In the course of an interview on I.T.V.'s "This Week" on Thursday, November 23, Prime Minister Harold Wilson made this extraordinary confession;
"Of course every government makes mistakes. We have made a number.... The biggest mistake, I would feel is that I, at any rate we, underrated, if you like, the power of speculators at home and abroad, even when our balance of payments was improving as it was last year, to put the pound in jeopardy and take short-term measures that were injurious to the country.
"Yes, I think that was our biggest mistake. But we have now decided to get right to the root cause of the problem that the pound can be speculated out of existence."
That anyone who, like Mr. Wilson for some strange reason does, consider himself a socialist, should not be aware of the activities and the power of international finance speculators, is almost incredible. But if Mr. Wilson had any doubts about this he could always look up one or two of his own speeches. He need not even bother to go to the original sources for some of his previous orational gems have been assembled for us by Tariq Ali in "The Thoughts of Chairman Harold" (The Gnome Press - 3/6). The following quotation from "Hansard", 3rd August 1961, shows that Mr. Wilson was not always so naively unaware of the activities of the international banking fraternity.
"I hope that the Prime Minister will not think me too hag-ridden by references to 1931 if I conjure up the possibility of a situation in which perhaps, our exports do not increase as much as it is hoped and we go to Europe in a weak condition, needing economic assistance, and in which the central bankers of Europe tell us that we must change our financial, economic and perhaps social policies before they will give the assistance. The bankers of 1961 might become a central bankers ramp. Now I do not think that this is entirely imaginary. It is a possibility just as much under a Conservative government as under a Labour government and I hope that the government are taking it seriously."
On another occasion, Mr. Wilson dealing with Selwyn Lloyd's credit squeeze budget said, (Hansard, October 28 1955)
".....he has to impress the international monetary speculators with confidence that there is not a crisis likely to affect sterling...... With low reserves and the danger of a crisis of confidence, the right hon. gentleman has to go to extraordinary lengths to impress the foreign speculators.
".....The foreign market is now dictating the Chancellor's economic and social policy on the home front; and every time he comes along and carves off another hunk of flesh from the Welfare State and throws it to the wolves to buy time for a few months.....But it does not solve the basic problem."
The Wilson of those days had some idea, not only of the problems but also of the solution. In 'Tribune' (November 13, 1953) he said:-
".....however important finance may be, manipulation of the financial system can never be a substitute for socialist policies in trade and industry, nor the use of taxation and monetary policy a substitute for public ownership of the key sectors of industry."
Right you are Mr. Wilson! As your financial manipulations have failed how about trying the socialist solutions now. There is no other way out of the crisis!