(See Cover) It was 9:33 p.m. on a cold and foggy Saturday in Britain when the word first came. Much of the country was sprawled in stuffed chairs watching an old Doris Day movie (Midnight Lace) on the BBC. First there was a fragmentary bulletin that broke into the movie, then a delay in the scheduled 10:25 news while scriptwriters scram bled to get together details. In millions of living rooms up and down the length of Britain, people watched transfixed while a gay Latin American dance rhythm blared from the box, which went blank except for a slide advising:
"The News Is Coming Soon." The news came all too soon for once-proud Britain. After a week in which the long agony of the British pound reached a writhing climax, Prime Minister Harold Wilson's Labor government announced a cut in the pound's exchange value from $2.80 to $2.40—a 14.3% devaluation.
Despite all the headlines and all the talk during a long and hard week, Britons—and many others in the Western world—experienced a deep sense of shock at the news. Until the last minute, there were hopes and rumors that Britain would be able to free herself, at least temporarily, from the heavy pressures on the pound by getting a massive loan from its Western allies. After all, the pound is one of the two international reserve currencies (with the dollar), and its devaluation was bound to throw the West into a severe monetary crisis. Still, there it was. Growing crowds booed the police outside 10 Downing Street, and London's newspapers stopped their Sunday editions on the presses. It was Britain's biggest and worst news in many years.
"It is a black day for all of us," said John Davies, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, after emerging from No. 10. The Observer called devaluation "a brave act," but most of the British press took off after Harold Wilson's scalp. "This is D-day for Britain without the flags," said the Sunday Mirror. "The 'D' this time stands for disaster and disillusion as well as for devaluation." Since Wilson had consistently denied that he would ever devalue the pound, many Britons felt betrayed as well as disheartened. "I am quite shocked," said Sir Patrick Hennessy, chairman of Ford Motor Co. "I have personally told my business friends abroad that it would not happen. I could not believe that the government would go back on its statements."