Word: ombudsman
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...will require further sacrifices from the entire country. The standard of living in Britain will fall in comparison to the U.S. and western Europe, and few voters will resist the temptation to blame Labour. Despite Wilsons appeal for "consent and consensus" and his support for housing subsidies and the Ombudsman, his popularity will decline...
...solution to government regimentation and pettifoggery. Last week, after a year of deliberation, New Zealand was pressing ahead with plans for a new, independent government official who will act as a civic watchdog in much the same fashion as the famed, 153-year-old Swedish institution known as the ombudsman, or grievance...
...envisaged in a bill before Parliament that is solidly backed by both political parties, New Zealand's ombudsman (pronounced om-boods-man) will have access to government records and power to investigate based or autocratic official decisions, as well as inequities in the law. To be known officially as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Investigations, he will be able to take action on his own or on the complaint of any citizen who, for a modest fee ($2.80), seeks redress from unfair treatment by officialdom...
Initially, at least, New Zealand's commissioner would not have the broad investigative powers of Sweden's ombudsman, notably the right to scrutinize judicial and local government procedures. Furthermore, he will be required to hold preliminary hearings in private, although in Sweden, Finland and Denmark, the ombudsman's strongest weapon is the widespread, chastening publicity that results from open investigation. To critics who want more powers for the commissioner, the government replies that when the first grievance man is appointed-probably by year's end-his effectiveness will not depend so much on his legal prerogatives...
Over their port and cigars in London, parliamentarians and barristers were impressed by the efficiency and economy of the ombudsman system. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan promised to give the matter "careful" study. Labor's Hugh Gaitskell concurred. But other M.P.s were quick to point out that the ombudsman system would cut across the primary sources of parliamentary authority and power. They thought that what would work in the more placid arena of Scandinavia, with its tradition of dispassionate counselors such as Dag Hammarskjold. would not do so well in the bigger and more contentious British setting...