Outbluffing the Outraged

Mr. Wilson could have convinced the Titanic's passengers that hitting an iceberg, though unplanned and unfortunate, would eventually lead to valuable improvements in navigation and ship design.

--Manchester Guardian

Wilson could get away with ordering the massacre of the firstborn.

--A former Wilson Minister

Such comments, however hyperbolic, are apparently well deserved. Last week, as Britain's Labor Party gathered amid the fading Victorian splendors of the North Seaside resort of Scarborough, Prime Minister Wilson turned what might have been a repudiation of his policies into a rousing personal endorsement. Harold Wilson may not be invincible, but he is certainly inventive. Few British Prime Ministers have man aged to make so many problems seem like golden opportunities.

Wilson arrived in Scarborough in the midst of the worst slump since he led Labor to power in 1964. Despite his efforts, the economy remained stagnant (see BUSINESS). Unemployment, at 555,000, was the worst in 27 years, and the trade gap continued to widen, endangering the stability of sterling. Wilson was under attack from just about every faction in his own party--old-line socialists, because he has resorted to Tory-style restrictions on consumer credit and travel allowances; trade unionists, because he has imposed a freeze on wages; intellectuals, because he seemed only concerned with pragmatics; left-wingers, because he supported the U.S. policy on Viet Nam.

Fortunately for him, Wilson had some help at Scarborough. Chancellor of the

Exchequer James Callaghan, 55, took on the task of softening the 1,206 delegates on the crucial economic issue. Bright and incisive, yet unmistakably working-class, Callaghan buttressed his own claim to the No. 2 spot in the Labor Party by successfully presenting Wilson's unpopular deflationary policies as the only sensible way to deal with the "mess" left over from 13 years of Tory rule. Though self-taught in economics (his education ended at the secondary level), Callaghan has a thorough grasp of world finance, and he explained the necessity of tough measures in a common-sense way that appealed to the Laborites. He is thus invaluable to Wilson as the most effective defender of the government's policies. By a narrow 122,000 votes out of 6,300,000 ballots, the party accepted Callaghan's explanations.

Blurred Issues. As for Wilson, he chose to ignore the unpleasant pence-and-shillings aspects of his policies. Instead, he launched into a 60-minute defense of his socialist achievements. "We have stopped the slide to social inequality," he said, adding that he had switched resources from defense to social services--"the right priority for a socialist government." Outlays for education, health and social security had increased by 45% under his stewardship. Unemployment? He hardly deigned to use the word. "We reject the creation of a permanent pool, as they say, of unemployment. Our whole policy is to secure full employment and to secure it on a permanent basis."

On other issues, Wilson won a 2-to-l endorsement of his plan to join the Common Market, though the chances of British entry were somewhat diminished by a Common Market Commission report that criticized the weakness of the pound. Wilson lost on Viet Nam, when the party, by a narrow margin, ordered him to disassociate Britain from U.S. actions there. But no matter; Wilson was almost certain to ignore the injunction in order to maintain his good relations with President Johnson.

No Grand Plan. Wilson may have conned his party--he got a thunderous standing ovation--but it would be harder to convince his countrymen. Britain's mood is one of drift and doubt. While everyone agrees that Wilson faces severe problems with Britain's low productivity, featherbedding unions and stodgy managements, a feeling persists that he has failed to come up with any grand plan that might produce a lasting solution. According to the London Daily Mail's latest poll, 80% of the electorate feels that the government is not doing well on the economic front. Wilson's own popularity has fallen to its lowest level since he took office. If elections were held today, so the polls say, the Tories would win by almost as huge a margin as Wilson's own 97-seat landslide 18 months ago.

The catch is, of course, that Wilson is most unlikely to call elections much before his present term expires in 1971. By then, he hopes that Britain's economy--and his popularity--will have revived. In the meantime, his problem of riding out the storm is made easier by the fact that the opposition has proved unable to produce a leader who could capitalize on his failures. Tory Chief Ted Heath has proved to be so ineffectual and lackluster that only 35% of Britons rate him as doing a good job. No matter how unpopular a course he may set, Harold Wilson thus remains the undisputed master of his ship.

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