Great Britain: Thin Margin for Harold

When Harold Wilson introduced his controversial wage-price freeze in July, his worst fear was that the move might alienate the chief source of his government’s strength: the unions. So, as the powerful Trade Union Congress convened in Blackpool last week, the Prime Minister put his case to the delegates.

“Our measures are not aimed at unemployment,” Wilson insisted, “but at redeployment”—releasing workers from less critical industries for jobs in export or other important fields (see WORLD BUSINESS). By any name, it sounded to the T.U.C. brothers like joblessness (which climbed by 52,558, to 316,714, in the last four-week period), and a groan rumbled through the old Blackpool opera house. Wilson insisted on compliance with the wage standstill. “We have taken action,” he said. “Now we have the right to ask for your free and willing assent to what the national interest requires.”

After two days of hectic debate, the T.U.C. gave Wilson the best he could reasonably expect: reluctant acquiescence to his wage-price freeze. But the narrowness of his victory was disturbing: with nearly 9,000,000 proxy ballots cast, he scraped through with a margin of only 344,000, or 4% .