12 FEBRUARY 1977, Page 1

Wilson's true legacy

Ever since Harold Wilson retired from office last year so rAelnarkably unscathed, it has seemed likely that the 'chilies heel of his continued relatively good standing w9ul4l be the seedy web of relations he had established TwhIth his 'Court,' and with Lady Falkender in particular. oi.'e explosion has now come—and a more squalid series h scenes, charges and counter-charges than those which ave hypnotised the British public (or at least the media) a recent days it would be hard to imagine. L Just which ingredient in the story is more trivial and warrible than another it is impossible to determine: the roness Falkender's ludicrous statement, rambling on Pliet,ulantly about how she had once had to clean Mr Joe e aines's coat in the Prime Ministerial bathroom, after a cieague had thrown whisky at him ; another acolyte a alrning that he had once had to 'throw Lady Falkender eerc'ss a room' to quell one of her tantrums; the demeandechur.of the former Prime Minister himself, talking of 'a trcated hatchet job.' All dignity, all maturity, even all cath seem to be absent from the whole grisly pantomime. Zr.tainlY someone is lying about the origins of the resigth'Ion honours list. And can it really be true, for instance, 'oat between 1970 and 1974 Wilson was paying Haines ease of my own pocket, non-deductible' ? If this was the mfldet must have made Mr Wilson a very poor man during those years. oe'Nievertheless much more serious things have been hapAftlfng in Britain this week than this festival of trivia. ter the brief respite of the IMF loan and the euphoria at the New Year that we had 'turned the corner,' there are suddenly all sorts of signs and portents that we are once again headed for renewed economic troubles. The rise in the wholesale price index of more than 3 per cent in one month is shattering. The foundations of the Social Contract are crumbling away almost day by day, as the Ford workers, Mr John Cousins and the Nottinghamshire miners all talk of a return to 'free collective bargaining' and the Contract having 'failed.' The TUC is preparing to lay down terms' for the next stage which are a complete parody of a contract—all concessions to be made by the Government, and none apparently by the unions at all.

Ever since the summer of 1975, when the temporary compromise of the Social Contract (Mark Two) was hastily cobbled together, it has been clear that the worst threat of all to Britain would arise when the unions once again sought to restate their claim to untrammelled power.

These problems are the true legacy of the Wilson era. And the real message of the Wilson-Falkender-Haines affair is simply that it reflects once again why we are today so immeasurably less equipped than we were to face up to such problems with any authority. We are still paying the price for those years when the heart and centre of the British political system was reduced to a seedy little twilight world, where ultimately all was reduced to the calculation as to whether a silly, hysterical woman was going to throw a scene or not, and whether the weak, vain little man who was our Prime Minister would listen w her.