{"id":39048,"date":"2024-07-23T03:12:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T03:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/former-prime-minister-harold-wilson-sold-papers-to-help-fund-his-care\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T03:12:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T03:12:36","slug":"former-prime-minister-harold-wilson-sold-papers-to-help-fund-his-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/former-prime-minister-harold-wilson-sold-papers-to-help-fund-his-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson sold papers to help fund his care"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"PAPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Harold Wilson led the country on two separate occasions, in the 1960s and 1970s<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson agreed late in life to sell his entire archive of personal and political papers to help fund his care, according to documents released by the National Archives.<\/p>\n

Lord Wilson initially planned to sell the collection to McMaster University in Canada for \u00a3212,500 \u2013 about \u00a3700,000 in today\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

He was suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s and required \u201ccontinuing care, the costs of which are heavy and will increase\u201d, according to one document.<\/p>\n

However, the proposal to sell the papers abroad prompted alarm among senior officials in Margaret Thatcher\u2019s government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In early January 1990, the Cabinet Secretary Sir Robin Butler wrote to another official, alerting her that Lord Wilson\u2019s former secretary, Lady Marcia Falkender, was \u201corchestrating a proposal\u201d to set up an archive for the former prime minister\u2019s papers in Canada.<\/p>\n

Part of the proceeds would support Lord and Lady Wilson who were \u201cnow not well off\u201d, as reported to Sir Robin by his predecessor Lord Armstrong.<\/p>\n

There was \u201cno enthusiasm\u201d for the sale among officials in the Cabinet Office, according to the files, with one pointing out that Lord Wilson’s papers were still subject to the so-called 30-year rule. <\/p>\n

Government papers are transferred to the National Archives, but remain closed to the public for a period of time before being eligible for release – 30 years in the 1980s, although that has since been shortened to 20 years.<\/p>\n

Episodes from Wilson\u2019s times could still have been sensitive at the time of the proposed sale. Only a few years earlier, Mrs Thatcher had tried to stop the publication of a book<\/a> claiming MI5 plotted against the Labour PM.<\/p>\n

Had the Wilson papers been sent to Canada, the 30-year rule could not have been enforced, according to officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Not really his to sell off’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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McMaster University wanted the archive to include papers from Lord Wilson\u2019s time at Number 10. The Labour leader had served two terms as prime minister, from 1964 to 1970 and then between 1974 and 1976.<\/p>\n

Sir Robin thought it would cause \u201cpublic disquiet\u201d if the papers left the country. Andrew Turnbull, Mrs Thatcher’s principal private secretary, said he was unhappy with the \u201cpolitics\/morality\u201d of such an idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough these are formally Lord Wilson\u2019s private papers\u201d. he wrote in March 1990, \u201cthey are part of our history, and, it will be said, they are not really his to ‘sell off'”.<\/p>\n

He said if Lord Wilson required additional care in his old age, the Labour and Trade Union movement should support him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lord and Lady Wilson pictured in 1965<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Nonetheless, that summer the cabinet secretary explored ways to support Lord and Lady Wilson. He wrote that \u201cthe case of a former prime minister fallen on hard times in this way seems a very sad one\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was told the \u201cspecial funds\u201d available to the current prime minister could not help. He then tried the Parliamentary Pension Scheme, to see if its Hardship Fund could assist. A government briefing note also suggested raising the pension for former prime ministers.<\/p>\n

However, the rise proposed was just \u00a35,000 per year.<\/p>\n

Lord Armstrong had been helping Lady Falkender. In November 1990 she told him the Wilsons were \u201cdelighted\u201d to hear of the pension rise, which would \u201cclearly help in their day-to-day lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the sum was \u201cnot in any way comparable\u201d to that being offered by the Canadian university.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A solution is found<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Lord Armstrong had suggested it would be \u201cunseemly\u201d for the papers to leave the country. <\/p>\n

Lady Falkender responded: \u201cThere has been too much suffering of one kind or another for \u2018seemliness\u2019 or \u2018unseemliness\u2019 to enter into it any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the money from the papers would be \u201chelpful\u201d just as the sale of \u201ca house, a piece of art, or a diamond brooch might be\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet Office was told there was no legal obstacle to the sale.<\/p>\n

But by July 1991, an alternative solution had been reached. The Trustees of the Wilson Archive had found anonymous donors, who would fund the Bodleian Library in Oxford buying the papers.<\/p>\n

The money would go to the trust set up for the Wilsons’ benefit.<\/p>\n

They would stay in the UK \u2013 and in a secure location. Before then, Lord Wilson had been storing his archive in the basement of the National Car Parks building in central London, thanks to the company chairman, one of his \u201cloyal supporters\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lord Wilson died in 1995, aged 79.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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PA Harold Wilson led the country on two separate occasions, in the 1960s and 1970s Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson agreed late in life to sell his entire archive of personal and political papers to help fund his care, according to documents released by the National Archives. Lord Wilson initially planned to sell the collection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[72,6138,14419,1184,513,1183,3841,4165],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39050,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39048\/revisions\/39050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}