Thatcher vs Wilson

Assuming economic conditions remain the same with inflation getting further out of control and the unions going nuts then any Labour leader is going to lose. In fact Wilson is probably lose a lot worse than Callaghan, as the old and tired factor comes even more into play.
 
Wilson would have called it in 1978 before the winter of disconent remember Callaghan did the opposite of Wilson in a lot of instances the only inhibition he would have had would have been that he lost in 1970 when he called the election nearly a year early. Before fixed term parliaments came in usually prime ministers who went a year early won. I would have said it would have saved us from all the horrors of the Thatcher years but how would Wilson have dealt with the winter of disconent and the aftermath in office. I had assumed Wilson had resigned because he doubted that he could have held his party together much longer maybe a Wilson victory in 78 is the source of a new thread
 
If Wilson calls an early election, then he can probably skate by narrowly. He'll be in greater trouble if he waits until 1979. Callaghan was a personally popular PM, even if his policies weren't. Wilson was worn out and a tired face in the mid-'70s, a negative factor that would only grow greater by '78 or '79. Thatcher was new, innovative, and promising a greater future for the UK than Wilson had delivered.
 
how would Wilson have dealt with the winter of disconent and the aftermath in office

I think Wilson probably would have gone to the country in 1978, but would the Winter of Discontent have happened if he was still PM? There was no need to extend the pay cap for another year - inflation was well down and the economy was finally recovering. Callaghan believed the unions would do what he told them - I don't think Wilson would make that assumption, and would instead stick to the original 1974 agreements.

So, there wouldn't have been a breakdown in relations between the government and the unions, and there wouldn't have been a sudden head of pay claims and strikes in January 1979 (after the government was forced, in part by the Tories, to abandon the cap). Even if all the same strikes still took place, they'd be staggered from July 1978 to March 1979; and if the government has officially ended the pay cap, many of the public sector pay claims will be settled much earlier, without strikes and (because the private sector pay rises haven't got going yet) at lower levels.
 
Wilson v Thatcher

Britain was in such dire Straits in the late 70's that it wasn't a question of personalities that would deliver the change needed but philosophy. Labour had the characters ,Healy was far more charismatic than Geoff Howe and similarly Wilson would ege MAggie as she was in the 70's.
What labour couldn't do was face down the unions who had a strangle hold on the economy. Britain was a busted flush in the late 70's and only a radical plan and change of direction could deliver a way out. Callaghan was a consumate politican and negotiator but even he had no wriggle room with the situation. In 1979 we had 1.4m on the dole, by 1983 we had 3m+ on the dole. In 4 years we saw a radical increase in unemployment and misery in large parts of Britain and more was to follow with the privatisation of nationalised industries. The car industry at the time was producing unreliable vehicles very expensively. Inward investment did occur against the backdrop of old industries although in the case of the car industry the Nissan plant was built in Sunderland rather than the unionised and dominated West Midlands where cars had traditonally been made. If you dug coal, made steel, ships or british cars or relied on any of the above then you would no doubt have a different view to Maggie. Because the unions and managment in british industry had failed to adapt after the war and put off reform, closed shop practices and the like when the change came it was much worse than it could have been. Despite all the pinko lunatics dancing on her grave earlier this week its interesting to note that new labour, the coalition and the more successful economies in europe have adopted most if not all of her monetary policies. the countries that still have nationalised industries, over blown public sector workforces and radicla unions are the Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal in Europe.

RIP Maggie
 
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