PM Harold Wilson, UK and JWs. Anyone know if this headline was to be taken literally? Satire?

[JW Insider]

I am not trying to sell an item on eBay. This item has been listed up there for quite some time, and the seller is in the UK. 

I was only wondering if anyone knew why the reference to JWs was on the cover. Did he actually say something like what's on the cover?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155110296118

The description. says: The front cover features Harold Wilson - Wislon Joins Jehovah’s Witnesses. Wilson is saying: “I cannot be a Christian and Prime Minister". 

Note that they spelled Jehovah's Witnesses correctly, but not Wilson.

The Awake! mentions him a couple of times:

*** g74 8/8 p. 30 Watching the World ***
Church and State
◆ The recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, now heads the (Episcopalian) Anglican Church of England. Embarrassingly, a Methodist appointed him! Why? That is the religion of England’s prime minister, Harold Wilson, whose duty it is to make such appointments.
 

*** g74 5/8 pp. 11-12 What Hope for Britain’s Economic Recovery? ***
The Campaign
The Conservatives (Tories), led by Heath, campaigned under the slogan, “Who Rules Britain?” They claimed that militant union extremists were bent on imposing their will on the nation in defiance of Parliament. Heath asked the country’s voters to return him to power with a strong majority in Parliament, to give him authority to deal with the problem of inflation.
His Labour Party opponents, led by Harold Wilson, lost no time in calling it a phony election, telling Mr. Heath that, in spite of a working majority in Parliament since 1970, he had signally failed to deal with inflation. They castigated his campaign against union militants as a “Reds under the bed” campaign meant to scare the unwary into line.
Throughout the three-week campaign an endless stream of opinion polls consistently put Heath’s Conservatives in the lead, with Labour a few percentage points behind. An unexpected element was the steady resurgence of the Liberal Party, which, after fifty years in the political wilderness, was shown to be gaining substantial support.
 

As an aside, this makes me wonder if the Awake! would ever return to doing long (4-page) articles reporting on various political issues and campaigns. 

[George88]

Private Eye is the UK's number one best-selling news and current affairs magazine, offering a unique blend of humour, social and political observations and investigative journalism.

Private Eye Issue: 203 Date: 26 September 1969

Is the magazine comparable to tabloid or satire? Harold Wilson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Wilson

Domestic affairs
The 1964–1970 Labour government carried out a broad range of reforms during its time in office, in such areas as social security,[34] civil liberties, housing, health, education, and worker's rights.[39]
It is perhaps best remembered for the liberal social reforms introduced or supported by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins. Notable amongst these was the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality and abortion, reform of divorce laws, the abolition of theatre censorship and capital punishment (except for a small number of offences — notably high treason) and various pieces of legislation addressing race relations and racial discrimination.

At issue, sarcasm.

*** g70 8/8 p. 29 Watching the World ***
Poll Takers Wrong
◆ Not since Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey for the United States presidency have poll takers been so wrong in an election. They had predicted certain victory for Labor Party candidate Harold Wilson over Conservative Party candidate Edward Heath for prime minister in Britain’s elections. While the pollsters tried to explain away Heath’s victory, the New York Times observed: “The truth is that they flopped.”
 

[JW Insider]

17 minutes ago, George88 said:

At issue, sarcasm.

Seemed like sarcasm or satire. I have never seen the magazine. But the author may have known our take on neutrality, or thought it was well-known enough to make use of as the key to the satire. If people didn't know that JWs were neutral and didn't hold political offices, then this line would potentially fall flat.

To me, then, it showed that the author knew JWs pretty well something beyond no war and no flag salute. Otherwise, I was thinking there might have been something more specific in the article that tied something he said or did to JWs. 

[George88]

30 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

To me, then, it showed that the author knew JWs pretty well something beyond no war and no flag salute. Otherwise, I was thinking there might have been something more specific in the article that tied something he said or did to JWs.

I don't think it was meant to suggest any connection to Jehovah's Witnesses, apart from drawing a comparison between Wilson's policies and a JW mindset. I don't remember the Watchtower ever endorsing homosexuality, as the recent decision by the Pope. So, the humor lies in the comparison. The satire is purely in the humor drawn from the comparison.

[George88]

SIX DECADES OF JOKES AND JOURNALISM