1966. A General Election. A Labour Landslide. England win the World Cup. Winning a majority of 96 seats, Harold Wilson hails the victory as the ‘greatest in peacetime’. Here are some of the highlights from the BBC election night coverage, which can be viewed in full here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_Ms4g_wd8 Labour ran its campaign with the slogan... Continue Reading →
Harold Wilson shocks the world as he resigns as Labour leader. Dubbed ‘The man who came near to making Labour a natural party of government’ he brings an end to a thirty-year career at the top of British politics. The story of his resignation: Wilson had planned his retirement months in advance and had decided... Continue Reading →
Harold Wilson claimed the idea for the ‘University of the Air’ came to him on a flight back to Britain after a lecturing tour of Chicago University in 1963. Wilson observed their modern degree system that featured novel teaching methods such as postal correspondence, television lectures, telephone tutorials and face-to-face seminars. The first public intervention... Continue Reading →
A quick take on the claim that Harold Wilson was neutral in the 1974 EEC referendum taken from Twitter last November Wilson was not neutral in deciding Labour's position on the EEC referendum. He threatened to resign as Prime Minister if Labour’s official campaigning position was switched from Remain to Leave as the left hoped... Continue Reading →
From her humble beginnings in Cornwall, to working with two British Prime Ministers, Barbara Hosking has had a remarkable career. After being a press officer at the centre of power in the 1970s, Hosking has finally created headlines for herself - by 'outing herself' at the age of 91 and becoming a 'gay icon'. Exceeding My Brief,... Continue Reading →
Smethwick. 1964. The original 'Project Fear' campaign, inspired the most evocative election slogan in British political history. It saw an insurgent right-wing exploit local anger towards a 'swarm' of migrants - who were blamed for adding pressure to a severe housing crisis. It pitched an out of touch liberal elite, accused of facilitating a race to the bottom, against a... Continue Reading →
Hugh Gaitskell, Barbara Castle, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Benn, Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Jeremy Corbyn all have one thing in common. They have all advocated withdrawal from the EEC/EU at some point in their long political careers. But only Jeremy Corbyn can see it through to fruition. It begs the question, why... Continue Reading →
A watershed moment in the fight for gender equality, the Equal Pay Act 1970 ‘stated that women should receive equal pay for equal work’. If they believed they were paid less than a male counterpart, engaged in similar work, they could take their employer to a tribunal. The Road to 1970 Whilst its impact has... Continue Reading →
TIDES OF HISTORY 