This Sunday BBC Parliament will be broadcasting a series of programmes to mark the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 devaluation of the Pound by Harold Wilson's Labour Government. It is hosted by veteran broadcaster Cliff Michelmore, in his first TV appearance for fifteen years. During the evening they will be broadcasting archive editions of The Money Programme, Panorama amongst others from the period, as well as contemporary interviews with key players from the world of politics and economics from that time. These include Peter Jay, Nigel Lawson, Roy Hattersley, John Cole and Denis Healey and reveal many of the splits and confusions at the heart of government.
The programmes go out from 6pm to midnight on Sunday. Just thought you might like to know.
43 comments:
Looking back, what is remarkable about that time was how innocent we all were. Imagine what would happen today if a Prime Minister went on the telly and said: "From now on the pound is worth 14pc less on the foreign exchanges. That does not mean, of course, that the pound in your pocket or in your purse or in your bank has been devalue."
I was 11 and remember it well. I could not understand the significance of this at the time, but to older generations the value of the pound against the dollar was a line that could not be crossed. I will watch with much interest.
Just realised that you have the date wrong. It is 18th Nov that devaluation took place. I am pretty sure.
Thanks for bringing this to your readers, this sounds like a goody !
How does one get BBC Parliament? Freeview stopped it a few weeks ago. It is also annoying that Freeview has stopped the History Channel at 6PM.
40 years? Thanks Iain for reminding me how old I am.......
Freeview still broadcasts BBC Parliament- they had an evening on the Gunpowder Plot on 5th November that I watched on my Freeview box!
Have you rescanned the available channels on your box (assuming it's disappeared)?
Fred - I think you can get to it on the internet via the BBC News 24 site
Paul Linford misquotes. "From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent. or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean that the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse, or in your bank, has been devalued". It was of course quite wrong to read into this either a denial of the fact of devaluation or of its inflationary effects, as Ted Heath disingenuously did, because the rest of Wilson's broadcast was about nothing else.
In context the meaning is clear: Wilson had been a cabinet member at the time of the 1949 devaluation when many people thought their bank accounts would be automatically cut by the amount of devaluation, or that the entire Sterling currency would have to be withdrawn and reprinted. He wanted to reassure people that they would still be using the same pound notes and that it was a technical measure which only directly affected the foreign exchanges.
Typical lowdown Tory trick taking his words out of context, in other words.
One thing that stands out when looking at old BBC footage very quickly. Is how much the BBC has changed and also stayed the same.
Even back in the 60-70's myself and my family always considered the BBC to have a distinct leftist agenda, but then it was subtle and often very cleaver.
However in those days the BBC was far more diverse and reasonable in its party political coverage in particular.
Now days it might as well be the propaganda wing of the New 4th Reich. Any objective observer would conclude this after being subjected to no more then ten seconds of virtually any BBC output.
The BBC these days plays the party politics and the in your face mind control game like no other major TV channel in Europe or even possibly the whole damned world. This fact is self apparent for anyone with a cable TV connection and a half free, half interested mind.
Propaganda of the BBC kind is the worse type there is, which is the incredibly over tax payer funded corporate state fascist sort. Its not so much what they say, its the countless other vitally important things the BBC does not even attempt to say, that is so wickedly dishonest and therefore vastly dangerous to the ordinary people of this country.
David, your argument rather falls down when you realise that Paul Linford is a Labour supporter.
It was this event that made me realise why Labour was not fit to govern and from that point I became what is now known as a Thatherite. Labour had to borrow from the IMF to keep us afloat and the IMF insisted that Labour cut back on spending (or investment as they like call it now). We are slowly going down this road again by spending what the country cannot afford. The same medicine will have to be taken again.
Doesn't change my argument in the slightest. Paul Linford did misquote, and Harold Wilson did not want for enemies in the Labour Party. As for the rest I was just getting the truth in first before the deluge of lies which is about to follow from the merry band of Tories who comment here.
Such as Johnny Norfolk who has confused 1967 with 1976 and the unnecessary IMF loan.
BBC Parliament is up and working on Freeview, channel 81, as I write this. Several channels moved a few months ago and you need to update your list.
david boothroyd [12.10 AM] Unfortunately Wilson was already regarded as a conniving little oik, so his unwise phraseology merely served to confirm what people already thought of him.
Your exegesis is like the man himself: a little too clever.
David you really take the biscuit sometimes. I'll leave aside the bit about me being a "typical lowdown Tory" as Iain has already answered that one, but how even someone who takes tribal party loyalty to the point of absurdity can defend Harold Wilson's conduct in the '67 crisis is beyond me.
The "pound in your pocket" quote, whatever the exact words which were wrapped around it, was an outrageous piece of spin designed to systematically mislead the British public. He got away with it partly because we were still at that point in the age of deference and people simply believed what their political leaders told the, and partly because we were much less politically and economically literate then. The point of my post was to point out that he would absolutely never have got away with today. I can't believe even you think that devaluation was "a technical measure which only directly affected the foreign exchanges." If you do, you must be as naive as most of the population were back in '67.
David Boothroyd is right about the correct meaning of Wilson's remark.
Wilson subsequently revealed that the civil service had provided him with a draft and that sentence was the only one he didn't change.
I wonder how the coming sterling crisis of 2008 will be presented?
The events of 1967 should have been borne in mind by the incumbent government. It has mismanaged gold reserves to the point of farce, the underlying state of the economy is terrifying. And Boothroyd has no comment at all about the current state of affairs.
I can recall Wilson's words very clearly as they were broadcast on the World Service that morning. However, we'd already discovered from the local cafe in Aden exactly what that did to the value of our Pounds - 14% less purchasing power when buying the usual breakfast coffee and rolls. So, as so often, Wilson was dissimulating - a fine Socialist tradition which continues even to the present day.
Is this to prepare us for the next sterling crisis?
Labour has always been bad with the economy. Now they are devaluing the currency through the printing of fiat money at a 14% rate. The US rate is 6% and look at the mess they're in. Next year is going to be very interesting. I predict Brown will loose his propaganda fueled image as being a sound manager of the economy. I can't wait.
As it's my birthday on 18th of November, I think I will have better things to do than watch it...
You wouldn't be forgetting that the reason for the eventual devaluation of the pound, which Wilson had tried desperately to stave off for three years, had more to do with the fiscal policies of the Conservative Government he defeated in 1964, and the shambolic governments of Churchill, Eden and Douglas-Home. To attribute the devaluation to Labour just because it happened while they were in power is as ridiculous as saying that his 'pound in the pocket' speech was misleading, when he talked about nothing but the likely inflationary effects the decision would have.
You blues are astonishing sometimes.
@ The Force
Never mind the events of forty years ago - has NuLab learned anything from the past ten years or so of shambolic mismanagement? Why do you think taxes continue to rise and ever more new taxes suddenly appear?
The latest new tax? Speeding fines to increase by £40 - a huge percentage. Yet another of Brown's stealth taxes. Does anyone seriously believe this is to do with road safety?
NuLab will shortly be presiding over a bankrupt economy entirely of its own making.
Didn't say you were a "typical lowdown Tory", Paul, just that you had fallen for a typical lowdown Tory trick in misrepresenting Harold Wilson - the second greatest Labour Prime Minister. And tribal party loyalty is a good thing of which we have precious little in these days. A bit more loyalty towards Harold Wilson from members of the Labour Party today would be very welcome.
Wilson did not distort. He was himself distorted horrendously by Heath and you have fallen for it. Or are you saying that the currency was withdrawn and reprinted in 1967 and it's been censored from the history books?
"the second greatest Labour Prime Minister"
Talk about damning with faint praise...
Hilarious!
That's a new one for the BBC.....showing a repeat only 9 days after today's devaluation of the British economy
Fortieth anniversary ?
Jesus, I'm old !
the force [12.01 PM] You say: 'To attribute the devaluation to Labour just because it happened while they were in power is ... ridiculous.'
Hmm. By the same token, to attribute the sale of our gold reserves at the bottom of the market just because it happened while Gordon Brown was at the Treasury is ridiculous. Or am I missing something?
FAO Paul Linford -
Ben Bernanke (Federal Reserve chairman) said something very similar to Wilson this week in defence of the falling dollar.
This time it will not be the pound against the dollar we should be concerned about because that currency is fucked as well. If fact both currencies are fucked already,as so it the Euro which is why we do not yet realize how relatively poor we are going to become.
The crunch comes when China, which now not only underpins our own manufacturing prices.
(Which speaking as a British manufacturer China has been keeping down my profits to an completely unsustainable inhuman level for many years.)
Starts to want to live in the real world with the rest of us.
Which I am sure was in the deal made by Nixon 30 odd years ago.
Do we all seriously think that a country that produces virtually all the domestic products we now rely completely on, is going to want to stay shit poor forever??????
And unlike Japan there is no other even half organized country than China in the know universe that can take over, the "WORKING FOR NOTHING FOR NOW BUT NOT FOREVER GAME."
On the BBC TV World Business Review programme yesterday (Friday)the closing item was about some black singer or other who demanded that he/his royalties be paid in euros rather than dollars. The presenter's (Tanya Beckett, I think)throw-away closing line was words to the effect: "What a good idea. Perhaps we should all be paid in euros".
Is she trying to tell us something?
As Chris Paul will probably say: "this is sloppy blogging, Iain"!
Have you given up on us? Regurgitating an old blog (complete with its old comments) is not what we expect from you. A reminder of the original topic - fine. But just re-posting with a date change is... well, sloppy.
Have you got your mind on other things - like your bid to take over Ann's seat?
I'm afraid that sad little Manchester Munchkin will make a lot of your lapse - for that is what I hope it is.
Quite prescient, considering we've just discovered that Northern Rock is now in hock to us, the taxpayers, for £30 billion at least. And no clear idea as to how or when we're getting it back.
http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/
This was a crisis, that wasn't even a crisis. Revaluation and devaluation are now part and parcel of any currencies daily life.
On the, 'Pound in your pocket' Wilson had been contacted by an elderly relative, who thought that the bank was going to take away 14% of her savings. He attempted to reassure people that this wouldn't happen, it was totally and wilfully misinterpeted.
Thos who crticise Wilson, 'In place of Strife' being his biggest disaster, should remember what followed, 'Heath' was a real disaster.
We will not need any reminder-- It is about to happen again-- THere will be weeping and nashing of teeth-- Labour will get total Blame-- Cameron will still be dogged with the Nasty Party-- AND Clegg will come to the front in a SEA CHANGE IN POLITICS.
has anyone else noticed that half the comments here were posted over a week before the actual story was?
:p
With Standard Life ignoring the Base Rate and hiking its Mortgage Rates, it looks like more Banks will follow next week. So much for the credibility of Gordons Independent Bank Of England, of which its Independence will collapse in parallel with the collapse of a tide of other Banks.
Interest Rates will rise whether the BOE likes it or not, as banks show their desperation to cover the costs of offering cheap monies of the past 10 years. The Market will rule and Houses will crunch in value down by a massive overshoot of 40% on todays values. Unemployment will follow, with massive cutbacks in Local Government Posts. The Labour Party will evaporate as the worst economic management in living memory. This is based as we all know on borrowing, cheap money and Tescoised cheap Chinese Imports. Get ready for 20 years of the 21ST C ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOCICAL DEPRESSION.
A bit negative Fred?
"It is hosted by veteran broadcaster Cliff Michelmore, in his first TV appearance for fifteen years."
Not 16 September 1992, by any chance?
Well Jeremy , what do you see happening, after all we are talking about a modern day Devaluation.
The modern day evaluation will take the form of a run on the pound and into the Euro- and nobody can deny that will put us in the Shit.
I wonder if Paul Linford knows how much a pint of beer or loaf of bread cost prior to devaluation and then some time after?
Did it affect the domestic consumer as much as present day Tories (3 times losers) would wish?
Didn't black wednesday (or glorious wednesday) devalue around 10% for Major?
Why do we pay more taxes? To pay for our ever expanding NHS system.
To pay for our new schools everywhere!!
Socialism and the re-distribution of Conservative wealth, Ahhh, don't you just love it!!!
Harold Wilson the second best PM. (presumably meaning Labour).
Clement Atlee is by far and away the best PM ever. Go for Winston if you wish, I shall not argue.
But it is what Clement did at home and abroad (post empire) that is truly remarkable and so for political technicians, it must always be the book worm that wins.
Gary
Someone above said Wilson "got away with it". He didn't as he lost the following election in 1970, just as Labour did after the IMF debacle in 1976 and Major lost after the ERM debacle in Sept 1992. In all three cases economic management/policy improved afterwards but the electorate never forgives economic humiliation.
It remains to be seen how many billions the present Government will need to lose in Northern Rock before that becomes a similar case. They have lost nothing yet, but, my goodness it's going to be difficult to get their £20 billion back unscathed.
By the way, the BBC presenter's aside that they should ask to be paid in Euros is typical (possibly unconscious) subtle bias. It plants the idea that the euro is a better currency than sterling and, by implication, that we should have adopted it. Mark the presenter down as another enemy of all things Tory. No surprise there then but, to end where I started, how do THEY get away with it?
Post a Comment