Titans and pygmies

Nobody with even a passing interest in British politics could fail to notice the sharp decline in the calibre of our parliamentarians

You probably won't agree with all of Mr Embery's policy prescriptions, but he will force you to think outside your usual political grooves — Wall Street Journal

A LABOUR prime minister on his way out of number 10. Potential successors jockeying for position. An appointments scandal. A major economic crisis looming.

No, this is not 2026. It is, in fact, 1976.

For it was half a century ago, almost to the week, that Harold Wilson sailed off into the sunset, sparking a leadership election in his party and causing a stir with the inclusion among his resignation honours (the famous ‘lavender list’) of one or two dodgy names.

Our present-day PM, almost certainly on the last leg of his own premiership and embroiled in a controversy over one of his own high-profile appointments, could be forgiven for believing that history was repeating itself.

Not least because the impending economic catastrophe may wreak as much havoc as the IMF crisis did for the Labour government and country back then. However, just as Wilson departed before the worst of the storm broke, so Starmer is unlikely to be at the helm when it does so again this time around.

Wilson, of course, wasn’t pushed out of the door. In fact, his sudden resignation came as a complete shock to his party and the country. Starmer will almost certainly not enjoy such a luxury.

And that isn’t the only difference between then and now. Just consider the list of candidates in the election that followed Wilson’s departure.