[1] Raison began his career as a journalist, first working on Picture Post, then New Scientist.

He, I and two other journalists, Trevor Philpott and Colin Jones, wrote an article [in the Spring 1958 edition of Crossbow entitled "A Plan to Save the Refugees"] which was the start of the idea'.

[5] He co-founded[6] and edited the social science magazine New Society from 1962 until 1968 and was MP for Aylesbury from 1970 until his retirement in 1992.

[3] In 1956, Raison married violin teacher Veldes Julia Charrington, daughter of John Arthur Pepys Charrington, of Netherton, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire, president of the Charrington Brewery and Master of the Worshipful Company of Brewers in 1952, of that landed gentry family of Cherry Orchard, Shaftesbury, Dorset;[7][8] they had a son, Paul Raison, and three daughters.

[3][1][9] On 3 November 2011, Raison died on his 82nd birthday from complications of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.