ABSTRACT
Like his predecessors Wilson had to strike a balance between various sections of his party, disarm potential rebels by including them, and satisfy the aspirations of his rivals. The massive and mounting balance of payments deficit was Wilson's first major problem. Like many in the Labour Party, Wilson had been strongly critical of American policy in the Eisenhower era, especially over foreign policy. One of the innovations brought in by Wilson was to create a Ministry of Technology. Wilson's final major trial was the meeting of Commonwealth leaders. Inevitably, the main item on the agenda was the situation in Rhodesia. The Bill to reform the Lords was defeated by a strange alliance of left-wing and Conservative backbench opposition led, respectively, by Michael Foot and Enoch Powell. In some respects Britain was a franker, freer place to live than it had been even in the early 1960s, but the great plans for reform had not come off.
