Political Influence
At an after-dinner speech in Burnley on 8 January, Prime Minister Harold Wilson criticised those who were "complaining that the other fellow is not pulling his weight" including trade unionists who pointed to the failures of individual employers. Wilson declared "What we want is 'back Britain', not back-biting". Wilson, who later wrote that the campaign "was a helpful and robust response to the gloom and near-defeatism" after devaluation, put Edmund Dell, Under-Secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs, in charge of government assistance; Dell visited Colt on 8 January 1968, but kept his assistance largely concealed.
Cabinet minister Richard Crossman wrote in his diary on 7 January that the vigorously expanding campaign was a "political windfall", but that it was "something we should have nothing to do with". The Labour Party found itself in difficulty when it ordered 2,000 posters with the slogan "Back Britain with Labour" for local Labour Parties to display. After a complaint from a member of the Industrial Society the posters were withdrawn. The Industrial Society also reported resisting an attempt by the Conservative Party to "borrow" the slogan for political purposes.
Read more about this topic: I'm Backing Britain
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or influence:
“Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“If the contemplation, even of inanimate beauty, is so delightful; if it ravishes the senses, even when the fair form is foreign to us: What must be the effects of moral beauty? And what influence must it have, when it embellishes our own mind, and is the result of our own reflection and industry?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)