Harold Wilson’s 'White Heat' Speech That Redefined Politics in the 60s

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  • Опубликовано: 12 янв 2025

Комментарии • 80

  • @theipaper
    @theipaper  Месяц назад +21

    Is this one of the most important political speeches in British history?

    • @LydiaLulu
      @LydiaLulu Месяц назад +4

      Yes!! Great video

    • @CantIiseverythingtomee
      @CantIiseverythingtomee Месяц назад +2

      Yes ❤❤❤

    • @syedadeelhussain2691
      @syedadeelhussain2691 29 дней назад

      Got a soviet styled socialist? Yes.

    • @MS-19
      @MS-19 29 дней назад

      @@syedadeelhussain2691 MI5 maintained a file on Wilson under the name of Henry Worthington. It repeatedly investigated him over the course of several decades, before officially concluding that Wilson had had no relationship with the KGB. Nor did it ever find evidence of Soviet penetration of the Labour Party.

    • @davidharwood9552
      @davidharwood9552 26 дней назад

      1976. Grange Farm. Interesting time and location

  • @roydavidlivermore4664
    @roydavidlivermore4664 Месяц назад +76

    Something he did,but is never mentioned,in that he refused several times to get involved in the Vietnam war.This must have saved more Uk lives than any Prime minister.

    •  29 дней назад +1

      so what the VW was nothing to do with us why should we get involved. should just do his job and get on with running the UK.

    • @davidwarren202
      @davidwarren202 29 дней назад +11

      Hw was under a lot of pressure from LBJ which he resisted. The UK was still heavily in debt to the USA at the time

    • @DIEMLtdTV
      @DIEMLtdTV 26 дней назад

      I'm not a fan of Wilson but this did save lots of British troops' lives with this. Or was it his (alleged) KGB handlers instructing him?

    • @somestalecontent
      @somestalecontent 26 дней назад

      @@DIEMLtdTVHaha

  • @heinkle1
    @heinkle1 29 дней назад +19

    “Stagnant backwater” is a pretty good description of the economy in 2024 relative to our peers

  • @Da1Dez
    @Da1Dez 27 дней назад +12

    Wilson was the last, and possibly only, prime minister we had who really understood the people of Britain and valued what it meant to be British.

  • @tedgreensmith631
    @tedgreensmith631 25 дней назад +4

    Completely agree. Wilson was an incredible Prime Minister.

  • @Nick-io9uk
    @Nick-io9uk 27 дней назад +7

    Wilson was probably the best prime minister in....well, a long time. In a century where the unspoken rule seems to be 'every current prime minister must be slightly worse than the last, every next prime minister slightly worse than the current' he broke the mould.
    He combined those important values of socialism and nationalism. If only we'd followed his example for the next 60 years. He was also reputedly our glorious Queens most favourite PM.

  • @MoodyWatters
    @MoodyWatters Месяц назад +13

    A great, great man indeed.

  • @YvesLorenzoChuaValenzuela
    @YvesLorenzoChuaValenzuela 28 дней назад +4

    Where can we find the full speech of the "White Heat" speech

  • @davidluck4608
    @davidluck4608 26 дней назад +2

    Tis a Great Travesty of Justice that the Labour Party doesn’t have someone as popular as Harold Wilson as their Leader🧐

  • @rory4605
    @rory4605 28 дней назад +3

    I’d say the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the legalisation of abortion was more Roy Jenkins’ work than Wilson’s.

    • @npe1
      @npe1 27 дней назад +9

      Neither - they were both private members bills. Leo Abse on decriminalisation of homosexuality and David Steele on abortion.

    • @rory4605
      @rory4605 26 дней назад +1

      @@npe1 Thanks! I love this era of British politcs.

  • @barryballsit4944
    @barryballsit4944 Месяц назад +9

    Should have devalued the pound much earlier than he did, not an easy decision to take but delay damaged the economy a lot

    • @mowogfpv7582
      @mowogfpv7582 Месяц назад +3

      I fear that the customs union may be similar for Starmer

    • @syedadeelhussain2691
      @syedadeelhussain2691 Месяц назад +2

      British balance of payments problem was due to excessive public spending on housing, and the high growth rate of the 1960s.
      Devaluation is akin to an import tariff!

  • @brianmarshall1637
    @brianmarshall1637 24 дня назад

    The country had just had 13 years of unprecedented prosperity under the Tories,MacMillan was right when he said to the nation that we had never had it so good,Wilson presided over rising prices all through,I was a young married working man and I remember his victory in 1964,if the Tories had notched Home as le

  • @philiphuntley8277
    @philiphuntley8277 День назад

    Apparantly he got the highest marks in his double first degree from Oxford in 150 years

  • @ThomasDanielsen1000
    @ThomasDanielsen1000 3 дня назад

    As Brian Walden very precisely describes: the big problem with Wilson's speech was not the speech itself but the expectations it raised! People thought that there WAS gonna be a scientific transformation of Britain following Wilson's election victory in 1964? And what followed? Did Wilson have some great plan that he rolled out? Not at all! It was all bluster and rhetoric. Immediately after his 1966 election victory which gave him a 100 or se seat majority, the wheels came of the economic wagon and in the summer of 1966 he had to scrap the National Plan, the Planned Growth of Incomes and all that, and resort to tax hikes, public spending cuts and interest rates increases after some weeks of utter and total chaos in the Labour government that exposed Wilson and his ministers and just as economically incompetent as the Tories before them! And then it was made even worse in 1967 when he couldn't resist any longer the inevitable devaluation of the pound and the disastrous "pound in your pocket"-speech that just made him look like a dishonest fool.
    The only real attempt to actually reform the labour market in Britain was Barbara Castles "In Place of Strife"-proposals, which he of course completely bungled, so the propositions had to be scrapped. So much for "one of the best prime ministers we ever had"!

  • @williamwaynflete6336
    @williamwaynflete6336 26 дней назад

    08:14 Ena Sharples

  • @flachi32
    @flachi32 27 дней назад +1

    Crossland the real moderniser

  • @Josh2312-v5n
    @Josh2312-v5n 25 дней назад +3

    I think he was well liked by the Queen as Prime Minister

  • @brianmarshall1637
    @brianmarshall1637 24 дня назад

    As leader they would have won again.

  • @ThomasBoyd-mn8ht
    @ThomasBoyd-mn8ht 29 дней назад +1

    Rest private schools are excellent in England. Massimio Zimbardi Italian Age 27 went private school in Italy Piedmont his home he a Friend Thomas. PR voting Italy telling England change tactics politically to win PR for House of Commons UK general election. Never get with Tories.

  • @syedadeelhussain2691
    @syedadeelhussain2691 Месяц назад +2

    An avid pipe smoker. Stylish man but couldn't understand why he resigned in the 1970s?
    Remains a mystery.
    Also, he was under Lady Falklander's domination.
    That is another story for another day!!

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 Месяц назад +3

      It’s not a mystery. He recognised that his once prodigious memory was failing among other things.

    • @williamwaynflete6336
      @williamwaynflete6336 Месяц назад +2

      *Falkender*

    • @davidharwood9552
      @davidharwood9552 26 дней назад +1

      I met Harold Wilson in 1975 in Great Missenden. After he resigned. Smoking his pipe but was nervous. Looking over his shoulder. He was living a double life maybe 🤔

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 26 дней назад +1

      @ How old were you ?

    • @davidharwood9552
      @davidharwood9552 26 дней назад

      @@californiadreamin8423 I was born 1954

  • @WhataDubHead
    @WhataDubHead Месяц назад +11

    And yet what came of it? Industries continued to decline, being inefficient, bloated, and not dynamic to market competition. I think people are running on vibes here. The only true structural changes came in the 80s and because of Wilson’s and other governments inactions made the necessary changes that much more painful. People like to romanticise - don’t look at intentions, but outcomes.

    • @kiwikiwi1779
      @kiwikiwi1779 Месяц назад +2

      It was a bit of a half-ass. He made the effort, but for the most part, it wasn't enough. It was in times like that, with things generally going well, that "managed decline" took effect and Britain's outdated and strange government really failed to push forwards an ambitious project. Why do it, when "good enough" was (apparently) working so well?
      Not to mention the setbacks, the scandals, and the internal conflicts. It was the first party of personality, not the party of old boy cliques. Reminds you of today, almost.

    • @syedadeelhussain2691
      @syedadeelhussain2691 Месяц назад +4

      The UK with Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, LBS, and Imperial College had the potential to turn into a true knowledge economy. That did not happen, sadly.

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 Месяц назад +5

      Hello Hello. The country was near bankrupt and prior to his second election victory , he included a manifesto promise to hold and stand by the first referendum ever in this country, to settle the matter of EEC membership once and for all . After renegotiating new terms of membership, the country decided by a significant majority to remain in the EEC. By 2016 the U.K. was the 5th richest country in the world, and leaving the EU has put the U.K. economy into significant decline.

    • @syedadeelhussain2691
      @syedadeelhussain2691 29 дней назад

      @@californiadreamin8423 UK Economy had an average growth rate of 4% in the 1960s
      So correct me if my figure is incorrect plz.
      Thx.

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 29 дней назад +5

      @@syedadeelhussain2691 What I can tell you is that the Labour government had to go to the International Monetary Fund to arrange a loan, which is why I said the U.K. was nearly bankrupt.

  • @rupes3618
    @rupes3618 Месяц назад +10

    This such poor and biased vid of Wilson. Wilson failed. We got Concorde. The French got airbus. The US got the market for civil aerospace sector to themselves. Wilson was actually a huge missed opportunity. The white heat of technology failed.

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 Месяц назад +2

      France and the U.K. got Concorde.
      Airbus Industries is widespread throughout Europe and wings are made in Cheshire.
      The US got the market for civil aerospace to themselves……you don’t think the ignorance of Duncan Sandys had anything to do with that.
      Your post is unbalanced nonsense.

    • @rupes3618
      @rupes3618 29 дней назад

      @@californiadreamin8423 my uncle designed the landing gear so yes I know of what I speak. We got lesson 20% of airbus where we could have had more like the French share of near 40%. They got airiane we got nothing because Wilson cancelled blue streak. The us got fighter jet market to themselves for the phantom and f104 because Wilson cancelled the TSR2. My uncle he ended up working on the the 737 because the white heat of technology meant cancelled programs. Just like dozens he had to take his talents learnt at dowty engineering in the 50s to ‘help’ the us Aerospace industry. Wilson was a total failure.

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 29 дней назад

      @ No one person designs an undercarriage. I worked at Warton. The country was bankrupt and your assertion that it was Wilson’s fault is absurd.

    • @JupiterThunder
      @JupiterThunder 29 дней назад

      @@californiadreamin8423 Yeah but it's a Dutch company owned by France and Germany.

    • @californiadreamin8423
      @californiadreamin8423 29 дней назад

      @@JupiterThunder Thanks for the information.

  • @TheNotrac
    @TheNotrac 29 дней назад +2

    One of our greatest Prime Ministers! One of the very worst.

  • @Peter-lm3ic
    @Peter-lm3ic 24 дня назад

    What a joke! I well remember this clown with the Gannex mack and pipe a hero amongst the labourites but no one else!

  • @ThomasBoyd-mn8ht
    @ThomasBoyd-mn8ht 29 дней назад +2

    Harold Wilson Labour Prime minister excellent politically pity did last longer as Margaret Sweeney said when resigned 1976 Labour party in England went down tubes politically for next 18 years. Please VAT 20% Fees on Eton college remove charitable business relief from Eton college Tory Toffs gravy train finished politically Keir starmer delivered it. His Labour government with 412 Labour MPs. David Cameron took England out EU referendum Brexit mistake. No chance for Britain with Brexit politically.

    • @infrasleep
      @infrasleep 27 дней назад

      Schoolboy drivel. The country went bankrupt in 1976-forced to beg to the IMF. Reeves has created the exact same scenario of 70's stagflation-zero investment; the evil 1% who paid 30% of all tax revenue will -as in the 70's-leave. In the 70's BASIC rate tax was 33%-Reeves WILL raise basic rate tax as there is no one but the plebes left to tax (and she wil do another 70's scheme-BEG firms to stay in the UK by offering them....TAX BREAKS! Only this time they've got the option of relocating elsewhere to reduce the costs which will blow another hole in Reeves' fantasy tax raising figure. You're so screwed up with childish hates you fail to question anything. You failed to read up on 70's economics-obviously as only a half wit like Reeves thinks doing the same will result in a different outcome. You only spot a crime if the tories do it and go all in denial-think its a great idea-when labour do exactly the same. Labour died in 1994 with John Smith-your hero Starmer is a born Tory elitist snob-like Reeves, like you-trying to be terribly left wing and labour. FYI OLD REAL LABOUR-"Means tests mean poverty traps" and they debunked the tory urban myths of millionaires on benefits. YOU and STARMER who celebrated cutting the OAP fuel allowance-so full of hate and spite you born tory "labour" are today not only created the means test poverty traps-you made up the urban myths to go with it. If you want to know what a truely obnoxious Tory looks like-look at yourself in the mirror or your poster of Starmer.

  • @Prasutagucaster
    @Prasutagucaster 29 дней назад +1

    Not been a decent, even average, Labour leader since. It’s regressed 80 years recently. Joke of a cabinet. Student politicians and politics

  • @robertguildford
    @robertguildford Месяц назад +2

    Having lived through this age, I cannot disagree with your more. The problems of today are caused by the decisions of yesterday. Look no further than the Labour Parties lmmigration acts of 1948 and Wilsons open door Act of 1968.

    •  29 дней назад +2

      they were bad but UK seem to go down the drain in freefall immigration wise from 1997 when TB opened the flood gates. i remember London only having 1 or 2 'no go' areas in 2002. now it has 1 or 2 'go' areas..!

    • @tomwinchester8209
      @tomwinchester8209 29 дней назад +3

      Utter nonsense probably coming from someone outside of London

    • @JupiterThunder
      @JupiterThunder 29 дней назад

      @@tomwinchester8209 One doesn't need to visit a pig sty to know it stinks.

    • @archie7218
      @archie7218 28 дней назад

      Immigration was in the 10s of thousands throughout the 20th century. It was around the 2000s under Blair the floodgates opened, and its been the same ever since

    • @robertguildford
      @robertguildford 28 дней назад

      @archie7218 I agree with your comment. As the seed of the common man, I have always had my eyes open. Immigration into this country is all down to the Labour party, In all its disguises, ( Blair). That is the cause of today's problems.