1976 ; Alame Duck Labour Pm. Acorrupted Honours System. Public Spending Out of Control. And an Army Woefully Overstretched. Now Why Does That Sound so Familiar?
Daily Mail › December 29, 2006
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Summary
In 1976 Britain was truly the sick man of Europe. With endless strikes, corrupt and megalomaniac trade union leaders, oppressive taxes, inflation nearing 20 per cent and the pound in freefall, the economy was broken, some thought terminally. The Labour government was paralysed and Prime Minister Harold Wilson beleaguered and paranoid. Secret papers released by the National Archives yesterday reveal the depth of the crisis... and throw up some extraordinary parallels with today.
DISCREDITED and exhausted after 13 years as party leader, the Labour Prime Minister contemplates his impending retirement. His party is increasingly fractious, his Cabinet divided by bitter personal rivalries.See the full content of this document
Extract
1976 ; Alame Duck Labour Pm. Acorrupted Honours System. Public Spending Out of Control. And an Army Woefully Overstretched. Now Why Does That Sound so Familiar?
Allegations of cronyism and misuse of honours threaten to taint his legacy. The Armed Services, engaged in a sectarian conflict about which the British public cares little, are dangerously overstretched.
Public spending is out of control, the Secret Services are embroiled in political rows and at every turn there are allegations of dark conspiracies.This is a picture of the British Government, not at the end of the Blair regime, but in the last dark days of Harold Wilson, who resigned as Prime Minister in March 1976. Wilson was the only Premier in the last half of the 20th century to quit Downing ...See the full content of this document
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