Harold Wilson — Master — or Victim — of the Short Term

Abstract

He was only the third person of what used to be known as ‘humble origins’ to become Prime Minister, and his family background was markedly more comfortable than that of Ramsay MacDonald, and also of David Lloyd George. Yet Harold Wilson could claim to have been the first ‘meritocratic’ Prime Minister, coming up through a public education system which enabled him to compete with, and outshine, his contemporaries from upper- and middle-class backgrounds. Like his four predecessors — Attlee, Eden, Macmillan and Home — and three of his successors — Heath, Thatcher and Blair — he was an Oxford graduate, but his academic achievements surpassed all of theirs.