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Local Authorities and the Making of Social Policy

can dominate their departments, even those handling complex technological and scientific issues, like Defence, as well as more traditional departments like Education where Lord Butler overruled official opposition to his plan for a new Education Bill, or the Board of Trade where Mr. Crosland overturned Stansted as London’s third airport. A striking omission by Mr. Wilson is any discussion of what he did between August 1967 and April 1968 as the head of the Department of Economic Affairs. He tells us only that he took over this responsibility. Mr. Macmillan relates that occasionally he acted on behalf of a minister if ill or on holiday, but never was he in charge for a long period. It would be interesting to know just what were the consequences of Mr. Wilson’s assuming responsibility for the D.E.A.-if any. The ways in which the ex-prime ministers have organized their books influences our perception of their activities. Mr. Macmillan takes a topic by topic approach which gives the impression of relatively ordered development of government policy and prime ministerial attitudes. Mr. Wilson is strictly chronological. He vividly shows the prime minister confronted by various and simultaneous crises, arising haphazardly and calling for his fleeting attention. He responds spasmodically to events which he can hardly control. Mr. Macmillan refers to the sudden squalls which batter a prime minister: some incident occurs which hits the headlines and arouses the public, the opposition and the party. Whereas Mr. Wilson felt compelled to be involved in them all. Mr. Macmillan seems more economical in the expenditure of his energies; in any case he admits that many of the problems of politics are insoluble, whereas Mr. Wilson is more optimistic that somewhere is an answer. The press of events, the sheer number of issues and their complexity, are beyond the capacity of one man, and his few advisers in the private office, to control. In one or two areas a prime minister may be able to make an impact with a personal policy, but while he devotes himself to a narrow field, other items are being settled by his colleagues, and even in his chosen area he has to carry his colleagues with him. The main lessons from these various books are that prime ministers are limited and that this country is governed by a genuinely collective executive, the cabinet. The statement that the prime minister is only as strong as the cabinet lets him be is not trite nor tautological, it is true.