Anthony Crosland

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The Rt Hon Anthony Crosland
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 8 April 1976 – 19 February 1977
Preceded by	James Callaghan
Succeeded by	David Owen
Born	29 August 1918
Died	19 February 1977
Political party	Labour

Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 1918 – 19 February 1977) was a a member of the British Labour Party and an important socialist theorist. He served as the Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire and later for Great Grimsby. Throughout his long career he occupied the cabinet positions of Secretary of State for Education and Science, President of the Board of Trade, Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning and Foreign Secretary. His reinterpretative approach to socialism foreshadowed Tony Blair's creation of New Labour in the 1990s.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Return to Parliament 3 Inner Cabinet 4 Personal life 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Tony Crosland was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex. His father Joseph Beardsall Crosland, was a Senior Official at the War Office. He grew up in North London and was educated at Highgate School, a prestigious public school as a day-boarder and Trinity College, Oxford. Crosland served as a parachutist in Europe during the Second World War after obtaining a 2nd class honours degree in 1940 in Classics.

After the war, Crosland returned to Oxford University and obtained a First Class Honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and was an Oxford University Don tutoring Economics. Notable names Crosland taught included Tony Benn, who he called "Jimmy" and Norris McWhirter and Ross McWhirter.

Crosland entered Parliament at the February 1950 general election, being returned for the South Gloucestershire constituency. He held that seat until the May 1955 general election, when he was defeated.

For Crosland losing his seat turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it allowed him to write the book The Future of Socialism published in the Autumn of 1956. In the publication he outlined the need for traditional socialism to adapt to modern circumstances — a context from which the use of the term "revisionism" has its origins in Britain, despite the gradualism associated with the Fabian Society since the end of the nineteenth century.

Crosland was himself an active member of the Fabian Society, contributing to the New Fabian Essays, which saw the emerging generation of Labour thinkers and politicians attempt to set out a new programme for Labour following the Attlee governments. In particular, Crosland wished to challenge the dominance of Sidney and Beatrice Webb in Fabian thinking, challenging an ascetic top down Fabianism with a more liberal vision of the good society and the good life, writing in the Future of Socialism that 'Total abstinence and a good filing system are not now the right signposts to the socialist utopia. Or at least, if they are, some of us will fall by the wayside'.

[edit] Return to Parliament

Crosland returned to the House of Commons at the 1959 general election when he was elected for the Great Grimsby constituency, which he would represent for the rest of his life. He was, like Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey, a friend and protegé of Hugh Gaitskell and together they were regarded as the "modernisers" of their day.

Crosland nominated, and voted for James Callaghan in the 1963 leadership contest caused by Gaitskell's death in January of that year. He rationalised his decision on that the fact that "We have to choose between a crook (Harold Wilson) and a drunk (George Brown)". However, 1963 was too early for Callaghan to make a serious leadership challenge and he was eliminated after obtaining 41 votes, the margin in votes between Wilson and Brown in the final ballot.

Even though they were from the same wing of the party, the thought of the Labour party being led by the very intelligent but volatile Brown appalled Crosland but he wasn't a fan of Harold Wilson either. With Callaghan eliminated, Crosland's second wife wrote in her 1982 biography that he voted for George Brown in the second ballot, although with zero enthusiasm, because it was an emotional impossibility for him to have voted for Wilson, who won by 144 votes to 103 on 14 February 1963. As a matter of trivia, Brown, Callaghan and Crosland would all later go on to hold the post of Foreign Secretary. Wilson being the only one not to do so. All four were present at Wembley Stadium when England won the World Cup on 30 July 1966, beating West Germany 4-2

Under Harold Wilson, he was first of all appointed George Brown's deputy in October 1964. Although Crosland was fiercely opposed to Brown being made party leader, a strong mutual respect developed between the two and they got on very well. In November 1964 Crosland and Brown told Wilson and Callaghan that ruling out devaluation was a mistake with regards to the economic crisis. However, Crosland would not be Brown's deputy for long.

[edit] Inner Cabinet

On 22 January 1965 Wilson appointed him as Secretary of State for Education and Science. Crosland became the youngest member of the cabinet, being later surpassed by Roy Jenkins, who was made Home Secretary at the end of the year.

The ongoing campaign for comprehensive education in England and Wales gained a major boost with Circular 10/65, which as a statute rather than a Government Bill was controversial at the time, although a government motion in favour of the policy had been passed in January 1965^[1]. It seemed to be an urgent personal crusade for him, reflected in the famous quotation "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to destroy every fucking grammar school in England. And Wales and Northern Ireland". The outcome has been a source of controversy ever since. Close associates such as Roy Hattersley have denied the probable authenticity of the quote, but the original source is Susan Crosland's biography of her husband. Another major educational change was that presaged by his speech at Woolwich Polytechnic establishing a 'binary system' of higher education, in which universities would be joined by polytechnic institutions which concentrated on high level vocational skills.

Following on from this Crosland served as President of the Board of Trade from September 1967 to October 1969. Then he became Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning until the election defeat of June 1970. He was deeply disappointed not to have been made Chancellor of the Exchequer after the November 1967 cabinet reshuffle which followed the devaluation of the pound. That job went to Roy Jenkins instead.

Crosland was seen as a leader of the right wing of the party in the 1970s. In April 1972 he stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party after Roy Jenkins resigned, but polled 61 votes of the Parliamentary Labour Party and was eliminated in the first round. The contest was eventually won by Edward Short who defeated Michael Foot. Crosland was embarrassed by the national press in January 1973 when it emerged he had been given a silver coffee that was donated by John Poulson, when opening a school in Bradford in January 1966.

After Labour's return to power in early March 1974, Crosland became Secretary of State for the Environment. He contested the leadership in March 1976 following Wilson's resignation, but polled only 17 votes and finished bottom of the poll. After his elimination, he switched his support to the eventual winner James Callaghan, who duly rewarded Crosland by appointing him Foreign Secretary on 8 April 1976.

[edit] Personal life

Crosland married in November 1952 to Hilary Sarson for five years before divorcing due to an unhappy marriage. He remarried on 7 February 1964 to Susan Catling, an American from Baltimore whom he had met in the late 1950's, and, in contrast to his first marriage, this was very happy and content.

Crosland was a keen football fan and an avid viewer of the Match of the Day. He supported two teams; he used to watch Chelsea when he was in London, and Grimsby when he was in his constituency. He insisted on taking Henry Kissinger to Blundell Park to watch Grimsby Town play Gillingham in late April 1976 when the two met for the first time. In December 1976, when Kissinger bowed out after the Republican defeat, he went with Crosland to watch a football match at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Crosland and his wife bought a converted mill at Adderbury in 1975 as well as having a home at Lansdowne Road in London. It was at Adderbury where he suffered a massive cerebral hæmorrhage on the afternoon of 13 February 1977 whilst working on a major foreign policy speech on detente and the Rhodesian situation. The speech was subsequently delivered by his successor David Owen to the Diplomatic Writers Association on 3 March 1977.

Tony Crosland died in the Radcliffe Infirmary Hospital on 19 February 1977 after being in a six-day coma. He was cremated two days later and his ashes were scattered at sea near Grimsby.

His papers are held at the London School of Economics.

[edit] See also

• Tony Blair
• Charles Clarke
• Third Way

[edit] References

1. ^ The right to a comprehensive education, Second Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, given by Prof. Clyde Chitty of Goldsmith's College, 16 November 2002

• Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey — Giles Radice, 2002, Little Brown, ISBN 0-316-85547-2
• "Anthony Crosland" - Kevin Jeffreys, 1999, Metro Books, ISBN 1-86066-157-2
• "Crosland and New Labour" - Dick Leonard (editor), 1999, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-73990-6
• "The Tony Benn Diaries - Out of the wilderness 1963-1967" - 1987, HUTCHINSON , ISBN.
• Tony Crosland - Susan Crosland, 1982, Cape, ISBN 0-224-01787-X.

[edit] External links

• Tony Crosland papers at LSE Archives

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Kenneth Younger	Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby 1959–1977	Succeeded by Austin Mitchell
Political offices
Preceded by Michael Stewart	Secretary of State for Education and Science 1965–1967	Succeeded by Patrick Gordon Walker
Preceded by Douglas Jay	President of the Board of Trade 1967–1969	Succeeded by Roy Mason
Preceded by None	Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning 1969–1970	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Geoffrey Rippon	Secretary of State for the Environment 1974–1976	Succeeded by Peter Shore
Preceded by James Callaghan	Foreign Secretary 1976–1977	Succeeded by David Owen