'Back Home' - Mexico 70, Heath, Ramsey, Wilson & the final puncturing of the myth of 'English exceptionalism'

The summer of 1966.  England had made good on the promise that Alf Ramsey made upon his appointment as the national team manager and become World Champions.  The Beatles and The Rolling Stones led a 'British Invasion' that topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and Harold Wilson's Labour Party secured a historic landslide victory.  It seemed that Wilson's Britain was set to be at the forefront of the 'White Heat' technological revolution he had proclaimed three years earlier and that Ramsey's England side had claimed the position many had long felt was rightfully theirs - in spite of a great deal of evidence of the contrary! - as Champions of The World.Four years on, both Ramsey and Wilson were faced with a fresh test of their credentials.  The England national side (for the first and to date only time) entered Mexico 70 as World Champions and as ever, England expected.  Both the gentlemen of the press and Ramsey hypothesised that the squad assembled in 1970 was even stronger than that which had won the World Cup in 1966.  As the tie-in record released in the build-up to the tournament 'Back Home' stated "they ('the folks back home') think we're the greatest, that's what we've got to prove once more".If the period between the two tournaments had represented the national side's 'Arcadia' period, the Wilson government had found the intervening years much more tumultuous - In 37 by-election contests that took place between 1966 and 1970 Wilson’s government was defeated in almost half - and the furore surrounding the devaluation of the pound in 1967 threatened to undermine the Wilson government terminally.On the eve of the World Cup, the canny populist Wilson was fearful of the impact that a poor showing from England could have on his electoral prospects 'Back Home'.  However, he was buoyed by the fact that his opponent Ted Heath (who like Ramsey and Wilson had risen from humble beginnings to lead the Conservatives) appeared to lack the common touch and ability to connect with the electorate.In this, the third episode of our World Cup mini-series, Chris and Nathan explore the linkage between England's fortunes in Mexico and the political situation in the UK during this period.