MacMillan seemed to have lost his desire to stay in 10 Downing Street especially after the Profumo Affair had become public knowledge. His replacement caught everybody by surprise. At that time new leaders of the Conservative Party were appointed by the Magic Circle as it was often dubbed.
Any gambler would have placed large amounts of money on R A Butler or Reginald Maudling becoming the next Premier. A strong outside bet would have been Edward Heath. Instead the senior members of the Conservative Party contrived to make the Foreign Secretary Alex Douglas Home their leader. Perhaps any new leader would
have been hard pushed to win the general election, which had to be contested in 1964.Home was a man with many qualities as a diplomat or Foreign Secretary yet completely unsuitable to occupy 10 Downing Street. He was so uncharismatic that he was dubbed the Skull by the media. The hope had been that Home would restore confidence in a government rocked by the Profumo Affair and apparently devoid of ideas. Nobody in the Conservative Party was capable of countering the Labour Party's taunt of thirteen wasted
years.He duly lost the 1964 general election, his lack of charisma in stark contrast to the popular appeal of Harold Wilson. Whether or not either Butler or Maudling could have won in 1964 is a moot point. At that point in time Harold Wilson was arguably the most popular politician in Britain.
After that defeat the way in which his replacement Edward Heath was changed, all the party's MPs voted to pick their leader. Although Heath was less unappealing than Home he still only managed to win one general election out of four against Wilson.
He later resumed duties as Foreign Secretary during the Heath administration and took most of the credit for getting Britain into the EU, or the Common Market as it was known then.
Sir Alec Douglas Home died in 1995.
Bibliography
Childs D (1979) Britain since 1945- a political history,1979,Tonbridge printers limited,Great Britain
Hattersley R (1997) Fifty Years On, Abacus, London
Palmowski J (2008) Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary World History, Oxford
