Word: crossman
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...Crossman died in 1973 and left behind him a set of political diaries that presented a "graphic and authentic" picture of behind-the-scenes workings of the Cabinet intended to expose the myths of Cabinet government with the same devastating accuracy Walter Bagehot had levelled against the myths of constitutional monarchy a century earlier...
...Crossman arranged for the publication of these diaries and before he died had been assured by lawyers that there were no legal obstacles. As his chief literary executor he selected Michael Foot, a fiery figure of the Labour party's left and someone strong enough, Crossman felt, to stand up to Harold Wilson. The Sunday Times of London published two series of excerpts from the diaries before Wilson intervened to quash them. Claiming that he acted on the advice of impartial civil servants, Wilson instructed his attorney-general to seek an injunction against further publication of the diaries...
...legal issue involved in the Crossman case was the common law issue of prior restraint, an area in which British courts tend to be less concerned with protecting public acess to information than American ones. Hovering in the background, though not officially invoked, was the Official Secrets Act of 1940, passed under wartime conditions and giving the government broad powers to muzzle publication...
...memoirs, though the Cabinet could not impose any legal strictures. As a current Cabinet Minister, however, Foot was bound by the doctrine of "collective responsibility" to follow the advice of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary. Faced with the alternative of resigning from the Cabinet or retreating on the Crossman diaries, Foot predictably chose the latter alternative...
...Wilson so anxious to suppress what Crossman had to say? Crossman's revelations were not exactly bombshells. He portrays the Cabinet as an ill-informed, impotent group of all-too-human Ministers concerned mostly about maintaining their own power and prestige, but these observations were neither unprecedented nor earth-shaking. It seems that what forced Wilson to take action was Crossman's version of factual events--a version that contradicted Wilson's own--and the influence this might have on the left wing of the Labour party, restive and ready to bolt at any sign of weakness on Wilson...