FT254

On 22 August this year, The Times published the latest episode in the long-running saga of “Why did Harold Wilson resign as Prime Minister in 1976?”

The fascination this story appears to have for sections of the media is curious, as we have known for many years from his closest confidants that Wilson resigned because he was basically knackered; and, specifically, because his memory was deteriorating and he was afraid that he might have what we now call Alzheimer’s disease (a cond­ition from which Wilson’s father had suffered). [1]

This is too prosaic for some, though, and they keep looking for the secret scandal that they know must be the real explanation for Wilson’s departure.