Anthony Crosland

Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 1918 – 19 February 1977) was a British

Having served as

When Labour returned to power he served as

Early life

Crosland was born at

From June 1960, Crosland played an important part in the establishment of the Campaign for Democratic Socialism, a right-wing grassroots group within the Labour Party, created, in part, as a response to the debates around the Left's advocacy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and Clause IV.^[3][4] However, Crosland was against Gaitskell's attempts to change Clause 4.^[5]

1963 leadership election

Even though they were from the same wing of the party, the thought of the Labour Party being led by the volatile George Brown appalled Crosland, but he also was a critic of Harold Wilson for his apparent lack of principles. Just over two years earlier Wilson had challenged Gaitskell for the party leadership. Crosland nominated and voted for James Callaghan in the leadership contest caused by Gaitskell's death on 18 January 1963. He rationalised his decision to back Callaghan on the basis that "We have to choose between a crook (Harold Wilson) and a drunk (George Brown)". However, Callaghan was eliminated after obtaining 41 votes, the margin in votes between Wilson and Brown in the final ballot. With Callaghan eliminated, Crosland's second wife wrote in her 1982 biography, he voted for George Brown in the second ballot, although with zero enthusiasm, and with little interest about the result, as he was opposed to both of the candidates now standing for the party leadership. Wilson won by 144 votes to Brown's 103 on 14 February 1963.

Although critical of Harold Wilson, and angry with him for his 1960 challenge to Gaitskell for the party leadership, Crosland respected him as a political operator. Under Wilson, Crosland was first appointed Brown's deputy in October 1964. In November 1964 Crosland and Brown told Wilson and Callaghan that ruling out devaluation was a mistake in the face of the economic crisis then under way. However, Crosland was not Brown's deputy for long.

In government

On 22 January 1965, Wilson appointed Crosland

Grammar schools controversy

The ongoing campaign for

In October 1966, a committee of ministers in the Labour government decided to increase university fees for overseas students. Two months later Crosland announced their decision which treated Commonwealth students for the first time as if they were foreign. Widespread protests, which erupted immediately, soon united a large number of influential people from across a wide spectrum from left-wing militant students to mildly conservative vice-chancellors.[10]

1967–1976

Crosland subsequently served as

Crosland was seen as a leader and intellectual guru of the "right wing" or "

After Labour's return to power in March 1974, Crosland became Secretary of State for the Environment. He was instrumental in changing Transport policy on British Rail to be a higher fare fast intercity passenger service rather than its previous role as a general freight common carrier. 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.

According to

Crosland’s ideas continued to be almost unchallenged and dominated the Labour governments of 1964–1970. [...] [T]he Labour Government which came into office in 1974 edged back towards a Croslandite position. [...] [I]f any ideas or policies could be said to have characterised Mr Callaghan's very matter-of-fact and cautious government, they were the continuation of an approach which Crosland had set out in 1956.^[11]

Crosland's time as foreign secretary was dominated by the

Early in his life Crosland had numerous gay affairs, including allegedly with Roy Jenkins.^[14][15][16] He later described the relationship as "an exceedingly close and intense friendship."^[17]

Crosland benefited from the patronage of Hugh Dalton, who, in 1951, wrote to Richard Crossman: "Thinking of Tony, with all his youth and beauty and gaiety and charm... I weep. I am more fond of that young man than I can put into words."^[18] According to Nicholas Davenport,^[19] Dalton's unrequited feelings for Crosland became an embarrassing joke within the Labour Party.

Crosland married Hilary Sarson in November 1952, divorcing after five years, though the marriage had effectively ended after a year. Crosland had numerous affairs with other women. He remarried on 7 February 1964 to Susan Catling, an American from

After losing his seat in 1955, he wrote (as C.A.R. Crosland) The Future of Socialism which was published in autumn 1956. This became a seminal work for the moderate British left. (A revised 50th anniversary edition was published in 2006.) In the book he outlines the need for 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.

Labour revisionism was a powerful ideological tendency within the Party in the 1950s and 1960s, taking intellectual sustenance from the Crosland book, and political leadership from Hugh Gaitskell. The goal was to reformulate socialist principles, and bring the Labour Party policies up to date with the changing British society and economy. Revisionism rejected the view that socialism ought to be primarily identified with the ownership of the means of production. That meant that continuous nationalisation was not a central goal. Second, was a series of political values focused on personal liberty, social welfare, and equality. Themes of destroying or overthrowing the rich and elite were downplayed in favour of policies of high taxation, more widespread educational opportunity, and expanded social services. Revisionists insisted on the necessity of a market-oriented mixed economy with a central role for capitalism and entrepreneurship.^[25][26]

Crosland was himself an active member of the Fabian Society, contributing to the New Fabian Essays collection, which saw the emerging generation of Labour thinkers and politicians attempt to set out a new programme for Labour following the Attlee governments of 1945 to 1951. In the 1951 essay "The Transition from Capitalism" he claimed that "by 1951 Britain had, in all the essentials, ceased to be a capitalist country" as a result of the establishment of the welfare state.^[27] In particular, Crosland wished to challenge the dominance of Sidney and Beatrice Webb in Fabian thinking, challenging their austere, managerialist, centralising, "top-down", bureaucratic 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".

Two further books of essays by Crosland were published: The Conservative Enemy (London, Cape, 1962) and Socialism Now, and Other Essays (London, Cape, 1974).

Death

Crosland and his wife bought a converted mill at

His papers are held at the London School of Economics.^[28]

See also

• Eduard Bernstein
• Roy Hattersley
• Reformism
• Dick Leonard

References

Further reading

• Crosland, Susan. Tony Crosland (Cape, 1982),
  ISBN 978-0-224-01787-9
• Francis, Martin. "Mr Gaitskell's Ganymede? Re‐assessing Crosland's the future of socialism", in Contemporary British History 11.2 (1997): 50–64.
• Jeffreys, Kevin. Anthony Crosland (1999),
  ISBN 978-1-86066-157-0
• King, Stephen. 2018. The Ministerial Career of Anthony Crosland 1964–1977. PhD thesis, Newcastle University.
• Kogan, Maurice. "Anthony Crosland: intellectual and politician", in Oxford Review of Education 32.1 (2006): 71–86.
• Leonard, Dick, ed. Crosland and New Labour (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999),
  ISBN 978-0-333-73990-7
• Leonard, Richard Lawrence. Crosland and New Labour (Macmillan, 1999).
• Lipsey, David, and Dick Leonard, eds. The Socialist Agenda: Crosland's Legacy (Cape, 1981),
  ISBN 978-0-224-01886-9
• Meredith, Stephen. "Mr Crosland's nightmare? New Labour and equality in historical perspective", in British Journal of Politics and International Relations 8.2 (2006): 238–255.
• Nuttall, Jeremy. "The Labour party and the improvement of minds: the case of Tony Crosland", in Historical Journal 46.1 (2003): 133–153.
• ISBN 978-0-316-85547-1
• Reisman, D. A. "Anthony Crosland on equality and state", in Journal of Income Distribution 7.2 (1997): 161–173.

Primary sources

• The Tony Benn Diaries – Out of the wilderness 1963–1967 (1987, Hutchinson)
  ISBN 978-0-09-958670-8

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Anthony Crosland.

• Tony Crosland papers LSE Archives
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Anthony Crosland
• Portraits of Anthony Crosland at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency	Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire 1950–1955	Succeeded by Frederick Corfield
Preceded by Kenneth Younger	Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby 1959–1977	Succeeded by Austin Mitchell
Party political offices
Preceded by Baron Faringdon	Chairman of the Fabian Society 1961–1962	Succeeded by Mary Stewart
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 Anthony Greenwood as Minister of State for Housing and Local Government	Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning 1969–1970	Succeeded by Peter Walker as Minister of State for Housing and Local Government
Preceded by Geoffrey Rippon	Secretary of State for the Environment 1974–1976	Succeeded by Peter Shore
Preceded by James Callaghan	Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 1976–1977	Succeeded by David Owen