I’m not sure if it is fair to call Ted Heath incompetent. I think he was probably overwhelmed by events. The sectarian violence in Northern Ireland was becoming worse by the day, and the government in Westminster didn’t really know what to do about it. British industry was of course performing poorly. One of the reasons for this was bad industrial relations. The trade unions must take a lot of the responsibility for this. The British public wasn’t ready for a confrontation with the unions in the early 1970s, so there wasn’t that much Heath could have done.
I think it is obvious that Harold Wilson couldn’t have handled this better. Despite the strong ties that existed between Labour and the unions they were unable to halt the strikes that crippled British industry when they got back to power.
I think, although I could be wrong, that Harold Wilson actually did manage to calm the situation with the Trade Unions during the mid-seventies, although the government's pay policy unravelled spectacularly in 1979 (which partly helped propel Thatcher to victory in that year's election) under Callaghan. Also, it should be remembered that during the latter part of the seventies, in certain cases, Union leaders actually found it quite hard to restrain their own members, so the Union's themselves shouldn't receive all of the blame. I may be wrong, but that's what I've read anyway.
