HAROLD WILSON’S

widow, Mary, who died this week aged 102, was once offered £30 for the publication of one of her poems. She refused because she felt it was wrong to benefit from her connection to Downing Street. What a noble stance compared with the venal behaviour of some of her successor spouses in No. 10. Mary Wilson had an admirable independent streak, too — not always voting Labour, supporting CND and defying her husband by voting against Britain’s membership of the Common Market in 1975.