lose the (February 74) election to heath- and it was a major shock when Labour were the largest party.... that said the EEC played a part in the election with Enoch Powell urging tory voters to vote labour because of the referendum promise.... That said, Wilson had to try and grapple with what was the Barbour boom engineered by the then tory chancellor and world wide stagflation.....together with the costly manifesto programme and social contract which led to the IMF bailout of 1976 and ultimately the Labour governments fall from office in 1979..... On the other hand, compared to the current political classes we could do with a Wilson now.......

[@darryltester5376]

@James Henderson Quirks of the uk parliamentary system..... Attlee got more votes than churchill in 1951 but the tories got more seats overall......

[@darryltester5376]

@James Henderson As much as the tories won england in the 1980s James Henderson.....

[@darryltester5376]

You keep moving the arguments on and not properly replying to my answers.....Find proof not conspiracy theories James.... We'll leave it there.......

[@wendyhill3856]

In the days when the Labour Party were electable.

[@johnking5174]

Well in Feb 1974 election they did not win a majority and in Oct 1974 they scraped a majority of 3. Not very electable.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

Wilson only really won one GE out of five.

[@archie7218]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kwalso only lost one out of 5. Undeniably successful, especially for a Labour leader

[@blaksu]

Here Rishi Sunak are some economic policies when confronted with cost of living

[@nathanielgrant3909]

That's why I'm here, Wilson speaks from the grave to what's needed right now. An almost perfect case of policies for what is needed now: even down to his belief that companies who have made large profits during a time of a significant rise in the cost of living ought to be subject to a windfall tax. Someone send this video to No. 11!

[@thealbionarchivist9127]

Interesting response to the question of whether he would win. Much more humble answer than Neil Kinnock would have given and of course Wilson did win, 4 times I think, Kinnock didn't win once.

[@BernardCastle]

"I'm going to win an overall majority"- John Major, 1992 "We are going to get a majority."-Neil Kinnock, 1992. In the event, Major was right and Kinnock was wrong. (Sources: pre-election interviews of party leaders which can be found on KZbin.)

[@PatrickMcAsey]

Such a civilised interview! Such a contrast with the interviewers on Radio 4's 'Today' programme who are constantly interrupting the politicians they intervew.

[@MollyiXXX]

I like Harold's pithy put down of Harold McMillan at the time of the Suez debacle *First In, First Out* especially as it was 100% true.

[@tubularbill]

He was only 58 years old here. That’s what leading the Labour Party will do ya! Lol

[@rolandrothwell4840]

Marvellous politician but oil price rise of 400% led to 27% inflation! He did bring industrial peace and worked put paye demands very fairly. But a majority of just 3 wasn't enough for a stable government

[@tatsnneeps341]

Good Yorkshire man 👨

[@jodyburrows1253]

He comes across as quickly as quite sensible

[@MrDastardly]

A professional politician, not like today’s rabble.

[@darkarts59]

Vic Featherew, famous wicket keeper?

[@MrGoneTroppo]

May we look at wages now, Prime Minister? Certainly.

[@brianwarden7250]

Quick Silver Mind regardless of one's political persuasion.

[@8000SAC]

Harold Wilson = šmejd...! :O))

[@aleccap5946]

If he saw labour today, he'd be rolling in his grave

[@johnking5174]

Harold Wilson and Clement Atlee were excellent Labour Prime Ministers. Both men managed to win a landslide general election, Wilson in 1966 and Atlee in 1945.

[@MarkHarrison733]

@@johnking5174 Wilson only really won one GE out of five.

[@johnking5174]

@@MarkHarrison733 He won the 1964 election with a wafer thin majority, but it was still a win, so technically he won two elections with a majority, and two elections as a minority. Minority government is infamous in Ireland, a win is a win Mark. He was still Prime Minister.

[@MarkHarrison733]

@@johnking5174 The Soviet agent Wilson only won due to Scotland in 1964 and in October 1974. He lost in 1970, and February 1974 was a hung parliament. Far more people had voted for the Conservatives in February 1974.

[@MarkHarrison733]

Wilson's Zionism would have prevented him from supporting the modern Labour Party.

[@Da1Dez]

My Grandad's favourite prime minister who did the best for Britain.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

He destroyed the UK.

[@Kerygmame]

wily old thing ... brilliant in his own way.

[@maynardglam]

I wonder what Wilson would have done if he’d stayed in power and taken on Thatcher, would he had gone on til 79 or gone earlier in 78?

[@Bopsterboy]

He would have been utterly destroyed by Thatcher.

[@annenunney9907]

May be she would have gone and may be we would be living in a very different country today take care

[@dionbaillargeon4899]

He probably would've called an early election in 78 (before the winter of discontent) and Labour would have remained the largest party.

[@dionbaillargeon4899]

@King Royal As far as I know, public polling showed Labour ahead and there were rumors about Callaghan calling a snap election in late 1978. He called it off because he was unsure he'd win an overall majority and was tired of having to rely on liberals and nationalists to carry on. So he decided to wait.

[@dionbaillargeon4899]

@King Royal What are your sources? All polls I know suggest it was a pretty close run thing, with Labour slightly ahead before the winter of discomptent. And Callaghan still managed 37 percent of the vote after the worst crisis in living memory. Private polling doesn't have a history of being more accurate than public polling.

[@jodyburrows1253]

He comes across as not very left wing

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

He wasn't.

[@tubularbill]

He looks like Archie Bunker

[@benphilips9918]

A surreal interview, the first of many between Llew Gardiner and Wilson and after that with Jim Callaghan. In every one you come up against the absurdities of the command and control economy. It didn't work in the Eastern bloc and it didn't work in Britain. It finally collapsed like a wooden structure shot through with dry rot in the squalor and chaos of the Winter of Discontent. Everything over the previous five years is a prelude leading up to it. Wilson, Heath and Callaghan were swept on downstream and out to sea, floating twigs on the tidal wave of history.

[@lucianopavarotti2843]

Compare politicians of those days in interviews to the likes of Sunak today, who can only repeat the same rehearsed phrase over and over

[@johnking5174]

83% income tax rate on those who earned £20,000 or more a year in 1974 was introduced by Wilson. How is that fair?

[@celestialteapot3310]

Because it gave you the NHS

[@johnking5174]

@@celestialteapot3310 No, the NHS was started in 1948. I am totally in support of funding the NHS. Indeed I nearly died in July 2017 and if it was not for the great doctors at my local NHS hospital I would be dead. So I totally support it. I simply do not support the idea that taxing people who earn high incomes a huge tax rate which will lead them to leave the country, and thus we have less large incomes to tax, and less income from tax. You see what I am getting at?

[@johnking5174]

@@celestialteapot3310 In 1974 a businessman who say earned £100,000 a year, was forced to hand over £83,000 of that to the taxman. That is far too much. Whereas a man who earns £4,000 a year in 1974 paid 33% income tax. Not very fair on both sides. I would have taxed the businessman at 60% and the £4,000 man at 20%. Wouldn't that be fair?

[@tubularbill]

John King - it’s not. It’s thievery...

[@plymko900]

@@johnking5174 £20000 in 1974 would be over £20000 today so he wouldn't be in the top bracket. But even if he was, he wouldn't pay £83,000 it was a marginal rate

[@ThomasDanielsen1000]

Interesting how the first part of the interview is about keeping inflation down. After Wilson took over from Heath, inflation skyrocketed to about 30% in 1975. Admittedly, part of it was due to the Barber boom produced by Heath's chancellor, Anthony Barber, but another part of it was that Wilson simply gave in to the trade unions and gave them the pay increases they wanted, plus increased public spending quite dramatically. The Wilson government 1974-76 was probably one of the most incompetent British governments in the post-war era.

[@peteroneill2991]

The 70’s were turbulent times economically; the gold standard was being ditched and in 1973 we had the oil embargo (1st oil shock). The developed world went into recession with stagflation. There was also the 73/74 world stock market crash with the London stock exchange being hit the hardest. The UK was also hit with the 1973-75 secondary banking crisis caused by a housing crisis (sounds familiar), also the 1974 miners’ strike and 3-day week. The last straw was the sterling crisis in which the bank of England used up its foreign currency reserves in trying to defend the pound. By 1978 the UK had recovered. The Labour government took on the more militant trade unionists culminating in the winter of discontent then as they say the rest is history.

[@ThomasDanielsen1000]

@@peteroneill2991 While it is true that the entire Western world experienced the end of the post-war boom in the early 70s, it is also a fact that Britain was one of the countries that was hit the worst. In no small part due to the mismanagement of the economy by the Labour government. First of all, the stirling crisis happened in the fall of 76, 2½ years into the Labour government and only ½ year after Wilson resigned. Basically a statement from the financial markets that the didn't trust Labour. Callaghan had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout loan - the only other western country to suffer that humiliation was Italy. It is also true that Britain had recovered to some degree in 1978 but that was only cosmetical. Wilson had persuaded the unions to some degree of wage restraint, however, that was only temporary and the underlying problems of the British economy (low productivity, inefficient state industries, poor quality products, and a relatively large number of working days lost to strikes) still persisted. And in 78 you couldn't keep the kork on the bottle anymore and the unions went absolutely bonkers with wage demands. The entire foundation of the Labour government (based on Heath's confrontation with the miners and the 3-day week) had been that they alone could control the unions. However that illusion was well and truly put to bed in the Winter of Discontent. The government DIDN'T take on the unions in 78/79! Not once did they declare a state of emergency. Callaghan couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead the government became prisoner of the events, staggering on from one humiliation to the next, while the country descended into chaos. After that it was end of the road for the unions and old Labour - and rightly so.

[@peteroneill2991]

@@ThomasDanielsen1000 Fact 1 That devastating world wide recession started under a Tory government and ended in 1978 inflation down to 8.3% and the balance of payments in surplus 557 Million pounds sterling. The record BOP deficit of 1144 Million pounds in 1974 was a product of a tory government. The recovery of 1978 was derailed by the winter of discontent when Callaghan took on the more militant union elements

[@peteroneill2991]

@@ThomasDanielsen1000 lets talk mismanagement Balance of payments (BOP) ONS figures. The Wilson government (L) plus 604 million pounds sterling was the last UK government to run a BOP surplus i.e., we sold more than we purchased as a country. Heath (con) minus 3660M, Callaghan (L) minus 4330M, the Heath and Callaghan governments were in power during a major world recession Thatcher (Con) minus 72,000M, Major (con) minus 46,563M. That covers 15 years before 1980 when the real damage was started and 17 years after.

[@ThomasDanielsen1000]

@@peteroneill2991 I'm sorry, but you keep saying that Callaghan took on the militant unions. He didn't! The government formulated in the fall of '78 a maximum of 5% pay increase, with penalties for companies that would break that. However, already in December that ceiling was challenged when the Ford motor company made a settlement with its workers granting them far more than 5%, and the Callaghan government did nothing to enforce it!!! After that the militant union leaders saw that strike action could give them more than 5% and thus the avalanche started leaving Callaghan and Labour in its wake. And yes it's true that the BOP recovered slightly during the mid 70s, but as I said that was only a temporary fix. It was caused by voluntary wage restraint that wasn't going to last for ever, particularly with inflating eating chunks of peoples real wages. Wilson was just lucky that he got out of office before the lid blew off. And by the way: I am by no means defending the Heath government - it was just as pathetic and useless and the Wilson governments.

[@MarkHarrison733]

What was Wilson's legacy? Well, in his first term, the economy drifted from one sterling crises to another, in his second term inflation exploded and reached 25-30 % in '75. Industrial relations worsened during his tenure culminating in 68-69, and he completely failed to curb union power as laid out in "In Place of Strife". He tried desperately to solve the problem with South Rhodesia, but failed. He even tried to broker a peace in Vietnam but failed at that also. It was also during his first term that violence in Northern Ireland started to escalate. The "National Plan" was abandoned in favor of deflation to keep the pound afloat. The fundamental problem in the British economy (inefficient state-owned industries) was never tackled. Rather big failing state industries were just merged into huge conglomerates (like British Leyland). And finally he allowed his cabinet to be riddled with factions and mistrust, which shows that his leadership qualities were questionable.

[@Bopsterboy]

Llew Gardner was utterly incompetent in his interviewing.

[@richardlaversuch9460]

"Fairness" and "social justice" are nebulous concepts, a fact not acknowledged by Harold Wilson.

[@andybray9791]

Sjws have changed meaning like when wicked meant seriously wrong but in the opposite direction

[@harrynewiss4630]

What a conman Wilson was, albeit a classy one

[@craphead9842]

HW.. A con artist... Listen nothing has changed in 2021.. Politicians pulling the wool over the people... 6mins in talking about wages and inflation... 3% payrise and 0%inflation or 15%payrise and 12% inflation? =3% payrise... Prices always go up never down that's why the rich stay rich.. Regards Tony