Saturday 27 July 2024

Harold Wilson: rogues I have known (cont**)

Well, sat next to him several times.  He wasn't very communicative.  The crazy affair of Biden's Brain, plus a random news story brought him to mind this week.

For me as a lad reaching some kind of juvenile political awareness in the late 1960's, Harold Wilson was omnipresent in current affairs, a masterful politician in difficult circumstances, atop a restless and quarrelsome Labour Party.  By the time I was at the university he was PM (for the second time) and a veritable local legend for his 'congratulatory First' as an undergraduate, his adroit SCR politicking as a don, smart analytic capabilities as a wartime civil servant, and, above all, his astonishing memory[1].

Then, abruptly at the age of 60, in 1976 he stepped down as PM and almost directly into obscurity.  WTF?  There were all manner of conspiracy theories but the truth was, the previous year he realised he was fast losing his marbles; and full dementia set in shortly thereafter.  Without his memory he was nothing, and he knew it - not for him the pathetic Biden conceit.

Wilson off duty:  ciggies for him
A bit later I often found myself in the Victoria district, SW1, where Wilson had a flat overlooking Westminster Cathedral.  One could lunch handsomely at eye-poppingly low prices in a number of modest eateries outside Victoria Station - cheap, but totally respectable (in case you were thinking of Kings Cross in the same era), and heavily populated by office workers brandishing Luncheon Vouchers - remember them?[2].  Ultra-cheap + guaranteed high turnover was the formula.  Two of the favourites were known as the Old Maple, a tiny dive, 100% formica everywhere; and - no relation - the New Maple, on two floors, the upper of which even ran to some imitation wood panelling.[3]

Anyhow, if you weren't in so much of a hurry you could join Harold Wilson and his detective, who frequently lunched there too in the upstairs section.  You knew immediately something was very badly wrong: he wasn't any kind of physical wreck, but what in Heaven's name was a man who only a couple of years beforehand was PM, doing there silently nursing a plate of steak and kidney and his habitual ciggy?  (Occasionally a cigar - but the pipe was only ever for show.)

All very sad.  And it now turns out he quickly ran out of money as his care requirements escalated.  Thatcher's people arranged for the Bodleian to buy his personal papers, rather than have them go abroad, for a decent sum to keep him going.  He lasted until 1995.

ND

__________

** see also Jeff Skilling and Keith Best

[1] A really tremendous memory can cover for a range of what otherwise would be mediocrity in other intellectual attributes.  Whenever you meet someone highly regarded for intellectual attainment, it's worth considering whether memory is their actual superpower. 

[2] LVs, that is - though I could have meant office workers ...

[3] 'Known as' because IIRC those had been their historical names and that by the 1970s they were actually trading as something completely different.

14 comments:

jim said...

I remember Wilson, he seemed quite a slippery operator. What with the White Heat of technology and the strikes and taking your passport to the bank if you needed a few Francs for a biz trip. Then there was Lady Forkbender and all those dark hints about the army taking over. Lunch at the greasy spoon must have hurt a bit.

The Wiki entry brings it all back. I had not realised he had such a back story. Those happy days of Lord Home returning Hume, Heath of the bouncing shoulders, Powell the original Spitting Image and the pillow-biting Liberals. Plus ca change.

dearieme said...

I remember that different people suggested that he was variously on the payroll of the KGB, or Mossad, or the CIA, or the South African government.

Cynics suggested that all four were true simultaneously.

But that speculation doesn't seem compatible with his running out of cash for care. Unless, of course, he had had to pay an awful lot on blackmail.

iOpener said...

I practiced law for many years and have had many interactions with doctors for old age health issues for myself and my wife.

Both professions are riddled with stupid people who can memorize vast amounts of information. Indeed, for lawyers, I think it's the majority.

Sackerson said...

Struck by Thatcher's kindness here.

Sobers said...

"Struck by Thatcher's kindness here."

I think its a pretty universal principle that those people in public office that are castigated for being greedy, cruel, unkind and generally 'bad people' are in fact very decent human beings, and those whose public persona is one of being selfless and empathetic are in fact c*nts of the highest order in private.

dearieme said...

@Sobers: I've come to that conclusion too.

Anonymous said...

Funny, I was just posting about his resignation elsewhere (in relation to Biden), our conspiracy theory was that MI5 had told him to step down or all kinds of dodgy stuff would be revealed.

60 - many politicians are still at their peak then. Great pity. Interesting to speculate how the 1980s would have turned out if Harold had still been there to deal with the "Winter of Disco Tent".

Anonymous said...

The only U.K. prime minister I have seen in the flesh was Ted Heath. He came to give a talk at Leeds University when I was a student there. Very amusing in the flesh and quite different to his public persona. This was when Thatcher was PM but there was no trace of bitterness. I think I have always like him because he liked to sail and was a gunner during the war. My father liked to sail and was a gunner. Small world.

Interesting to think of Wilson vs Thatcher.

Charles

rwendland said...

> Interesting to think of Wilson vs Thatcher.

After my occasional work meetings in London, I had the habit of popping into the Palace of Westminster to watch a bit of a debate (and to get a later uncrowded train home).

In the early/mid 2000s I popped into watch the Lords rather than Commons, and the usher who dealt with visitors got chatty (only two Lords visitors that evening). He pointed out Lady Thatcher on one of the benches at the back, and said she didn't speak but they "looked after her well" - she still liked the vibe of the debating chamber. Seems a nicer way for an ex-PM to get part-time free care than a cafe in Victoria Station!

Wiki says Baron Wilson continued attending the Lords until a year before his death, so I guess he did likewise in the evening. You'd have thought the daily Lords attendance allowance (~£200 then maybe?) would have kept the wolf from the door for Wilson.

AndrewZ said...

"Interesting to think of Wilson vs Thatcher"

It might have given us some lively debates, but I don't think it would have made any real difference. Labour couldn't limit the power of the unions or make any substantial changes to the nationalised industries because the unions had too much power within the party. But the majority of the public in 1979 wasn't willing to accept the status quo any longer.

Therefore, Labour was bound to keep losing until the Conservatives had made the necessary reforms, regardless of who the leader was. It was a structural problem, not a leadership one - Foot, Smith, Kinnock, made no difference. But in making those reforms, the Conservatives also removed the roadblock that was holding Labour back, and gave it an opportunity to reinvent itself.

Anonymous said...

Blair's must have had a much better contract with his "businessmen friends" than Wilson.

Diogenes said...

He pointed out Lady Thatcher on one of the benches at the back, and said she didn't speak but they "looked after her well" - she still liked the vibe of the debating chamber. Seems a nicer way for an ex-PM to get part-time free care than a cafe in Victoria Station!

It's an interesting story but does it lead to the idea that the HoL is simply an (expensive) care home for politicians past their best?

Should the HoL have a mandatory retirement age like the judiciary (75)?

Should the second chamber be an elected one rather than the gift of (dodgy and failed) Prime Ministers?

What about the others Bishops, Hereditary?

All needs thinking about rather than it was always done this way.

Anonymous said...

Diogenes - are you bashing our bishops?

Sobers said...

"Blair's must have had a much better contract with his "businessmen friends" than Wilson."

I have a feeling Blair's compact is with someone who smells slightly more sulphurous than the average dodgy businessman.