Assess the Extent to Which the Wilson Government Achieved Its Objectives by 1970 Essay

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Assess the extent to which the Wilson Government achieved its objectives by 1970
To assess the Wilson Government which ran from the years 1964 to 1970 you have to look at what the Labour government promised to achieve if they won the election in 1964. You have to look at what the changes the Wilson government brought forward in their time in office and how the personalities of its politician’s effects decisions made. The election campaign in 1964 was a close run contest even though there was a low public approval of the current Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. The labour party only won a majority of 3 seats. The reason for the decline in support for the Conservative party was because of events and scandals such as the Profumo affair
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This was seen as a turning point in the Wilson government in which the public had a growing distrust about the government’s capability to fix the economy. In 1966 Wilson called a General Election in the aim of increasing his parliamentary majority, The Election was called for March 1966 and The Labour Party was victorious and increased their majority from 3 to 96. The Wilson Government had many difficulties in the period from 1966-70 with the difficulty with the trade unions due to economic problems leading to tension. Wilson believed that increasing inflation and Britain’s balance of payments deficit presents major treats to economic progress, wages and salary increases much be kept more in check. A prices and incomes board was established to regulate pay settlements. The trade unions hoped that the Wilson government would bring those benefits and they resented being lectures and told to be reasonable. This failure with the trade unions set back government objectives and the economy took heavy blows. The government was hit with a series of industrial strikes and disputes which included the National seamen’s strike in 1966 and the Dockers’ strike of 1967. The Wilson government was running out of ideas on how to control the economy and in November 1967 devaluation of the Pound was introduced. This was because of the deficit being so large that Wilson had asked for another loan from the IMF,