Labour Party - Harold Wilson interview - Common Market - 1975
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- The Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson speaks to Llew Gardner about the Common Market Referendum and the implications it will have on the UK economy.
First shown: 15/05/1975
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Quote: VT11277
This man kept the UK out of Vietnam. Thank you Mr Wilson.
Huh? I can assure you that England was in Vietnam.
he sold out Rhodesia, fuck him
@Daniel Clark Clark They were certainly "special", crazed killers. We trained with English soldiers in Vietnam. Some told me that they were fighting for the wrong side. They just wanted to kill Catholics. Most English soldiers were fighting against the Catholics, prior to going to Vietnam.
@Soumyakanti Panda nah, just didn't want the white Rhoedsia to be lost
SugarTomAppleRoger you Sir, are a total Cretan .
Anyone else here after watching the crown? The actor did such a good job
Long Island NY....I am fascinated with Britain’s political system, yes after watching the crown season three I’m looking everything up as possible on the Prime Minister, I find it fascinating again
Yes me too!!
I had chills when I heard that voice, he nailed that voice
John Hayes Bohemia
Our systems weird, The Queen is the boss but then the PM can also boss the Queen around so technically they’re the boss who knows😂😂😂
Will Edwards Yes spot on . I watched The Crown last week and was amazed at the accuracy of the portrayal of Wilson.
Come back Harold, we need you...
He has been dead for 26 years John.
Great Britain needs you Harold Wilson, Harry will you please come home
There’s no comparison between Wilson’s manner and statesmanship and that of our current so-called leaders! He’s so at ease and confident. Compare this style with that of May! No contest!
Theresa May was the epitome of somebody exposed as being in the wrong job and painfully lying to themself about it. Being 'better than Corbyn' wasn't saying much.
These old school politicians were something else entirely. So articulate, so dignified, just so well informed and generally _smart_ even though it was harder and more onerous to gather information in those days.
We have dumbed down severely. I remember the early-mid 90s and back then even the chavs and criminals were more polite and articulate, swore less, had a better level of general education and had more common sense and general knowledge.
Wilson was an Oxford Don at the age of 21. Intellectually, he didn't have anything to prove.
Current leaders seem to struggle to justify their own existence.
Boris Johnson would not have a chance faced with the intellect and wit of Harold Wilson or Denis Healey.
This tory government is (literally) getting away with murder. Quote: " I'd rather see bodies piled high..." !
Absolutely CORRECT and true
notice how the question is asked, and the answer is given without interruption. The good old days ????
Quite right. However this was a time when mainstream politicians didn't bullshit themselves through interviews like they do now.
I think because we know politicians lie so much or give an answer to deflect the question. Journalists have to keep asking the same question repeatedly to get a straight answer
@@dantory1 It's the fact that politicians used to talk more seriously about governance, now they speak in simple messages and sound bites because they discovered how little time the public spends caring about politics.
That's because he isn't lieing
daniel clarke they were also given a lot more slack by the press
What a lovely, calm and knowledgeable man. I love the way he answers and that, and the way he lights his cigar, is so satisfying! :)
It's clearly a pipe.
It's a pipe. Cigar is what Churchill used.
@@rogerpenroset.blaine4233 Wilson smoked expensive cigars in private.
I am a conservative all the way, yet there is something i seriously like about this man.
Me too.
Haha I'm labour all the way, but think it's so important to have decent debate and swap sides from time to time so we don't end up veering to one extreme (which I think we're doing under the current tories)...
I’m a Conservative member but I like patriotic Old Labour. Labour has made many important developments to our way of life since 1945. If only we had a patriotic Labour today.
@@violinstar5948 I'd say Corbyn is very much old labour - he epitomises it, esp if you look beyond the media spin
@@OnTheLooseGoose Corbyn is the epitome of old labour opposition. He's like a relic from the 1980s.
This is amazingly pertinent this week! what goes around comes around. Exactly the same arguements. Boris and Jeremy need to view this. I grew up in the 1970's in England and remember this time well.
If Cameron had campaigned like Wilson last year then I think he would have won it.
daniel clarke I know many people who flirted with voting remain, but couldn't bear to allow Cameron's squalid campaign to triumph.
daniel clarke Cameron doesn't know what time of day it is.
Wilson was NEUTRAL in the 1975 referendum. He didn't campaign.
@@conveyor2 The interview clearly manifests his position as pro-EEC, but I think you're right in the implication that he didn't want to highlight the issue lest his Cabinet sundered.
@@wystanisles4094 It was not a Party Political event, and why people thought it was defeats me!!
This article is well worth listening to, all the way through, I didn't support him at the time but I wish I had listened more.
I listened more at the time and I can assure you he and his government were unworthy of your support!
I suppose you preferred Edward Heath and his complete shambles of a government, now that was a total disaster.
Me too! But he committed a big mistake to let Jim Callaghan and his kin (Dennis Healey and the like) to succeed him. That mistake cost us Thatcher 's inferno.
Wow he was only 59 in 1975. He liked 20 years older. The job took its toll.
tubularbill Keeping the Labour Party of the 70s together would definitely have taken its toll.
Being labour leader for 13 years would certainly do that.
Prime minister 1964-1970 and then again 1974-1976 ... that's enough to age anyone.
@James Henderson He later had Alzheimer's, and many people felt that he was showing the very first signs of it then, which was partly the reason which led him to resign in 1976
I think people just looked older then.
WOW the opening music is such a "Blast from the past" LOVE IT So good to see these interviews & discussions> From the times when civil - educated & intelligent grown-ups ran the country. Whatever one feels about the parties at least people could present a literate & reasoned argument. No longer just mindless "Gotcha" and vulgar bullies asserting themselves.
First leader I ever voted for
- Presides over the literal golden age of Britain
- Keeps Britain out of the disaster that was Vietnam
- Ensures the poorest are as protected as possible when things go downhill
- Is actually likeable and honest, direct, intelligent, well-spoken, less given to buzzwords, etc than basically all his predecessors/successors
- Is still hated by Brits
What did Britain mean by this
I thought he was liked by the Brits? Not as much as Churchill, Attlee or MacMillan, but certainly up there.
@@DieGamerAG Nope, Brits blamed him overwhelmingly and primarily for the 1970s. He's quite liked by historians but very much disliked by the average Brit who drank the Thatcherite propaganda kool-aid. There's actually a lot of criticism that he deserves and can be given (I have big issues with him myself seeing as I'm from Ireland) but he is definitely a cut above the overwhelming majority of British PMs
British troops served in Vietnam.
@@edmiliband2806 Wilson was a Soviet agent, like Foot.
British soldiers fought in the Vietnam War.
Not conscripted like Australians.
People forget Wilson tried to limit immigration.
And he was right to
Tried?
@@simonlaw9234 It continued to increase during his premiership.
@@simonlaw9234 It's why Labour lost the local elections in 1968, and the GE in 1970.
Thank you very enormously Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson's wife lived all the way through to June 2018.
Gak ada fotonya
Dia benci dengan trump. Makanya meninggal😂
This man has credibility about him. Some change to modern Labour party . Easy to see why he won elections.
How similar is this mans manner to Margaret Thatcher. Different sides of the fence - but total command of the media.
Compared with the remedial cretins in Westminster today, the man could be Gladstone.
A truly great Labour Prime Minister. My Grandfather, James Andrew Kay Wood, introduced me to the great man back in 1974 along with Connie Lewcock; then one of the last of the living suffragettes. Connie was an amazing Lady with grace and gravitas in equal measure.
Pity there wasn't televised
Parliment in those days.We would see how he did at PMQ.
There are some good radio debates where he puts Margaret Thatcher in her place. I think it was in the BBC archives don’t know if it’s still there.
He had Thatcher in his back pocket so I'm led to believe.
Completely confident and at ease with himself.
Those of us in our 60s remember prices doubling in joining the EEC. not just good old inflation. Just doubling of food prices to match Europe.
@@seang2700 And our food is more expensive than in continental Europe anyway.
@@seang2700 Payback time as Wilson handed out 30-40%
pay increases to the miners and public sector unions.
July 1975, UK inflation hit 27% - highest ever and then a visit to the IMF in '76 for a huge bail-out.
Wilson has to take the blame.
So much of this interview is directly relevant today. Wilson stands head and shoulders above the current crop of politicians and at this stage, 1975, he was beginning to realise he was unwell.
His weakness then, as now, was the UK economy overall. Then, as now, some shining lights but attached to a long tail of very dull short term bulbs indeed.
Absolutely love that pipe.
We all know you love pipe.
He didn’t even like pipes that much he loved the cigars but those are a capitalist symbol so he smoked a pipe in public
Leader, patriot, realist, statesman, communicator. Oh how Labour has rotted since then. A true democrat who ultimately understood the analysis of benefits against the false promise of the EEC; and knew that its' power excesses had to be harnessed. If he were around today he would have been a Leaver, reflecting the majority view with conviction
flashtheoriginal w
My late grandad met james Callaghan
The EEC a false promise???? He says it is vital to the UK and it has been!!
A thorough gentleman.
The crown portrayal of Mr. Wilson is spot on. Even that strong yorkshire accent!
Loved Harold! ❤
At the beginning the EU Council had made 50 pages of rules and Law.
It is now 1,700 pages and still growing. No-one reads it which is why
the UK and the 27 are in such a mess.
Contrast our current PM, Johnson with Harold Wilson who resisted the USA demands, and kept us out of the Vietnam War, as whilst being interviewed on the BBC about the first referendum took time in the course of the interview to attack the smug pundit with secondary smoking. Brilliant coherent interview from the good old days!
He still provided logistical support to the US in that brutal war.
@James Henderson
"illegally invaded Egypt,"?
Only after Nasser illegally took control ofd the Suez Cannel.
"The outside figure was some 25000, Mau Mau dead (I know the Kenyan movement claim over a 100,000 but then they would wouldn't they.
Given the Kenyan population is some 50,000,000 I think you are somewhat over egging your own genocide pudding .
"and used Agent Orange in Malaysia"?
I was also aware of that.
It is also true the UK actual develop the initial anti foliate that became known has agent orange but it use was very limited scale and unlike in Vietnam was effective in helping to defeat the communist take over of Malaysia so in using it many innocent lives were saved.
Now tell me about Cyprus, Aden and Northern Ireland;
If the Union movement had behaved themselves in the late 1970's we wouldn't have had Margaret Thatcher.
Pity the Labour Party doesn't have such a wise calm leader
He was should a good pm the best working class man ever, this shows were workin men can go
Pfft. Both he and Callaghan went to grammar schools, which they then trashed in government, kicking away the ladder for working class children like themselves.
He also lied here about food prices not being higher because of the common market - it was an expressed policy of the common market to artificially inflate food prices to encourage farmers to produce a surplus.
I can't see why the working man should call him a friend.
He never had a hard days labour in his life
@@kaidenhall2718 Not true. He had a childhood full of needs, his parents were in deep financial troubles. So yes, at least at the beginning of his career he was a true working class mate, like most of the Atlee government.
My favourite prime minister of all times
My grandad was the journalist who exposed the plot against him after the secret meetings
Kieran Penrose A plot by Lord Mountbatten?
cheng Sunny the plot against Harold Wilson
@@s20031102 mount batten was a german spy .
@@bazrobb6242 I doubt a father figure to the prince of Wales was a German spy
I thought that was a conspiracy theory. do you have a link to any articles or literature about it?
I'm sure he said this at the Brighton conference 😊
I just respect so much his intellectual ability - not 'pivoting' or PR trained responses, but a depth of knowledge of the issues to be able to redirect the question (even if leading) to the issue. I also appreciate his deference to democracy; we just had-wave about it now, but he's talking broadly and confidently and aspirationally about the people's ability to govern. It's a shame Alzheimer's cut his career short, and also maybe that he didn't have a natural successor in Labour to put up a better fight against the Conservatives.
He had colon cancer as well as Alzheimer's by 1975.
Wilson enabled genocide in Biafra.
1974/5 caved in to public sector unions, Labour's paymasters.
Sparked off shocking inflation at 27% in June, 1975.... highest ever in UK history.
Four years later, it was still 10%.
An era of striking, anarchy unions and economic stagnation. UK in the knacker's yard by 1979.
Wow, Jason Watkins did such a good job in The Crown. Exactly like him.
Once we public got word of the Maastricht signing in 1992 we wanted out (well some of us who read it) , tho we not given a referendum. All the treaties after that ruined our nation.
What happened to all the 'This is your life' episodes? They've all disappeared.
Probably the most intelligent PM post the war, but never lived up to his intellect as a prime minister.
You know as a person who stares at Wikipedia pages for elections all day hearing what the people representated simply by photos sound like every politician I’ve ever heard speak sounds nothing like what I thought they would have sounded like
When he lit that pipe I was amazed!!! Fantastic.
Catweasel would have been amazed as well.
@Sarah Milo It's strange for me to see it. He did it so casually too. There's something so enchanting about it. Like Gandalf.
Shame we can’t do that now
This man would stand for vote leave he is one of my fav labour politicians
Is this supposed to wouldn’t
The common market was different to the true start of the federation in the 1990s
It is the Britishness of this interview that reminds me of a comment by Lord Rawnsley in " Those Magnificient Men and Their Flying Machines"...the trouble with all of these International affairs are all of these foreigners".
Les Griffiths
He was right that entering the common market wouldn't solve all of Britain's problems. Leaving the EU, by the same token, isn't making them any worse.
And a year later Wilson was gone. He went of his own accord. He was knackered. Steve Richards recent book, The prime ministers: reflections on leadership from wilson to johnson, is a good primer on wilson's premiership if you want to learn more.
Concisely the common market is a definate subject.
If Starmer becomes half as good as this guy, I’ll support him.
Wilson enabled genocide.
His reputation has risen.
We joined the common market based on a lie, and we're still leaving based on a lie
?
@@andybray9791 Ted Heath took us into the common market telling us lakes of wine, beef mountain, how much better off we would be, all lies. Boris Johnson said he would take us out of the EU and 2 weeks later on Christmas Eve that's what he said, but the deal he actually got was so bad, it would have been cheaper to have stayed in. Do you actually do any sort of research or are you you simply trying to get me going 🤔
@@aleccap5946 Maastricht wasn’t a great fit for Britain
@@andybray9791 how on earth did we sign up giving away our NHS in the process I will never know, open borders and making matters worse, migration from outside the EU with nothing in law to protect us ? Seriously who would do that ?
Heath used the ''common market'' as a trojan horse into a federal, political Europe construct..ie..the EU.
He badged it up as a free trade agreement.
In truth it was a gigantic deceit.
God bless Barbara Castle today and her father Barry Castle from jersey❤
Castle betrayed Labour.
This man won 4 General Elections! He tried his best to deal with a country and party that was tearing itself apart!
He only really won one GE.
This interview was very early in my lifetime, yet it seems so old-fashioned for a politician to be smoking a pipe on TV, just pausing to re-light it now and again. I know it was part of Wilson's image, but still. Can't imagine it now.
His grandad was from jersey😊
He looked like he aged 15 years between leaving power in 1970 and coming back in 1974. Possibly the early symptoms of his Alzheimers illness ?
He was drinking heavily every day.
A book I read on opposition leaders also points that keeping labour together in the opposition took all the strength out of him. Heaths successful EEC entry really caused splits that forever affect both parties
I think so, definitely. Also, it's worth remembering that the 70s were fairly horrific times politically. The labour party which he led was an absolute mess, and they didn't have a majority in parliament. The stress on him must have been horrific.
Well his answers seem clear enough.
The interviewer hair has all my attention. I love it.
Piping during the interview lol😂..old days..
....and we had that 'will of the people' vote! A 67% Remain vote in an advisory referendum!!
It was rigged.
@@JamesRichards-mj9kw How?
@@JamesRichards-mj9kw ...and the 2016 referendum vote wasn't rigged I suppose?
@@bryangeake5826 My grandparents said they did not know of anyone who voted to remain in the right-wing EEC.
@@bryangeake5826 Thankfully Corbyn deliberately sabotaged Remain!
No constant interruptions from the interviewer and Mr Wilson given time to explain his point without interruption. It's not that politicians have changed since then but modern day interviewers are aggressive and rude without respect.
Queen Elizabeth: You've made it this far.
OMFG... Now we have Jeremy Corbyn
The chocolate bar that is politics never changes….only the wrapper does so
Common markets are kind
What a load of flannel it all was. The ‘common market’…lol.
''con trick'' ...more like.
Wilson was right about the Liberals
Commonwealths reprive the common market
How is his farm these days ?
The click of his lighter, those thick plumes; the Television used to be so cool and patrician back then.
All that remains today is plebian whining.
Without political differences, I miss those days. Forced Authorisation is definitely wrong. But, at least there needs some certain atmosphere, curtesy and calmness is needed in public services and even in politics.
I saying again, I definitely and never agree on forced authority.
Common markets are mineral effective
That luverly bubbley voice brings back memories, his pipe must have had some fairy washing up liquid in it!
There were British troops in Vietnam.
The 1960's overall was a great decade for Britain. Great socIal progress and change, full employment and Wilson was PM. Always liked him and respected him miles ahead of recent PM's such as May, Truss and Sunak.
Wilson was a Soviet agent, and he destroyed the UK.
There was not full employment, and his social reforms were a complete disaster.
Wilson was a complete disaster.
There are a lot of minuses too. The explosion in criminality started in the 1960s and went up and up through the 70s, 80s and 90s before suddenly and consistently dropping. Things like full employment were a mirage. As Harold Macmillan put it some years earlier, the British public had no idea how much we were living beyond our means. That was reflected in economic crisis after crisis in the 60s, and devaluation under Wilson because the underlying economy was so weak.
He always knew that he was fighting against the greater sphere cartel. Look where we're now know.!!
He did not like his irish half brother whom he called a sterile liberal😢
From Wilson to Corbyn- fantastic... 😞
Prefer Wilson (tho he was before my time)
Lights up the pipe 8:23
**TNO Wilson Was Here**
If only this style of politician and this style of political conversation would have been around over the last 16 years (from the recession onwards). Too many times politicans talk a lot and say nothing and the hosting interviewer will either be totally biased one way or the other or just be a total prat for the sake of viewing numbers.
meanwhile.....Brexit
Even a Merseyrail train has his name plate carried
What if joining the EU in 1971/72 went to referendum in the UK how would it would been the result
Would depend on how Wilson framed the question, and whether Wilson would've campaigned for it
@@seang2700 the 1990s was when we exposed Maastricht and from then on
UK originally joined the EEC - NOT the EU.
I think because it was a leap into the unknown, such a national
referendum would have been lost.
But Heath used all sorts of parliamentary trickery and chicanery
to ram through the UK entry during '71/'72 - which split the Tories for decades to come.
Only ...after we joined was a referendum vote put to the British
people by Wilson in 1975.
He would have destroyed thatcher.
Nope.
I'm basically here because of Made in Dagenham
I was watching Seinfeld clips.
Sounds like Obi Wan
TNO gang
Lmao just casually lighting up his pipe on television in the middle of an interview. Like he’s in a pub having a natter over a pint
From experience ....an incredibly intelligent vain man.
That fuckin' pipe!!!!!
harold wilson is like another john major, hh asquith or stanley baldwin the average pm
Asquith served during WW1. He is not Average.
@@earthball2024 he did good
An emotional Commonwealth man, who stabbed them in the back.
Following Wilsons death. B.B.C.Northwest Tonight went to his former constituency to ask the public about his legacy. One lady was very telling when she said "Oh him.He talked to you like you were stupid "
Sell out
"Dirty" Harry Wilson , he did like big ones "the bigger the better Squire" he used to say , whipping his lips .
that guy’s hair is a travesty.
'That guy' ,what's an idiot like you here for?
The Common Market? We joined the European Economic Community. He knew it, what a liar. Despite what he says about the terms the UK went in under then campaigned to remain, what a hypocrite.
@Martin Baldwin-Edwards Common Market 7 times, The Market 19 times, EEC 4 times and by the interviewer only.
@Martin Baldwin-Edwards bullshit
My god, he looks tired!
His illness was taking effect from late 1974 onward.