Parties, people, and parliament: Britain's "ombudsman" and the politics of the 1960s

Journal of British Studies

Volumn 50, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 690-714

  O'Hara, Glen ^a  

^a OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79960680901     PISSN: 00219371     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/659634     Document Type: Review

References (178)

1. Donald Johnson, A Doctor Returns (London, 1956), 18, 31.
2. Robert Ingham, "Donald Johnson: The Last Liberal Imperialist," Journal of Liberal Democrat History 25, no. 1 (1999-2000): 31-33.
3. Donald Johnson, Conservative Government and a Liberal Society (London, 1955), 7-8.
4. Johnson to Walker-Smith, 12 December 1958, Johnson to Butler, 15 December 1958, Johnson to Heath, 18 December 1958, Donald Johnson Papers (hereafter Johnson Papers), series 3, file 1, London School of Economics (LSE) Archives.
5. "Mental illness (involuntary patients)," 19 December 1955, Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 5th ser. (hereafter PD), vol. 547, col. 1632;
6. "Hospitals, mental patients, certification," 1 December 1958, PD, vol. 596, cols. 817-18;
7. "Mental patients (treatment)," 8 February 1960, PD, vol. 617, cols. 26-27.
8. Donald Johnson, A Cassandra at Westminster (London, 1967), 194-96.
9. Frank Stacey, The British Ombudsman (Oxford, 1971);
10. Roy Gregory and Peter Hutchesson, The Parliamentary Ombudsman: A Study in the Control of Administrative Action (London, 1975).
11. Roy Gregory and Philip Giddings, The Ombudsman, the Citizen and Parliament: A History of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsmen (London, 2002);
12. Richard Kirkham, The Parliamentary Ombudsman: Withstanding the Test of Time, fourth report of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, 2006-7 session (London, 2007).
13. Rodney Lowe, "Plumbing New Depths: Contemporary Historians and the Public Record Office," Twentieth Century British History 8, no. 2 (1997): 239-65.
14. Kevin Grant, Philippa Levine, and Frank Trentmann, eds., Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire and Transnationalism (Basingstoke, 2007);
15. Wolfram Kaiser, "Bringing History Back to the Study of Transnational Networks in European Integration," Journal of Public Policy 29, no. 2 (2009): 223-39.
16. Pierre Rosanvallon, Counter-democracy: Politics in an Age of Distrust (Cambridge, 2008), 63.
17. Kevin Jefferys, Retreat from New Jerusalem: British Politics, 1951-64 (Basingstoke, 1997), 103-7.
18. B. Serota, "The Evolution of the Role of the Ombudsman," in International Handbook of the Ombudsman: Evolution and Present Function, ed. G. E. Caiden (London, 1983), 28.
19. Rudolf Klein, "Accountability in the National Health Service," Political Quarterly 42, no. 4 (1971): 363-65.
20. A. O. Hirschmann, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Cambridge, MA, 1970), esp. 42, 58,
21. Iselin Theien, "Exit, Voice and Loyalty: A Theoretical Framework for Exploring Consumerism," in Affluence and Activism: Organised Consumers in the Post-war Era, ed. Iselin Theien and Evan Lange (Oslo, 2004), 9-20.
22. Daniel Miller, "Consumption as the Vanguard of History," in Acknowledging Consumption: A Review of New Studies, ed. Daniel Miller (London, 1995), 23, 24, 27, 40-41, 47.
23. Daniel Miller, The Comfort of Things (Cambridge, 2008), 160-61,
24. Stuff (Cambridge, 2009), 1-11.
25. Lizabeth Cohen, "From Town Center to Shopping Center: The Reconfiguration of Community Marketplaces in Postwar America," American Historical Review 101, no. 2 (1996): 1077-81,
26. A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York, 2003), 7-8, 32-33, 97-100.
27. Sarah Igo, The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public (Cambridge, MA, 2007), 113-26.
28. Catherine Needham, The Reform of Public Services under New Labour: Narratives of Consumerism (Basingstoke, 2007),
29. "Choice in Public Services: 'No Choice but to Choose,'" in Modernising the Welfare State: The Blair Legacy, ed. Martin Powell (Cambridge, 2008), 179-98.
30. David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 (London, 2007), 61, 133.
31. Matthew Hilton, "Consumer Politics in Post-war Britain," in The Politics of Consumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America, ed. Martin Daunton and Matthew Hilton (Basingstoke, 2001), 250-57,
32. Consumerism in Twentieth-Century Britain (Cambridge, 2003), 219-67.
33. James Vernon, "The Ethics of Hunger and the Assembly of Society: The Techno-Politics of the School Meal in Modern Britain," American Historical Review 110, no. 3 (2005): 693-725;
34. Peter Atkins, "School Milk in Britain, 1900-1934," Journal of Policy History 19, no. 4 (2007): 395-427.
35. Laura Beers, Your Britain: Media and the Making of the Labour Party (Cambridge, MA, 2010), esp. 5, 13, 126, 293,
36. "Whose Opinion? Changing Attitudes towards Opinion Polling in British Politics, 1937-1964," Twentieth Century British History 17, no. 2 (2006): 200.
37. Frank Trentmann, "Crossing Divides: Consumption and Globalization in History," Journal of Consumer Culture 9, no. 2 (2009): 211,
38. Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption, and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford, 2008), 2, 18, 78, 127, 274.
39. Sheryl Kroen, "A Political History of the Consumer," Historical Journal 47, no. 3 (2004): 722-23.
40. Jacob Torfing, "Democratic Network Governance," in Democratic Network Governance in Europe, ed. Martin Marcussen and Jacob Torfing (Basingstoke, 2007), 5.
41. Nathaniel Lichfield and Haim Darin-Drabkin, Land Policy in Planning (London, 1980), 142-43.
42. J. B. Cullingworth, Environmental Planning, 1939-1969, vol. 4, Land Value, Compensation and Betterment (London, 1980), 3-13, 85-138.
43. J. A. G. Griffith, "The Crichel Down Affair," Modern Law Review 18, no. 6 (1955): 557-70.
44. John Davis, "Macmillan's Martyr: The Pilgrim Case, the 'Land Grab' and the Tory Housing Drive, 1951-59," Planning Perspectives 23, no. 2 (2008): 125-46.
45. Philip Booth, Planning by Consent: The Origins and Nature of British Development Control (London, 2003), 116-18;
46. R. D. Brown, The Battle of Crichel Down (London, 1955).
47. Report of the Committee on Administrative Tribunals and Enquiries, Cmnd. 218 (1957), 2-3, 91-92, 98.
48. H. Y. Cheng, "The Emergence and Spread of the Ombudsman Institution," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 377, no. 1 (1968): 21.
49. "A British Ombudsman?" Economist, 4 July 1959, 4.
50. Stefan Hurwitz, "The Danish Ombudsman and His Office," Listener 63, no. 1624 (1960): 836.
51. Walter Gellhorn, Ombudsmen and Others: Citizens' Protectors in Nine Countries (Cambridge, MA, 1966), 6
52. Stefan Hurwitz, "The Danish Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil and Military Government Administration," Public Law 3, no. 3 (1958): 238.
53. Sargant to Shawcross, 13 April 1960, Hull University Library (HUL), "Justice" Papers (DJU) 1/2.
54. Stefan Hurwitz, The Ombudsman (Copenhagen, 1968), 5-6.
55. Parliamentary Ombudsman's Office, The Parliamentary Ombudsman in Finland: Position and Functions (Helsinki, 1976), 5-8.
56. I. M. Means, "The Norwegian Ombudsman," Western Political Quarterly 11, no. 4 (1968): 626-27.
57. Daniel Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (Cambridge, MA, 1998), 55-56, 61.
58. "Judicial and other remedies against the illegal exercise or abuse of administrative authority," 4-15 May 1959, The National Archives (TNA), Records of the Treasury Solicitor (TS) 558/605.
59. John Lochiel Robson, New Zealand: The Development of its Laws and Institutions, 2nd ed. (London, 1967), 144, 151-52,
60. Sacred Cows and Rogue Elephants: Policy Development in the New Zealand Justice Department (Wellington, 1987), 226-28.
61. John Robertson, "The Danish Ombudsman: New Zealand's Precedent," in The Danish Ombudsman, ed. Hans Gammeltoft-Hansen and Flemming Axmark (Copenhagen, 1995), 35.
62. Larry Hill, The Model Ombudsman: Institutionalizing New Zealand's Democratic Experiment (Princeton, NJ, 1976), 70.
63. Oxley to Dobson, 30 August 1962, Dobson to Kent, 13 September 1962, TNA, Records of the Lord Chancellor's Office (LCO) 2/8442.
64. "New Move over Ombudsman in Britain," The Times, 7 September 1965, 7;
65. Justice, British Section of the International Commission of Jurists, Annual Report, June 1958 (London, 1958), 1-2.
66. Jean-Flavian Lalive to Sargant, 29 October 1958;
67. program of the International Commission of Jurists Conference on the Rule of Law, New Delhi, 5-10 January 1959, HUL DJU 10/4.
68. Sargant to Shawcross, 13 November 1959, HUL DJU 1/2.
69. Andrew Wong, "Birth of an Ombudsman," United College Journal of Hong Kong 11, no. 3 (1973): 133-36.
70. Justice Society, The Citizen and the Administration: The Redress of Grievances (London, 1961), 29, 34-35.
71. Brian Chapman, "The Ombudsman," Public Administration 38, no. 4 (1960): 306;
72. Donald Johnson, "Do We Need a 'Grievance Man'?" Sunday Express, 31 May 1959, 8;
73. "Is a Guardian of the Public Necessary?" Evening Standard, 23May 1959, 5.
74. Johnson"Cases on my files which would merit consideration by an 'Ombudsman'" (October-November 1959?), Johnson Papers 6/18.
75. Thomas Utley, Occasion for Ombudsman (London, 1961), 139-40, 144.
76. Conservative Political Centre, Law, Liberty and Licence (London, 1964), 7-9;
77. Catherine Ellis, "No Hammock for the Idle: The Conservative Party, 'Youth' and the Welfare State in the 1960s," Twentieth Century British History 16, no. 4 (2005): 455-57 .
78. "Saint George Is a Woman," Daily Sketch, 8 February 1960, 8.
79. Birnberg, Haldane Society, to Williams, 12 May 1960, LSE Archives, Fabian Society Papers E/132/10,
80. David Kynaston, Family Britain, 1951-1957 (London, 2009), 229-43.
81. Michael Shanks, The Stagnant Society: A Warning (Harmondsworth, 1961), 174.
82. Andrew Shonfield, Modern Capitalism: The Changing Balance of Public and Private Power (London, 1965), 427.
83. Peter Weiler, "Labour and the Land: From Municipalization to the Land Commission, 1951-71," Twentieth Century British History 19, no. 3 (2008): 321-22.
84. John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, vol. 1, The Grocer's Daughter (London, 2000), 141-45.
85. Central Health Services Council memorandum "Analysis of Letters of Complaint Sent to the Department," November 1951,
86. Ministry of Health memorandum "Handling of Complaints," 19 May 1953, Hewitt to Hodgson, 18 August 1960, TNA, Ministry of Health (MH) 58/915.
87. Labour Party Research Department memorandum "Parliamentary Commissioner: Evidence of need," May 1964, John Rylands Archive and Study Centre, Manchester, Labour Party Archives (hereafter LPA).
88. Ennals memorandum to Parliamentary Civil Rights Group titled "Outline paper on Ombudsman," 25 January 1965, LSE Archives, Peter Shore Papers 6/26.
89. "Parliamentary Commissioner," PD, vol. 649, col. 167.
90. Butler, Kilmuir, and Maclay memorandum to Home Affairs Committee titled "Justice Report on the Citizen and the Administration: The Redress of Grievances," 28 November 1961, TNA, Cabinet Papers (CAB) 134/1988;
91. minutes of the Home Affairs Committee, 8 December 1961, TNA, CAB 134/1984.
92. The Citizen and Administration, "The Report to Ministers," 1 August 1962, TNA, CAB 130/181.
93. Brooke memorandum to Home Affairs Committee, enclosing Kent report on Stockholm conference, 10 August 1962, TNA, CAB 134/1992.
94. Briefing for Sir Harold Kent, parliamentary questions, 16 July 1962, TNA, TS 558/599.
95. Kent to Dobson, 28 June 1962, and treasury solicitor's memorandum "The Whyatt Report," 15 February 1962, TNA, TS 558/599.
96. "Public Grievances," PD, vol. 666, cols. 1124-26.
97. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (New Haven, CT, 1992), esp. 30-42, 368-69;
98. Paul Langford, Englishness Identified: Manners and Character, 1650-1850 (Oxford, 2000), 208, 220, 298-99;
99. Bernard Porter, "'Bureau and Barrack': Early Victorian Attitudes towards the Continent," Victorian Studies 27, no. 4 (1984): 407-33.
100. Alan Hunt, "Dichotomy and Contradiction in the Sociology of Law," British Journal of Law and Society 8, no. 1 (1981): 53-61.
101. Robert Colls, Identity of England (Oxford, 2002), 54-55;
102. Peter Mandler, The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair (New Haven, CT, 2006), 122-23, 210-11;
103. Jeremy Paxman, The English (London, 1998), 134-40.
104. J. B. Priestley The English (London, 1973), 13-14.
105. Douglas-Home to Hobson, 7 February 1964, Hobson to Douglas-Home, 11 February 1964, Maudling to Douglas-Home, 13 February 1964, Brooke to Douglas-Home, 17 February 1964, TNA, Prime Minister's Office (PREM) 11/4853.
106. Steven Fielding, "The British Labour Party and 'Participation' in the 1960s," in Transitions in Social Democracy: Culture and Ideological Problems of the Golden Age, ed. John Callaghan and Ilaria Favretto (Manchester, 2006), esp. 139-43.
107. Harvester Archives of the British Labour Party, Part One (Brighton, 1978), card 783, minutes of the National Executive Committee (NEC), 11 May, and of the Home Policy Sub-committee, 8 June 1964.
108. Houghton memorandum "Parliamentary Commissioner or Ombudsman," May 1964, LPA NEC Sub-committee Papers.
109. "Speech at Stowmarket, Suffolk, Friday, 3 July 1964," Bodleian Library, Harold Wilson Papers, MS Wilson c.893;
110. "Wilson's Aim to 'Humanise' Whitehall," Daily Telegraph, 4 July 1964, 3.
111. Michael Stewart, "The Ombudsman," New Statesman, 25 September 1964, 430.
112. Iain Dale, Labour Party General Election Manifestos, 1900-1997 (London, 2000), 124.
113. Minutes of the Home Affairs Committee, 27 November 1964, TNA, CAB 134/1996.
114. Minutes of the Official Committee on the Ombudsman, 1 January 1965, TNA, CAB 130/219;
115. "The Parliamentary Commissioner, note by officials," January 1965, TNA, TS 558/559.
116. Minutes of the Ministerial Committee on the Ombudsman, 20 January 1965, TNA, CAB 130/216;
117. McIndoe to Wilson, 5 April 1965, TNA, PREM 13/1557.
118. Houghton memorandum to Cabinet, "The Parliamentary Commissioner," 25 March 1965, TNA, CAB 129/120;
119. minutes of the Cabinet, 6 April 1965, TNA, CAB 128/39.
120. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, Cmnd. 2767 (1965), 3, 6-7.
121. Frank Stacey, Ombudsmen Compared (Oxford, 1978), 127-28.
122. Crossman speech on Second Reading, 18 October 1966, PD, vol. 734, cols. 48-51.
123. Robert Armstrong, "Compton, Sir Edmund Gerald (1906-1994)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), http://www.oxforddnb. com/view/article/54820.
124. Marcia Williams, Inside Number Ten (London, 1972), 110.
125. Helsby to Wilson, 27 January 1966, TNA, PREM 5/495.
126. Compton memorandum to Machinery of Government Steering Group, "A Parliamentary Commissioner," 15 June 1964, TNA, Records of the Civil Service Department (BA) 17/28.
127. Thomas Utley, "Where Is the Ombudsman?" Spectator, 12 February 1965, 194-95.
128. Hogg speech on Third Reading, 24 January 1967, PD, vol. 739, col. 1452.
129. Baldwin to Lam, "Parliamentary Commissioner Bill," 19 January 1966, TNA, Records of the Board of Trade (BT) 296/188.
130. Alex Mold, "Patient Groups and the Construction of the Patient-Consumer in Britain: An Historical Overview," Journal of Social Policy 39, no. 4 (2010): 510-11.
131. Trend to Fraser, 25 January 1962, Fraser to Trend, "'Justice' Report," 26 March 1962, TNA, MH 58/915.
132. Emery memorandum "Complaints by Patients," 15 February 1962, TNA, MH 58/915.
133. Ministry of Health memorandum for Fraser, "Ombudsman," 27 May 1960, TNA, MH 58/915.
134. Fraser memorandum "Justice Report on the Citizen and Administration," 30 March 1962, TNA, CAB 130/182.
135. Fraser memorandum on meeting with Whyatt, 2 June 1960, TNA, MH 58/915.
136. D. C. Rowat, ed., The Ombudsman: Citizen's Defender (London, 1965), 336-37;
137. Patrick Birkinshaw, Grievances, Remedies and the State (London, 1985), 131.
138. Michael Winstanley, "Britain's 'Ombudsman' - His Role in the Process of Parliamentary Scrutiny," in The Growth of Parliamentary Scrutiny by Committee, ed. Alfred Morris (Oxford, 1970), 80.
139. Michael Hill, The State, Administration and the Individual (London, 1976), 153.
140. Geoffrey Marshall, "The British Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 377, no. 1 (1968): 96.
141. Justice, Our Fettered Ombudsman (London, 1977), 3-7, 17, 23-25, 27-29.
142. W. B. Gwyn, "The British PCA: 'Ombudsman or Ombudsmouse'?" Journal of Politics 35, no. 1 (1973): 46-47;
143. "The Vanishing Ombudsman," Sunday Times, 12 February 1967, 12;
144. Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Annual Report for 2008-09: Every Complaint Matters (London, 2009), figs. 2, 9.
145. New Zealand Commissioner for Administration, 2008/2009 Report of the Ombudsman (Wellington, 2009), 15;
146. Danish Office of the Ombudsman, Annual Report for 2008 (Copenhagen, 2009), 22.
147. W. B. Gwyn, "The Ombudsman in Britain: A Qualified Success in Government Reform," Public Administration 60, no. 2 (1982): 179.
148. "The Thinking Man's Esther Rantzen," New Society (1 January 1981): 11;
149. Minutes of the Secretary of State's meeting with the British Medical Association, 15 June 1971, Cashman to Allison, "Health Commissioner," 28 April 1971, TNA, MH 153/580.
150. Joseph statement, 22 February 1972, TNA, MH 153/580.
151. Philip Giddings, "Great Britain," in Protecting Patients' Rights? A Comparative Study of the Ombudsman in Healthcare, ed. Stephen Mackenney and Lars Fallberg (Abingdon, 2003), 116.
152. Philip Giddings, "The Health Service Ombudsman after Twenty-Five Years," Public Law 34, no. 3 (1999): 201.
153. National Consumer Council, A to Z of Ombudsmen (London, 1997), iv-v.
154. Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, Annual Report for 1997/1998 (London, 1998), 19.
155. Trusting in the Pensions Promise (London, 2006);
156. Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Equitable Life: A Decade of Regulatory Failure (London, 2008).
157. Mark Elliott, "Asymmetric Devolution and Ombudsman Reform in England," Public Law 84, no. 1 (2006): 84-105;
158. Mary Seneviratne, "A New Ombudsman for Wales," Public Law 84, no. 1 (2006): 6-14.
159. Susanna Schrafstetter, "'Gentlemen, the Cheese Is All Gone!' British POWs, the 'Great Escape' and the Anglo-German Agreement for Compensation to Victims of Nazism," Contemporary European History 17, no. 1 (2008): 31.
160. Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, Fifth Report for 1974-75 (London, 1975), 26, 28;
161. Roy Gregory, "Court Line, Mr. Benn and the Ombudsman," Parliamentary Affairs 30, no. 3 (1977): 269-92.
162. Roberta Jamieson, "The Ombudsman: Learning from Other Cultures," Ottawa Law Review 25, no. 3 (1993): 624-39;
163. Edward Kracke Jr., "Early Visions of Justice for the Humble in East and West," Journal of the American Oriental Society 96, no. 4 (1976): 492-98.
164. Andrée Lajoie, Hughes Melançon, Guy Rocher, and Richard Janda, "Quebec's Conception of Aboriginal Rights," in Aboriginal Rights and Self-Government: The Canadian and Mexican Experience in North American Perspective, ed. Curtis Cook and Juan Lindau (Montreal, 2000), 178;
165. Dan Russell, A People's Dream: Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada (Vancouver, 2000), 214;
166. D. C. Rowat, "The American Distortion of the Ombudsman Concept and its Influence on Canada," Canadian Journal of Public Administration 50, no. 1 (2007): 42-52.
167. European Ombudsman, Annual Report, 2007 (Luxembourg, 2008), 16.
168. Jørgen Grønnegaard Christensen, "Bureaucratic Autonomy as a Political Asset," in Politics, Bureaucrats and Administrative Reform, ed. B. G. Peters and Jon Pierre (London, 2001), 122, 131.
169. Mark Wickham-Jones, "Missed Opportunities: British Social Democracy and the Rehn Model, 1951-1964," in Gösta Rehn, The Swedish Model and Labour Market Policies: International and National Perspectives, ed. Henry Milner and Eskil Wadensjö (Aldershot, 2001), 277-97;
170. Hugh Pemberton, Policy Learning and British Governance in the 1960s (Basingstoke, 2004), 122-23;
171. Glen O'Hara, "'Applied Socialism of a Fairly Moderate Kind': Scandinavia, British Policymakers and the Post-war Housing Market," Scandinavian Journal of History 33, no. 1 (2008): 1-25,
172. "The Intellectuals' Ideal: British Views of Scandinavia in the 1950s and 1960s," in Intellectuals and the Public Sphere: Britain and Scandinavia since the Second World War, ed. Jan Eivind Myhre (Oslo, 2008), 91-122.
173. Jim Tomlinson, "The Iron Quadrilateral: Political Obstacles to Economic Reform under the Attlee Government," Journal of British Studies 34, no. 1 (1995): 90-111.
174. Jim Tomlinson, "A Failed Experiment? Public Ownership and the Narratives of Post-war Britain," Labour History Review 73, no. 2 (2008): 235-36.
175. Mary Hilson, The Nordic Model: Scandinavia since 1945 (London, 2008), 114.
176. Jose Harris, "Civil Society in British History: Paradigm or Peculiarity?" in Civil Society in British History: Ideas, Identities, Institutions, ed. J. Harris (Oxford, 2004), 4.
177. David Dolowitz and David Marsh, "Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-Making," Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration 13, no. 1 (2000): 17-21.
178. Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell, "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields," American Sociological Review 48, no. 2 (1983): 147-60.