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CABINET PAPERS
Complete classes from the CAB & PREM series in the Public Record Office
Series Three: CAB 128 & CAB 129 - Cabinet Conclusions & Cabinet Memoranda, 1945 and following

Part 6: The Wilson Government, January 1969 - May 1970

Publisher's Note

New Annual Releases for Cabinet Minutes and Memoranda are now available directly from Adam Matthew Publications.

The Public Record Office and Adam Matthew Publications are now working together to offer access to the records documenting the highest level of British government as they are released. Adam Matthew Publications Ltd have already made available all of CAB 128 and CAB 129 (Cabinet Conclusions and Memoranda) from 1945 to 1968. These are offered in five parts as follows:

Part 1: The Attlee Government, August 1945-October 1951
Part 2: The Attlee Government, August 1945-October 1951
Part 3: The Churchill and Eden Governments, October 1951-January 1957
Part 4: The Macmillan and Home Governments, January 1957-October 1964
Part 5: The Wilson Government, October 1964-December 1968

The issue of new parts will follow the same pattern. That is, Part 6 will cover the remaining documents from the Wilson administration, from January 1969 to May 1970. Part 7 will cover the Heath administration from June 1970 to March 1974.

However, rather than waiting until all of the files for an administration are released to publish the part, these parts will be published year by year in annual instalments as soon as they are made publicly available.

This guide covers Part 6 which comprises a total of two annual instalments for January 2000 and January 2001. Part 7 will be published in a total of five annual instalments in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

A detailed listing and guide for each part will be published in the year in which the final instalment occurs and issued free to all customers. Until such guides are published, temporary finding aids will be issued.

The size of each annual instalment is unknown for certain until the day of release due to the secrecy enforced by the Thirty Year Rule. As such, Libraries now have a choice of purchasing plans:

  • To wait until all the documents for a particular administration are published and the exact reel size is known and purchase the entire run as before.
  • To place a standing order with an annual subscription and receive the material as it is released.

Details of current and future releases are as follows:

  • Part 6: The Wilson Government (January 1969-May 1970)
    2000 Annual Update covering 1969 releases
    2001 Annual Update covering 1970 releases
  • Part 7: The Heath Government (June 1970-March 1974)
    2001 Annual Update covering 1970 releases
    2002 Annual Update covering 1971 releases
    2003 Annual Update covering 1972 releases
    2004 Annual Update covering 1973 releases
    2005 Annual Update covering 1974 releases

CAB 128 and CAB 129 represent the highest level of British governmental documents recording the minutes and memoranda of the weekly Cabinet meetings held by the Prime Minister and his senior Ministers. These documents form the apex of the whole governmental and Civil Service structure; of the thousands of documents generated by the machinery of government and its many departments, only the most important and highly concentrated reached the Cabinet. As a result the material in CAB 128 and CAB 129 provides an excellent and unique resource for scholars; providing material that represents the core issues facing the government of the day, stripped down to the bare essentials and free from superfluous detail. This clarity of purpose and the succinct nature of the documents will be especially useful for academic studying Post-war Britain and the problems faced by successive governments.

Providing the complete run of Minutes and Memoranda for the remainder of the Wilson administration, (January 1969-May 1970), Part 6 contains documents relating to both the ongoing business of government, such as the economy, defence, international relations, as well as material on the Divorce Reform Act, the Matrimonial Property Act and the abolition of the death penalty.

1969 was the year that witnessed Barbara Castle’s attempts to introduce trade union legislation in her In Place of Strife proposals. The resulting arguments split the Labour Party and almost brought down the Wilson government. Having survived the In Place of Strife crisis, the summer of 1969 brought fresh problems for the government in the form of rioting in Northern Ireland. In August the first British troops arrived in the province to assume security responsibilities. Although initially welcomed by Catholics in the province, their presence would soon become resented as a symbol of British occupation and would spark off nearly thirty years of bitter armed struggle.

By 1970, Harold Wilson had been Prime Minister for six years; the last four years had seen his administration become increasingly unpopular with the British public. In the run-up to the 1970 General Election, Labour’s poor economic and political history gave fodder to the Conservative’s Election Campaign. The devaluation of the pound, wage inflation, Britain’s trade deficit and her role in the Vietnam War were the main issues causing concern amongst the British voters. When the country went to the polls on 18 June, the Conservatives won with a majority of 330 seats to Labour’s 287.

The Minutes and Memoranda for January-May 1970, cover the final months of the Wilson Administration: On the home-front, CAB 128/45 covers the Abolition of British Standard Time, the Free Vote on Abortion, the re-organisation of the Health Service, the controversial dock-workers pay negotiations (one of several documents concerned with wage increases in general), the financial future of Britain’s ship-building industry and the draft White Paper for Britain’s application for membership of the EEC. Internationally, dissension in the leadership of the Soviet Union, situation reports on Laos, Cambodia and Nigeria and the result of elections in Rhodesia, are also featured.

Although many records are still subject to extended closure, CAB 128/46 provides a brief insight into Harold Wilson’s electoral arguments for deferring tough measures that the economy needed, until after the General Election. Fearful that a clampdown on wage inflation might provide an economic crisis requiring further measures of restriction, Wilson wrote:

"If the Labour Party were then returned to power, it would no doubt be distasteful to have to reintroduce a policy of restriction immediately thereafter; but this situation would have to be faced. If, on the other hand, they lost the Election, they might do so by only a narrow margin; and in that case the Conservative Party, who would then constitute the Government, would have to shoulder the responsibility for dealing with the potentially inflationary problem which they would have inherited...”

CAB 128/46 covers most Confidential Records. A large quantity of the material contained in these records has been categorised as ‘highly sensitive’ and remains closed to research.

CAB 129/147-149 looks at:

  • the Annual Review of the Agricultural Industry, 1970
  • the Pay of School-Teachers in England and Wales
  • the Motion for Murder (Life Imprisonment) Bill
  • the Election Business Committee
  • Concorde

These Cabinet minutes and memoranda for 1969 and 1970, give scholars a unique opportunity to reassess events and to judge the performance of Wilson and his Ministers in their final days of power.

Records for the period June-December 1970 are also available from Adam Matthew Publications, in the first instalment of Part 7: The Heath Government (June 1970-March 1974).

Details of existing and future projects


Part 1: The Attlee Government, August 1945-October 1951
Part 2: The Attlee Government, August 1945-October 1951
Part 3: The Churchill and Eden Governments, October 1951-January 1957
Part 4: The Macmillan and Home Governments, January 1957-October 1964
Part 5: The Wilson Government, October 1964-December 1968

Part 6: The Wilson Government, January 1969-May 1970

  • 2000 Annual Update covering 1969 releases
  • 2001 Annual Update covering 1970 releases

Part 7: The Heath Government June 1970-March 1974

  • 2001 Annual Update covering 1970 releases
  • 2002 Annual Update covering 1971 releases
  • 2003 Annual Update covering 1972 releases
  • 2004 Annual Update covering 1973 releases
  • 2005 Annual Update covering 1974 releases

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