4. Harold Wilson
“Since Harold Wilson’s stock has plummeted so sharply for
so long, one can only suppose that it will someday register an upward
movement. It is likely, indeed probable,
that historians will take a more charitable and compassionate view of his
career and achievements than do commentators who delight in trampling on a man
when he is down.”
Kenneth O Morgan, quoted in Reappraising Harold Wilson, Andrew Crines and Kevin
Hickson, Fabian Society 7 March 2016
“Wilson’s first administration was one of the great
reforming governments in British history. Without the prime minister’s
blessing, parliamentary time would never have been found to abolish capital
punishment, liberalise the laws on homosexuality, divorce and abortion, or for
the first positive action to promote racial equality. We should think of Wilson
as the architect of social reform.”
Roy Hattersley, Harold Wilson: The Winner by Nick Thomas-Symonds review – a
second look at the victorious Labour leader, The Guardian 10 October 2022
“This is government of the people, it is government for all
the people.”
Harold Wilson, Labour Party Conference speech 28 September 1965, quoted in The
Times 29 September 1965
