Douglas Jay, Baron Jay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician.

Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay became a Fellow of All Souls between 1930 and 1937. His early career was as an economics journalist working for The Times 1929-33, The Economist 1933-37, and the Daily Herald 1937-41, then as a civil servant in the Ministry of Supply and Board of Trade, from 1943 as personal assistant to Hugh Dalton.

Jay was elected member of Parliament for Battersea North in a 1946 by-election and held the seat until 1983. Alongside Evan Durbin and Hugh Gaitskell, he brought the thinking of John Maynard Keynes to the Labour Party, especially in relation to price determination, although influenced by the successful operation of rationing during the war his views later somewhat mellowed. He served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1947-1950, Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1950-1951 and President of the Board of Trade from 1964 until being sacked in 1967. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1951.

In The Socialist Case in 1937 he had written: ‘in the case of nutrition and health, just as in the case of education, the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people know themselves.’ This expression was mercilessly exploited by the Conservatives and won a long-lasting notoriety; it was often misquoted as ‘the man in Whitehall knows best’, which was, as Jay often protested, exactly the opposite of his general conclusion.

He was opposed to the UK's entry into the European Economic Community and campaigned for a 'no' vote in the 1975 referendum.

Jay was created a life peer as Baron Jay, of Battersea in Greater London, in 1987. His first wife was the councillor Peggy Jay and their son is the economist Peter Jay. His second wife had been one of his assistant private secretaries at the Board of Trade.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Francis Douglas	Member of Parliament for Battersea North 1946–1983	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Political offices
Preceded by (newly created position)	Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1947–1950	Succeeded by Lewis John Edwards
Preceded by Glenvil Hall	Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1950–1951	Succeeded by John Boyd-Carpenter
Preceded by Edward Heath	President of the Board of Trade 1964–1967	Succeeded by Anthony Crosland