Lots of people calling for state owned banks these days. Picking winners, directing industry: Nationalisation of coal, gas, electricity, steel and the railways by Labour heralded deeper political intervention. Harold Wilson went further after moving to Downing Street in 1964, talking ambitiously about a technological revolution and the creation of groups with a global reach

I am catching the Scillonian out of Penzance this morning, off for a week on St Mary’s. The picture shows Harold Wilson on St Mary’s in 1964, the former Labour prime minister played a very important role in promoting tourism to the islands.

Harold Wilson was perfect at the Dispatch Box during PMQs- slick, shallow, cunning and meretricious, says Bruce Anderson.

Harold Wilson was perfect at the Dispatch Box during PMQs- slick, shallow, cunning and meretricious, says Bruce Anderson.

Ed Miliband’s lack of backing for trade unions on strike on 30th June disappointed some, but in fact no Labour leader has ever backed strikes. It is worth looking at how Harold Wilson handled the miners’ strike of 1974, where Labour won a general election against all expectations. Wilson was a politician with extraordinary talent, who won three

In 1997 New Labour was not just a domestic programme; it was a foreign policy too. Known as the "Neue Mitte" in Germany, Blair's Third Way soon attracted such converts as the German chancellor, the French prime minister and the Danish leader. In the end, it produced few results for Britain, failing – much as Harold Wilson did in the 1970s – to curry favour for the UK thr...

Remember this? Harold Wilson once said that “a week is a long time in politics”, a decade then must be a lifetime. Ten years ago the United States and Great Britain could not have been closer, united by the events of 9/11 and the close friendship between Tony Blair and George W. Bush; the closest

"The Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing" (Harold Wilson, 1961) "Ours is a moral cause ... I speak of a new moral purpose" (Tony Blair, 1999) All the commenters seem to be praising my friend Peter Watt's post - that says we are wrong to cast moral judgements at our opponents. I'm at severe risk of coming across as up myself but I have to say I disagree. I have met Tories who are pursu...

By Mark Seddon, from Left Futures “If a week is a long time in politics”, as Harold Wilson once said, two weeks away from politics on paternity leave is clearly an age. Ed Miliband returns this week to Parliament after a fortnight helping to change nappies, only to find that some on his own front bench

by James Bloodworth It may sound far-fetched today, but when troops and tanks suddenly appear at Heathrow, when private armies are openly talked about; and when the support of the Royal Family is being canvassed, we are not far from the abyss. 36 years ago Harold Wilson’s government faced assailment from all sides. Wilson, slandered by the