Hugh Gaitskell, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetHugh Gaitskell
British politician
Date of Birth: 09-Apr-1906
Place of Birth: London
Date of Death: 18-Jan-1963
Profession: politician
Nationality: United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Aries 
About Hugh Gaitskell
- Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician and Leader of the Labour Party.
- An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, he was elected to Parliament in 1945 and held office in Clement Attlee's governments, notably as Minister of Fuel and Power after the bitter winter of 1946–47, and eventually joining the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
- Facing the need to increase military spending in 1951, he imposed National Health Service charges on dentures and spectacles, prompting the leading left-winger Aneurin Bevan to resign from the Cabinet. The perceived similarity in his outlook to that of his Conservative Party counterpart Rab Butler was dubbed "Butskellism", initially a satirical term, after an elision of their names, and was one aspect of the post-war consensus through which the major parties largely agreed on the main points of domestic and foreign policy until the 1970s.
- With Labour in opposition from 1951, Gaitskell won bitter leadership battles with Bevan and his supporters to become the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition in 1955.
- In 1956 he opposed the Eden government's use of military force at Suez.
- Against a backdrop of a booming economy he led Labour to its third successive defeat at the 1959 general election. In the late 1950s, in the teeth of opposition from the major trade unions, he attempted in vain to remove Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution, which committed Labour to nationalisation of all the means of production.
- He did not reject public ownership altogether, but also emphasised the ethical goals of liberty, social welfare and above all equality, and argued that they could be achieved by fiscal and social policies within a mixed economy.
- His revisionist views, on the right wing of the Labour Party, were sometimes called Gaitskellism. Despite this setback, Gaitskell reversed an attempt to adopt unilateral nuclear disarmament as Labour Party policy, and opposed Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's attempt to lead the UK into the European Common Market.
- He was loved and hated for his confrontational leadership and brutal frankness.
- He died suddenly in 1963, when he appeared to be on the verge of leading Labour back into power and becoming the next Prime Minister.
Read more at Wikipedia
Image Author, Source and License
Author: COI Official Photograph
Source:
License:
More Details
Source:
National Portrait Gallery: NPG x16312
|
While Commons policy accepts the use of this media, one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof. This may be due to recognition of the "sweat of the brow" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labour, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions.
As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement. Please see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag for more information. See User:Dcoetzee/NPG legal threat for original threat and National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Foundation copyright dispute for more information. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing. |
License:
More Details