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Richard Crossman

The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister

University of Leeds

Richard Crossman's Diaries of a Cabinet Minister (published in three volumes, 1975-77) give a detailed and vivid account of the life of a Cabinet minister and the inner workings of the Whitehall machine and of Harold Wilson's Labour government in the 1960s - coloured, however, by Crossman's own strong personality and opinions. Controversially blowing away conventions of Cabinet secrecy, the diaries paved the way for later moves towards more openness about the process of government. The article shows how the evidence of the diaries served to undermine the simplistic notions of ‘prime ministerial government’ propagated by Crossman and others. Crossman's ambition to write ‘a new Bagehot’ - a classic, landmark and defining book about the British political system - was never fulfilled. Ultimately, Crossman's legacy is that of a gadfly critic and a maverick insider, not a major constitutional thinker.

Public Policy and Administration, Vol. 18, No. 4, 20-40 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/095207670301800403


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