WI: Harold Wilson vs Margaret Thatcher?

He'd been in the public eye as Leader/PM for over a decade by the time Thatcher took over the Conservatives. So the fatigue of experience plus his declining health and the fact the rails were really starting to come off the Post-War settlement by the late 70s, I'd say he would probably lose. Though I imagine he would be smart enough to call an early election in '78, still probably lose. Should be remembered that Jim Callaghan was well liked and topped personal polls during the 1979 election if nothing else Wilson would be a weaker Labour leader on this front by that time. Saying that he might avoid the Winter of Discontent due to his savvy or could just as easily oversee it himself, he had started to slip quite a bit mentally and politically.

Even if he stays 'on game' into the 1980s, he's been at the top a very long time. Labour in this period were a lot less bothered about their leaders collecting cobwebs so its not impossible they'd keep him. Just unlikely he'd still have voter confidence as the same old problems carried on. He was known to have piques of radicalism (occassionally) so who knows maybe he could attempt to push through some industrial reforms as his legacy before he goes? Cuts the legs out from under the monetarists? It would take some luck and some health butterflies for him.
 
Seeing as Callaghan was personally quite a popular PM, and Wilson would have been leader for 15 years in 1978, I can't see him doing much better against Thatcher out of personal charm. If he had chosen to pursue In Place of Strife or something like it, then that might boost his popularity enough to win an early election in 1978 (which he would be more likely to call as he already had a respectable amount of time as PM under his belt, unlike Callaghan), but the subsequent backlash from the Labour left and the trade union right would be very difficult for even a man of Wilsons talents to navigate. There is a chance he could beat Thatcher, but probably a smaller chance than Callaghan had in OTL.
 
Wilson was elected in 1974 basically to negotiate the best surrender terms he could get with the miners. He accomplished that much but thereafter (like Heath before him) Wilson was in a weak position against the militant unions.

Neither he nor Callaghan was the person to take them on and win. If anyone, it had to be Thatcher, who, as education minister in the Heath government and leader of the Conservatives in opposition, had displayed energy, determination and strength of character. There was no guarantee that she would win against the unions but by 1979 the electorate had given up on Labour whose policy under Wilson and Callaghan -- appeasement -- had failed.
 
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