Crossman, Richard Howard Stafford

Crossman, Richard Howard Stafford (1907-1974), British politician, journalist, and diarist. Crossman started out as a left-wing academic, one of the University of Oxford's most inspiring philosophy tutors, and author of several books including Plato Today (1937). Actively involved in Labour Party politics from the early 1930s, he left the university, lost a by-election and, in 1938, became assistant editor of the New Statesman, a position he held until 1955.

During World War II, Crossman worked for the government's propaganda and psychological warfare divisions, and was awarded an OBE in 1945. He then became a Labour Member of Parliament. Perhaps because colleagues were wary of his mighty intellect and middle-class background, neither Clement Attlee nor Hugh Gaitskell promoted him. He supported Aneurin Bevan, then Harold Wilson, and in 1964, when Labour won the general election, he became Minister of Housing and Local Government. Crossman was a success and was made Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons in 1966, where he originated the Commons departmental select committees.

After Labour lost the general election in 1970, Crossman spent two difficult years as editor of the New Statesman before settling down to edit his diaries, which he had been keeping since the early 1950s. The diaries recorded behind-the-scenes accounts of the government as both major and minor events took place. Their serialization in The Sunday Times in 1975 (just after Crossman's death) caused the Labour Attorney-General to try to prevent their publication in book form. The attempt failed, however, and they were published in three volumes between 1975 and 1977, described by one reviewer as "a unique account, uncommonly detailed, uncommonly lively, uncommonly thoughtful, and uncommonly outspoken, of what a Cabinet minister does".