The 'Juggernaut Method
The 1966 State of Emergency and the Wilson Government's Response to the Seamen's Strike
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12239648 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kenneth E Thorpe (Hong Kong Metropolitan University, corresponding author), K THORPE |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 461-485 |
| Publication date | 2001-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Twentieth Century British History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0955-2359 • E-ISSN: 1477-4674 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/tcbh/12.4.461 |
| OpenAlex | W2073992774 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
In May 1966, in response to a strike by the National Union of Seamen, Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared the first state of emergency in Britain for over a decade. This article considers why he felt obliged to take such action and how it fitted into a package of measures aimed at countering the strike. These measures culminated in his claims of communist influence on the union, which helped to bring the strike to an end but triggered hostility towards Wilson from within his party and the trade union movement. Furthermore, the article considers, why, given the immense emergency powers assumed by the government, it was so ineffective in ameliorating the hardships caused by the strike and what implications this had for people throughout the UK. Despite being personally content with the outcome, this was to prove a pyrrhic victory for Wilson given the ongoing difficulties facing the British economy and the bitterness he had provoked among Labour supporters
Communism · Economics · Emergency response · Government (linguistics · Labour economics · Political science · Politics · Prime minister · State (computer science · State of emergency · Trade union · Victory · Australian History and Society · Irish and British Studies · Medicine · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Law · Public Administration
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |