Looking Back at No. 10

I have repeatedly been asked what are the main essentials of a successful Prime Minister. Over and above communication and vigilance, there are two factors. They are sleep, and a sense of history. A Prime Minister who can't sleep is no good. Without a sense of history, he would be blind. If you have ever been dead by lunchtime and even worse by nightfall--well, you know others have been through it before you and you can get a sense of perspective.

--Sir Harold Wilson,

The Governance of Britain

Two days after his surprise departure from No. 10 Downing Street last April, Harold Wilson started writing a longhand manuscript on the British prime ministry. This week his thin (207 pages) but thoughtful volume, entitled The Governance of Britain, will be published in London; it is scheduled for publication in the U.S. next spring. The book demonstrates, in many ways, the caution that marked Wilson's tenure. It offers no explanation, for example, for his abrupt retirement, and the chapter on national security is only one page, ending with the words: "There is no further information that can usefully or properly be added."

But as Wilson explains in his foreword, the book is primarily "aimed at describing how the British system of parliamentary and Cabinet government works, and identifying the essential differences in our system and presidential systems, such as that of the United States." In one telling anecdote, for example, he relates that in 1963 an American friend offered him $10,000 for his campaign to become leader of the Labor Party. He rejected it, explaining that the campaign would cost him virtually nothing; in fact, he recalls, he spent only eight old pence (about 90) for a couple of phone calls.

To get Wilson's firsthand impressions of the job he held longer than any other peacetime Prime Minister in this century (seven years and nine months), TIME London Bureau Chief Herman Nickel called on the former Oxford don at his small town house in Westminster's Lord North Street. Wilson, in shirtsleeves, opened the door himself. Apologizing for the mess of paper piled high on the dining table--the contents of his desk at No. 10--he ushered his guest into a cozy, wood-paneled living room. There he settled into an easy chair, lit his pipe and talked. Excerpts from the interview:

On the Advantages of the Parliamentary System. It's true that in the U.S. the President is elected for four years and barring ill health, death or something most unusual such as Watergate, he cannot be challenged during that period. On the other hand, even with a Congress of his own, led by his own party, he has no guarantee of getting his legislation through. Here in Britain, a single vote can decide whether a government stays in power or not, but on the other hand you can get your legislation through pretty well.

On the Role of the Monarchy. All I can say is that I would have found the job of Prime Minister a lot harder if there hadn't been a total separation between the head of government and the head of state. The fact that the Queen is above politics is one of the intangible advantages. The other thing is the continuity of the Crown and, in our particular case, the Queen's sheer hard work and deep grasp of every kind of national and international problem. You have an audience every week, lasting about an hour. She sometimes floors you--did floor me very early in my premiership--by referring to a Cabinet committee paper that she had read overnight and that I was saving for the weekend. I felt like some boy who had failed his examination. In Queen Elizabeth's case, she is not critical or quizzical but very active, and you are explaining why you did something to someone who is above the battle. It is very therapeutic and makes you think very hard.

On Watergate. The Watergate situation would never have occurred in this country. Even supposing that it had happened, within no time at all the parliamentary party, whether it be Labor or Conservative, would have got rid of its leader. They would have said "Enough is enough, we can't go on with this," and it would have been done just by people talking to each other in the tearoom or drinking a rather stronger drink in the Members' smoke room or the bars.

On Leaving Government. I've had no withdrawal symptoms at all. I thought I would miss Chequers [the Prime Minister's country residence], which is a wonderful place to work. But while I was there I was working so hard that I never got a chance to even go for a swim in the pool that was given to us by [former U.S. Ambassador] Walter Annenberg or to walk around the rose garden in beautiful weather. There was one thing I predicted I would miss--and I was right. That is the switchboard. It was first class. You picked up the phone and asked for someone, and you got him, no matter where. Now you've got to dial for yourself, and the only scar I got was a sore finger from doing my own dialing because I wasn't used to it.

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