Anthony Crosland

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Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 1918 – 19 February 1977) was a British politician and Labour member of Parliament — as well as being a socialist theorist.

Educated at Highgate School and Trinity College, Oxford, Crosland served as a parachutist in Europe during the Second World War. He obtained a First Class Honours degree and worked as an Oxford University Don tutoring Economics between 1947 and 1950. He entered Parliament in February 1950, being elected for the South Gloucestershire constituency. He held that seat until the 1955 General Election. Crosland wrote the book The Future Of Socialism in 1956 in which 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 returned to the House of Commons in 1959 for the 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. Under Harold Wilson, Crosland served as Secretary of State for Education and Science (1965–67) and President of the Board of Trade (1967–69).

The ongoing campaign for comprehensive education in England and Wales gained a major boost with Circular 10/65 in 1965, 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[The right to a comprehensive education''], Second Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, given by Prof. Clyde Chitty of Goldsmith's College, 16 November 2002. It was an urgent personal crusade for him, though the educational results have been a source of controversy in succeeding decades. It is often claimed that he said "if there's one thing I do, I will smash every fucking grammar school in the country", probably when he was Education Secretary from 1965–67. 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, published in 1982.

He was seen as a leader of the right wing of the party in the 1970s, and after Labour's return to power in 1974, he 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. He switched his support to the eventual winner James Callaghan who duly rewarded him by appointing him Foreign Secretary in April 1976.

Crosland died in Oxfordshire Royal Infirmary at 5.40am on 19 February 1977, after suffering a massive cerebral hæmorrhage six days before. He never regained consciousness.

His reinterpretative approach to socialism foreshadowed Tony Blair's creation of New Labour in the 1990s.

See also

• Tony Blair
• Charles Clarke
• Third Way

References