Abstract
The Labour governments elected in 1964 and 1966 have not been remembered with great affection. Even before the defeat of 1970 they had become a by-word for failure and demoralization, broken promises and dashed hopes, not just for Labourites, but for a large section of the wider population. This condemnation is now being questioned by some historians, but popular memory does not accord these governments a high reputation.1 And it is safe to say that many of the problems faced by Labour in these years were ones which were to continue to cause it difficulty long after the political events of the 1960s had faded from view.
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Notes
Condemnatory views include P. Foot, The Politics of Harold Wilson (Harmondsworth, 1968 )
C. Ponting, Breach of Promise: Labour in Power, 1964–1970 (1989); and
A. Morgan, Harold Wilson (1992). Among more sympathetic accounts, see especially Pimlott, Wilson and Ziegler, Wilson.
R. Coopey, ‘Industrial Policy in the White Heat of the Scientific Revolution’, in R. Coopey, S. Fielding and N. Tiratsoo (eds.), The Wilson Governments, 1964–1970 (1993), p. 103.
J. Tomlinson, Public Policy and the Economy (Oxford, 1990), p. 242.
S. Newton and D. Porter, Modernization Frustrated: The Politics of Industrial Decline in Britain since 1900 (1985), p. 155.
R. Crossman, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume I: Minister of Housing, 1964–1966 (1975), p. 575.
D. Walker, ‘The First Wilson Governments, 1964–1970’, in P. Hennessy and A. Seldon (eds.), Ruling Performance: British Governments from Attlee to Thatcher (Oxford, 1987 ), p. 203.
S. Pollard, The Development of the British Economy, 1914–1980 (1983), p. 345.
S. N. Broadberry, ‘Unemployment’, in Crafts and Woodward, British Economy since 1945, p. 212.
P. Browning, The Treasury and Economic Policy, 1964–1985 (1986), pp. 17, 358. N. W. C. Woodward, ‘Inflation’, in Crafts and Woodward, British Economy since 1945, pp. 197–8
D. E. Butler and M. Pinto-Duschinsky, The British General Election of 1970 (1971), p. 439.
N. K. Buxton, ‘Introduction’, in N. K. Buxton and D. H. Aldcroft (eds.), British Industry Between the Wars: Instability and Development, 1919–1939 (1979), p. 19.
H. Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society: England since 1880 (1989), p. 449.
G. Brown, In My Way: The Political Memoirs of Lord George-Brown ( Pelican edn., Harmondsworth, 1972 ), p. 168.
R. Crossman, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Volume 2: Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, 1966–1968 (1976), p. 84.
B. Jones and M. Keating, Labour and the British State (Oxford, 1985 ), p. 105.
A. B. Philip, The Welsh Question: Nationalism in Welsh Politics, 1945–1970 (Cardiff, 1975 ), p. 233.
K. O. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880–1980 (Oxford, 1981), p. 411
C. Harvie, No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Scotland, 1914–1980 (1981), pp. 154–5.
See e.g. T. Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism (1977), esp. p. 253.
P. Ratcliffe, Racism and Reaction: A Profile of Handsworth (1981), pp. 279–81.
C. Holmes, John Bull’s Island: Immigration and British Society, 1871–1971 (1988), p. 292.
T. Forrester, The Labour Party and the Working Class (1976), p. 80.
D. Howell, British Social Democracy: A Study in Development and Decay (1976), p. 246.
D. E. Butler, British General Elections since 1945 (Oxford, 1989 ), pp. 26–7.
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© 1997 Andrew Thorpe
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Thorpe, A. (1997). Wilson in Power, 1964–70. In: A History of the British Labour Party. British Studies Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0_9
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