Overview
Concluding what has become recognized as one of the most significant and revealing political works of the century, volume three of the Crossman Diaries examines the eventful, difficult years 1968-1970, when the Labour Government rules precariously, despite a luxurious majority of 64. Eventually, as one set-back after another confronts an administration that is running out of steam, Crossman and Barbara Castle plead with the Prime Minister to confide in his Cabinet friends instead of resorting to hole-in-the-corner discussion of national issues with a 'squalid' kitchen coterie at No. 10.These years see Richard Crossman back in harness as a departmental minister. The introduction of a complex pension scheme and the reorganization of the National Health Service are now his main concern, but his vision is far from narrow. The crushing of the 'Prague Spring', the dawn of the Nixon Presidency, international explosions of university unrest, the dangerous Middle Eastern stalemate – all these preoccupy him. Early signs of an ailing economy press a Labour Government to tackle issues that are profoundly unpopular with Labour's traditional supporters. Lords' reform is abandoned, ostensibly to give time for Barbara Castle's industrial relations legislation, dropped, in turn, in the face of determined trade union opposition. Jim Callaghan struggles to contain the gathering momentum of trouble in Northern Ireland; Roy Jenkins wrestles with the 1970 Budget. An Iron Chancellor, taking unpalatable but necessary measures, risks putting the Tories back in power before the year is out.When it comes, however, Conservative victory in the June election is less than expected and the margin narrow. Harold Wilson retires from the spotlight to write a memoir of his premiership. Crossman himself moves to the editor's chair at the New Statesman , taking on the way, a last detached look at the six-and-a-half tumultuous years he has chronicled. His historic record, full of life and insight, providing a unique inside view of the unwhitewashed muddles and failings as well as the hard-earned achievements of a government in office, is thus brought to a close.