"No prime minister ever interfered so much in the work of his colleagues as Wilson did in his first six years... Unfortunately, since he had neither political principle nor much government experience to guide him, he did not give Cabinet the degree of leadership which even a less ambitious prime minister should provide. He had no sense of direction, and rarely looked more than a few months ahead. His short-term opportunism, allied with a capacity for self-delusion which made Walter Mitty appear unimaginative, often plunged the government into chaos. Worse still, when things went wrong he imagined everyone was conspiring against him. He believed in demons, and saw most of his colleagues in this role at one time or another."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandBritish peersLabour Party (UK) politiciansDemocratic socialists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Denis Healey, The Time of My Life (1989; 1990), p. 331
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harold_Wilson
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1976. He had an impressive educational background, becoming an Oxford don at 21 and working as a war time civil servant; he was made a government minister immediately after he was elected to Parliament. As Leader of the Labour Party he moved the party towards a technocratic approach and appeared more in tune with the 'swi
85 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Harold Wilson →
Related Quotes
"Traders and financiers all over the world had been listening to the Chancellor. For months he had said that if he cou…"
"We cannot accept that this is a little local matter within the control of South Africa's internal affairs. Oppression…"
"A second devaluation would be regarded all over the world as an acknowledgement of defeat, a recognition that we were…"
"I have stated these Commonwealth problems in terms of hard economic facts, but I should be the last to disagree with …"
"We all know perfectly well why the Government are standing by their policy of the independent deterrent. The reason i…"
"This party is a moral crusade or it is nothing."
"The period of 15 years from the last time we were in Scarborough, in 1960, to the middle of the 1970s, will embrace a…"
"In all our plans for the future, we are re-defining and we are re-stating our Socialism in terms of the scientific re…"
"This odious doctrine of apartheid at 11-plus. ... We reject it because as a nation we cannot afford artificially to s…"
"The nation yesterday was awaiting a clear, statesmanlike call from the Chancellor of the efforts and, if necessary, t…"