"Of course the Empire had to be wound up; but on top of Macmillan's strenuous but equally doomed efforts to stay at the top table as America's nuclear partner in the Cold War, these distractions — which, for all his complaints, Macmillan much preferred to more mundane problems nearer home — fatally diverted attention away from the reality of Britain's relative economic decline, in precisely the years when the rest of Europe was re-equipping itself and forging ahead. Macmillan's preference for globe-trotting was not compensated for by two of the least imaginative Chancellors of the post-war period, Derrick Heathcote Amery and Selwyn Lloyd. This was the true legacy Macmillan left to his successors. There was a good deal of truth in "thirteen wasted years"."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomPeople from LondonAutobiographers from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
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John Campbell, 'Conjuror at face value', The Times (22 June 1989), p. 19
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harold_Macmillan
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Harold Macmillan
1957 – 1963
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton OM PC (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative politician and publisher who served six years as Prime Minister (1957–1963). As Prime Minister, he worked to decolonize the British Empire in Africa and repair United Kingdom–United States relations after the Suez Crisis. He also led the Conservative Party to accept the post-war consensus of Keynesian economics and the welfare state. However, he was forced to resign by the Profum
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