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Oswald Mosley is a British politician and leader of the Maximist faction in the Federal Congress of the Union of Britain. Mosley first entered the cabinet in 1929 as the junior Congressional Undersecretary of Works before being promoted to the Minister of Works & Forests in 1931. Following the fallout of the 1932 Parliamentary Crisis and the December budget leaks, Mosley was confirmed as the Deputy Chairman in January of 1933. Since his appointment to the Deputy Chairmanship, Mosley has garnered a controversial reputation for his political views, alleged corruption and supposed abuses of office.
Initially a member of the Conservative Party, Mosley sat as a left-wing Independent before joining the ILP. In Labour, Mosley was considered a radical and noted for his political ambition but did not achieve high office. After the civil war, Mosley remained in Labour but also sought to establish his own party vehicle, the Popular Revolution Party which formed the basis for the future Maximist wing. Mosley finally came to prominence in 1932 when he served as a spearhead against the Provincial Parliament and corruption, being appointed the Deputy Chairman at the start of the following year.
Largely regarded as a political authoritarian, Mosley has called for the government of Britain to have further reaching powers over politics, society and the economy, with the TUC only having general oversight of political matters. Despite his controversies, Mosley has amassed a small but well-placed following in the government and a talent for political dealings within the TUC. Internationally, he is a leading figure in the emerging 'Totalist' movement.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Oswald Mosley was born on 16 November 1896 in Mayfair, Westminster. The eldest of the three sons of Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet, and Katharine Maud Edwards-Heathcote. After his parents separated he was brought up by his mother, who went to live at Betton Hall near Market Drayton, and his paternal grandfather, Sir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet. Within the family and among intimate friends, he was always called "Tom". He lived for many years at his grandparents' stately home, Apedale Hall, with his mother and paternal grandfather who Mosley claimed was a 'fine substitute for an absent husband', in reference to his father. The elder Mosley became a surrogate father figure for the young Oswald.
At the age of nine, Mosley was sent away to West Down, a small preparatory school. Four years later he entered Winchester College. An excellent sportsman he was trained to box and fence by two ex-army NCOs. At fifteen he won the public schools' fencing championship in both foil and sabre, still retaining an enthusiasm for the sport. On the contrary, he was less successful with his academic work. In an interview Mosley recalled: 'Apart from games, the dreary waste of public school existence was only relieved by learning and homosexuality; at that time I had no capacity for the former and I've never had any taste for the latter'.
Considered to be a strange boy by the other students, Mosley had no friends, but he was able to avoid being bullied owing to his boxing ability. Diaries indicate that to most boys in his house he appeared stupid, or at least totally uninterested in work. Mosley commented that he hated taking orders from the teachers and older students, believing himself above them. In a diary by one of his fellow students, Mosley was recalled as being 'very tall, with striking, dark good looks: he could easily have been made into a stage villain.'
Military service & The Weltkrieg[]
In January 1914, Mosley entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but was expelled in June for a 'riotous act of retaliation' against a fellow student. Mosley often recounted that his days at the academy were often spent 'piling into a car with the other cadets' to travel to London and fighting with local hoodlums. At the onset Great War Mosley was commissioned into of the 16th Queen's Lancers, a cavalry regiment and was stationed in Ireland. Believing that there was little chance of cavalry being used, he sought a more action-filled posting transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as an observer. Knowing full well his chances of survival were slim, his diaries of the time romanticized the heroic sacrifice and knowledge that in time, no man would return. Mosley wrote to his mother not to grieve if he was killed as he was sure he would find death "a most interesting experience". However, while showing off before his mother at Shoreham Airport in May 1915 he crashed his plane and broke his right ankle. Currently unfit to fly, he was sent to fight on the Western Front. However, his leg failed to heal and he collapsed at the Battle of Loos. Sent home for further operations, his leg was saved but Mosley was left with a permanent limp and, by October 1916, it was decided that Lieutenant Mosley was only fit for desk work.
Mosley spent much of the rest of the war working in the Ministry of Munitions and later at the Foreign Office. He developed a keen interest in politics and read greatly, but found his political thought cut short in early 1919. Presented with the opportunity to retake his position as an observer in the now established Royal Air Force, he enthusiastically signed up and ended the war as a qualified pilot and military observer though he saw relatively little action at the front lines as he had once hoped.
Post-Weltkrieg & Early Political Career[]
Before the end of the Great War Mosley decided to enter politics, although he was only 22 years old and was not ideologically settled, nor did he have any practical experience or a university education owing to the war. Regardless, in his spare time he studied the lives of famous English politicians including: William Pitt, Charles Fox, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. He also arranged to meet current leading politicians including Winston Churchill, Herbert Asquith. During such activities he met and befriended Harold Nicolson, the private secretary of Lord Curzon, the then Foreign Secretary. Both leading political parties attempted to recruit Mosley but he eventually joined the Conservative Party over the Liberals. Owing to his family connections, Mosley was selected for the safe-seat of Harrow. In the Harrow Observer it was claimed that Mosley was a Central Office nominee, foisted onto the Harrow Association at the expense of better-qualified local men. In one letter, a local solicitor, A. R. Chamberlayne, attacked the central party which was able to foist men of wealth and connection onto the local associations. Mosley responded by describing Chamberlayne as a failed politician.
Mosley faced little opposition in the seat and went on to win by over 12,000 votes. Aged 22, he became the youngest MP in the House of Commons to take his seat. While on the campaign trail, Mosley was introduced to Lady Cynthia Curzon, the daughter of George Curzon, by Harold Nicolson, while helping Nancy Astor during her by-election campaign in 1920. Quickly infatuated, Cynthia asked her father if she could marry Mosley. Curzon wrote in his diary. 'I was seated at my desk with my boxes at 11.15 p.m. when the door opened and Cimmie with her eyes alight and an air of intense excitement came into my room and asked if she might speak to me about something... She had come to ask my permission to wed young Oswald Mosley... I asked if he was gay or sedate. She replied that he had started by flirting a bit with married women but had now given that up and was full of ambition and devoted to a political career where every sort of prize awaited him'. The following day Lord Curzon met Mosley for the first time: 'The young man Mosley came to see me yesterday evening... Very young, tall, slim, dark, rather a big nose, little black moustache, rather a Jewish appearance... It turns out he is quite independent - has practically severed himself from his father who is a spendthrift... The estate is in the hands of trustees who will give him £8,000-£10,000 a year straight away and he will ultimately have a clear £20,000 p.a. He did not even know that Cimmie was an heiress'. Curzon also asked Robert Cecil, who had worked with Mosley, what he thought of him. He replied that he was 'keen, able and promising, not in the first flight, but with a good future before him', Curzon still distrusted Mosley's intentions, holding the belief that he secretly wished to climb the party but felt that with no alternative, he had to give his consent.
Mosley was not a loyal Conservative and in his maiden speech he made an attack on the government, naming Winston Churchill, secretary of state for war and air. Stanley Baldwin, a fellow Tory MP, commented: 'He's a cad and a wrong'un and they will find out'. Indeed, Mosley often expressed left of centre political views and often broke with the party line. In 1921 he argued against spending money on trying to overthrow the Bolshevik government in Russia, declaring: 'It went to my heart to think of £100,000,000 being spent in Russia supporting a mere adventure, while the unemployed are trying to keep a family on 15s. a week'. Records indicate that Mosley's early years in Parliament saw him vote on the 'progressive side in almost every issue of any importance' and he personally regarded himself as a champion of the young. Mosley argued that his actions were inspired and motivated by an 'almost religious conviction' to rebuild the devastation of the Great War and prevent another calamity.
However, it was ultimately the issue of Ireland that split Mosley from the Conservatives altogether. Indeed, he had been a critic of the war since he first entered parliament but with his father-in-law the Foreign Secretary, it was now becoming a government embarrassment. Mosley was a fierce critic of the Black and Tans and famously declared that Secretary for War, Winston Churchill had: 'obliterated the narrow, but very sacred line, which divides justice from indiscriminate revenge'. The speech infuriated the Government but earned him commendation from the Liberals and the left, with Liberal MP, William Wedgwood Benn, declaring: 'one of the best speeches I have ever heard in the House'. By now, Mosley came under pressure from the Harrow Conservative Association to support the government in the House of Commons. Mosley refused: 'I cannot enter Parliament unless I am free to take any action of opposition or association, irrespective of labels, that is compatible with my principles and is conductive to their success. My first consideration must always be the triumph of the causes for which I stand and in the present condition of politics, or in any situation likely to arise in the near future, such freedom of action is necessary to that end.'
Indeed to that end, in the New Year of 1922 he formally crossed-the-floor and declared that he would sit as an Independent. The local Conservative Association was outraged and Mosley faced calls to resign. A risky proposal, his friend Harold Nicolson warned him that this would likely see him lose the seat and kill his parliamentary career but Mosley was undeterred and resigned, forcing a by-election. Despite prominent pollsters believing that the young MP would be soundly defeated, Mosley had built up a large following in the constituency. He went on to increase his majority by approximately 2,000 votes, facing a split opposition in the Conservatives and Liberals. Mosley was by then largely unchained from partisan commitments and his politics had begun to align closely with Parliament's left factions. Beatrice Webb, a senior figure in the Labour Party, met Mosley for the first time in June, 1922 and was deeply impressed by him. Having found him pleasant, amicable and the 'upstanding image of the modern politician'. Webb arranged further meetings for Mosley with her husband and other prominent Fabians. Mosley was likewise, incredibly impressed by socialism having been converted in a meeting with Sidney Webb. When discussing his future, Webb posited to Mosley, he might be able to go on holding Harrow for ever, but he could scarcely expect to make his mark on his time as an eccentric Independent of mildly left-wing opinions. Seeking the best path to power, Mosley began talks with other Labour members on joining the party.
Mosley in Labour[]
It now became clear which party he had to join to pursue a successful political career. In December of 1922, he applied to join the Labour Party. The Liberals reacted angrily to the decision and Margot Asquith chastised Mosley, regarding him as having the possibility of being the future Liberal leader had he not sided with the 'cruel and petty thugs of Labour'. Ramsay MacDonald was extremely pleased by Mosley's decision as it thought his aristocratic background would help the Labour Party to appear 'respectable'. Mosley immediately joined the Independent Labour Party, the left-wing pressure group in the Labour Party, and according to his future Maximist colleague John Scanlon 'numerous local parties tripped over themselves to recruit their own golden calf'. Ultimately Mosley decided to stand in Birmingham Ladywood against the incumbent Conservative MP, Neville Chamberlain. The scion of the famous parliamentarian, Joseph Chamberlain, the two men encountered each other at a parliamentary hustings where Chamberlain's mild-mannered and aloof nature contrasted with Mosley's fervour. The two men spoke afterwards, Chamberlain commenting that the two had once sat as allies and contemplated that 'in another life' they might continue to do so. Mosley reportedly replied that Chamberlain would 'certainly find a home in Labour'.
Some members of the ILP were highly suspicious of his motives, however. Willie Stewart, a veteran member, commented: 'He'll need watching, he's out of a bad nest.' Others in the party such as Herbert Morrison and Hugh Dalton 'were naturally jealous of a rich recruit who entered with such a fanfare of publicity and felt that their own years of patient toil in the cause had been undervalued by comparison'. Indeed, Morrison found his distaste for Mosley grow when the two men met on the campaign. Morrison had been dispatched from London to aid Mosley (who was deemed high priority due to his likelihood of victory, a further fact that stoked Morrison's antipathy) and described him as a 'strangely gauche for a man of aristocratic stock' and prone to the most 'pedantic criticisms' of Cynthia in public. Indeed, Mosley's appointment was a controversial decision and some Labour politicians pointed out that the party had been formed to represent the working-class. Philip Snowden, who was opposed to Mosley's economic policies, warned the party not to 'degenerate into an instrument for the ambitions of wealthy men' and suggested that some candidatures were being 'put up to auction by the local Labour Party and sold to the highest bidder'.
On the contrary, Mosley also met two of his future allies and confidants in 1923, principally John Beckett and John Strachey, who also came from a privileged background. Mosley and Strachey became acquainted during the campaign and Mosley is said to have 'confessed his sorrow' at hearing Strachey had lost his race Birmingham Aston seat. The two became close friends and collaborators, with Mosley employing Strachey as an agent. Likewise, Mosley met Beckett through John Scanlon. Beckett was said to be 'initially unimpressed' at the thought of working with Mosley but soon found himself swayed by his charisma and intelligence. Beckett wrote to Scanlon that 'Mosley and Strachey are refugees from the upper class, awoken from their upbringing and lost in a proletarian world, but nevertheless intoxicated by the sexual freedom it affords. Men like these will be the next generation to carry the torch with us.' Mosley and Strachey both read and were impressed with the work of John Maynard Keynes. The two men henceforth attempted to adapt Keynes' theories to their ideas on socialism. At an Independent Labour Party conference at Gloucester, Mosley called for the nationalisation of the banking system and Strachey declared the need for higher wages to stimulate employment. Indeed, around this time both men began collaborating on what later formed the basis of the 1925 'Birmingham Proposals' though this early version has never been published.
Elsewhere Mosley also came under attack from Conservative supporting newspapers. They were at different times accused of 'flaunting their wealth or adopting heavy proletarian camouflage - and which was the more reprehensible'. For example, The Daily Express accused Mosley of preaching socialism 'in a twenty guinea Savile Row suit'. Labour neewsletters like was condemned for 'playing his part well' after at a rally Mosley had attended in an 'old overcoat and a battered hat' and calling Lady Cynthia 'the missus' and a 'right cracking bird' to his supporters. Other newspapers wrote articles about the wealthy socialist couple frolicking on the Riviera, spending thousands of pounds in renovating their 'mansion' and generally 'living a debauched aristocratic life'. It has been claimed that these attacks motivated his supporters to work even harder. Mosley argued that: 'While I am being abused by the Capitalist Press I know I am doing effective work for the Labour cause.' The situation became even more bizarre when Mosley's estranged father joined in those criticizing the candidate. The Daily Mail published a letter from him complaining about Mosley's socialism: 'More valuable help would be rendered to the country by my Socialist son and daughter-in-law if, instead of achieving cheap publicity about relinquishing titles, they would take more material action and relinquish some of their wealth and so help to make easier the plight of some of their more unfortunate followers'.
He followed this by giving an interview to The Daily Express:
“ | He was born with a golden spoon in his mouth - it cost £100 in doctor's fees to bring him into the world. He lived on the fat of the land and never did a day's work in his life. If he and his wife want to go in for Labour, why don't they do a bit of work themselves? My son tells the tale that he does this and that but he lives in the height of luxury. If the working class... are going to be taken in by such nonsense - I am sorry for them. How does my son know anything about them? | ” |
Newspapers owned by Harold Harmsworth (Lord Rothermere) and William Maxwell Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook) reported that Mosley was part of a 'Red Plot' and that Willie Gallacher and Arthur McManus, leading members of the Syndicalist Party of Great Britain, were campaigning for the Labour candidate. The Morning Post complained that 'no tactics too contemptible for the Socialists to adopt in their grovelling appeal to all that is most stupid and most deplorable in human nature'. Rotha Lintorn-Orman's British Conservative League also attempted to disrupt Mosley's election via way of an elaborate prank: when Mosley was giving a speech at St. Philip's Cathedral in Birmingham, BCL paramilitaries in black dress attempted to lock the front doors after throwing stink bombs into the crowd. Mosley and his supporters simply exited through an alternative door and fought the BCL members. In his next speech he condemned them as 'black-shirted buffoons, making a cheap imitation of ice-cream sellers'. much to Lintorn-Orman's outrage. These tactics did not stop him and he won his electoral race in a shock defeat for Chamberain. His majority of 6,582 on an 80% poll surprised even his most optimistic supporters. To a crowd of 8,000 outside the Town Hall he said that the result was a defeat of the Press Lords: 'This is not a mere election, it is history. The result of this election sends out a message to every worker in the land. You have met and beaten the Press of reaction... Tonight all Britain looks to you and thanks you. My wonderful friends of Birmingham, by your heroic battle against a whole world in arms, I believe you have introduced a new era for British democracy'.
Mosley's victory excited many members of the Labour Party owing to his campaigning skills and that he had the ability to attract large crowds to public meetings. Mosley was hopeful at receiving high office in the government but found himself remaining on the backbenches. Nevertheless, Ramsay MacDonald was deeply impressed with Mosley and commented that he had the makings of a great party leader. In the summer of 1923, MacDonald and Mosley went on a private motor-car tour together that included visits to Brussels, Berlin and Vienna. Mosley was also introduced to one of MacDonald's mistresses who was living in Europe. This holiday led to rumours that MacDonald was introducing a future Labour foreign secretary to European statesmen. While MacDonald had not offered Mosley a position in his beleaguered administration, he promised a good future ahead of him.
Shortly after his victory, Mosley took a trip to India where he met Gandhi through C.F. Andrews, a clergyman and an intimate friend of the 'Indian Saint', as Mosley described him. Despite rising tensions on the subcontinent, they met in Kadda, where Gandhi was quick to invite Mosley to a private conference which Gandhi was chairing. They enjoyed each other's company for the short time they were together and exchanged many ideas. While in India, Mosley introduced Gandhi to an early version of his Birmingham Proposals, which deeply impressed the Indian activist, commenting to Mosley that he was 'one of the great economists of the age'. While the two held fundamentally different ideas on how to organise an economy, both men respected the others approach, with Mosley commenting that India's agrarian and colonialist economy needed 'an approach that works for the common Indian man' while Gandhi acknowledged that an industrial powerhouse such as Britain was better suited to extensive oversight. Mosley later called Gandhi a 'sympathetic personality of subtle intelligence' and the two exchanged letters henceforth.
The British Revolution[]
Mosley was despondent at news of Labour's loss in the snap election but had still managed to maintain his seat. Nevertheless, the news of MacDonald's assassination shocked Mosley and in a passionate eulogy to the former Labour leader at his funeral, he spoke: 'I have long considered you a brilliant statesman, a touching mentor and shining inspiration but most of all... my friend. This country will not be the same without you. To you James... you will be missed. Dearly missed.' Harold Nicolson journalled that Mosley was personally horrified by MacDonald's death and came to the conclusion that Labour needed to embrace more radical changes. To this end, he welcomed the radical leadership of George Lansbury and in turn the new Labour leader, who held Mosley in high esteem despite their differing views on pacifism. Lansbury informed Mosley that he sought to offer him a place in the government and also encouraged him to stand for the NEC. Nicolson commented that 'he, Strachey and Cimmie' all believed Mosley was due to be offered the Foreign Office but upon learning this was being offered to Arthur Henderson and Mosley was to receive the powerless and non-cabinet Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Mosley reportedly burst into tears and believed Lansbury offered it as part of an elaborate public humiliation. Mosley declined on principle and the position went vacant moving forward.
Returning to the backbenches, Mosley was once more a notable Labour firebrand calling for extensive reforms from the sidelines. Endorsing the radical ILP leadership of James Maxton, Mosley fell in with the radical Clydesiders who he was introduced to via John Beckett. This time just prior to the civil war proved a period of ideological maturation for Mosley, having fallen in with the radical forces of Maxton and John Wheatley, both of whom were deeply impressed with the young man's zeal and commitment. Maxton and John Scanlon took Mosley to Glasgow to show him the immense poverty ravaging the city, where after returning, he condemned the National Government and Winston Churchill in particular. Some 2,000,000 men were out of work by 1924 and the economy was tumbling into Depression. Churchill, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, intended to pursue his free trade principles in the form of laissez-faire economics, as under the Liberal social reforms. In April of 1924, he controversially albeit reluctantly restored the gold standard in his first budget at its 1914 parity against the advice of some leading economists including John Maynard Keynes. The return to gold is held to have caused deflation and even worsening unemployment with a devastating impact on the coal industry. Among his measures, a reduction of military expenditure, income tax cuts and decreasing unemployment and sick benefits were of particular criticism for Mosley.
When news of pay cuts for soldiers caused a mutiny of the Hood in Plymouth, Mosley was quick to support the strikers and mutineers. In one such speech he attacked the government in Parliament:
“ | Unemployment, wages, rents, suffering, squalor and starvation; the struggle for existence in our streets, the threat of world catastrophe in another war; the gallant soldiers and their mourning widows left to starve; these are the realities of the present age. These are the problems which require every exertion of the best brains of our time for a vast constructive effort. These are the problems which should unite the nation in a white heat of crusading zeal for their solution. But these are precisely the problems which send Parliament to sleep. When not realities but words are to be discussed Parliament wakes up. Then we are back in the comfortable pre-war world of make-believe. Politics are safe again; hairs are to be split, not facts to be faced. Hush! Do not awaken the dreamers. Facts will wake them in time with a vengeance. | ” |
Mosley had been becoming increasingly radical in parliament and had been introduced to the works of Henry Hyndman by Beckett. While the latter man was far more inclined to Hyndman's orthodoxy, the calls for statesmanship and assertive leadership inspired Mosley's own growing radicalism. Seeking to organise a trip for Wheatley and Maxton to see the poverty of Birmingham, he returned to Birmingham and began working again with local Labour activists. Unfortunately for Mosley, the trip was cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War in the Autumn of the year and an arrest warrant was issued for Mosley and Cynthia owing to their continued allegiance to the now banned ILP. The two fled into the countryside of the Midlands and went into hiding, with Nicolson being forced to inform Mosley that his stately home had been seized by the government and turned into an officer's barracks.
For much of the early revolution, Mosley and his family lived in hiding though in early January, he reestablished contact with John Strachey who had since signed on as a republican soldier and later pilot. Strachey urged Mosley to join him in Liverpool, and help fight for the revolution but Mosley did not wish to leave his family behind. Instead, Strachey encouraged him to rekindle his activism in Birmingham and help prepare the city for a revolutionary takeover. Believing that this could be his path towards securing his place in the new order's leadership, Mosley and his family returned to Birmingham. Greeting Mosley's return with excitement and gratefulness, local Labour activists helped hide his family in the city. Birmingham was a site of major unrest since the revolution's genesis and despite multiple attempts to take the city, the revolutionaries had been forced into small pockets in the North, spilling into Walsall and Wolverhampton. This area considered itself a 'free commune' and Mosley was sheltered in the area but he felt discontent with how the city's front line had stagnated.
Mosley began to plot with local syndicalist activists to retake the city via mass action but did not find a spark until early June. A local milk-man and ex-SPGB activist, Bernard Moore was tortured and murdered by local auxiliary units leading to widespread outrage among the populace in the government controlled parts of the city. Morale among the police was rapidly dropping and with fears the city could fall to popular discontent, a high-ranking city council member, Wilfred Byng Kenrick petitioned Lord Mayor Thomas Williams to hold a rally in the city centre to try and shore up patriotic support. Having learned of these events, Mosley held his own rallies with local syndicalist and Labour activist, Tom Roberts, in the commune-controlled areas and plotted to sabotage the government rally. Come the day, a massive contingent of syndicalist aligned militia-men overwhelmed the barricades demarcating the border between the two zones. Mosley made an impromptu appearance at the battle lines, wearing black overalls, and led his own counter-rally in which he denounced capitalism and the 'London Regime' as the instruments of 'financial democracy'. Feeble efforts to arrest him were physically blocked by his thousands of supporters, and a later effort to seize him while sleeping was driven off by armed bodyguards. That evening, Mayor Williams was assassinated and the city descended into chaos as syndicalist supporters overran the battle lines.
The following day, Mosley and his entourage were able to gather and lead a massive syndicalist rally in reclaimed areas of the city, whipping the oppressed populace into a massive frenzy. With no will or reason to fight, many police officers vacated their posters or outright defected with syndicalist supporters taking control of multiple government buildings and much of the city. Some of the city council had fled though Kenrick formed an 'Emergency Directory' out of the remains and local industrialists to coordinate a counter-attack. Despite his own attempts to flee later, Kenrick and most of his Directory were captured along with other local notables, capitalists, industrialists, alleged reactionaries and anti-syndicalists. The prisoners were brought to the Bull Ring where Mosley led the so-called 'Bull Ring Trials', a populist kangaroo court in which effigies of the King and Ministers were burned and those deemed of a reactionary nature executed, during which Kenrick was hanged. Having heard of his cousin's death, Chamberlain was said to fall into deep depression. Mosley was now charged in abstentia for high treason and murder, with the government directing resources for a massive attack on the city. Fortunately for Mosley, rebel forces were able to rescue the city in time amid massive fighting. While Mosley was saved and he had forged a name for himself in Birmingham, his conduct spooked some members of the revolutionary forces. Nevertheless, he went on to sit on the 'Birmingham Popular Committee' which ran the city under the burgeoning revolutionary state.
Mosley in the wilderness[]
When the revolution came to an end in the final days of 1925, the political scene gravitated towards the establishment of a constitutional convention to be held in January of 1926. With elections taking place to the old parliamentary constituencies (with some minor modifications), Mosley attempted to run for his Birmingham Ladywood seat again as an ILP candidate but was defeated by the syndicalist endorsed Robert Dunstan, a prior-Labour candidate and syndicalist activist & GP. Determined to re-enter politics, Mosley attempted to run for a seat on the NEC but was likewise rejected and found himself locked into the political wilderness. Despite being a prominent figure in the Labour Party, Mosley was snubbed by the new syndicalist elite that dominated the party functions that felt he was a 'red aristocrat' and were suspicious of his hedonistic and philandering lifestyle. Arthur MacManus secretly referred to Mosley as the 'next Grayson'. Nevertheless, Mosley was still popular in the ILP, gathering much praise from Deputy Chair John Wheatley who still regarded him as a future statesman. This sentiment was shared by the then Chairman Arthur Cook, and Mosley's future colleague and rival, Arthur Horner, both syndicalists who had endorsed his earlier Birmingham Proposals. Cook believed that Mosley had a bright future ahead of him but lacked the 'life experience' to garner support in the rather different world of TUC politics and in a private letter, encouraged him to at some point re-enter politics. Nevertheless, Mosley issued his finished 'Mosley Memorandum' to the endorsement of Cook and much of the ILP radicals though it failed to gain traction in the TUC and was attacked for its centralist policies by the powerful syndicalist lobby.
Having been sidelined, Mosley's friends Harold Nicolson and John Strachey both encouraged him to seek a career in the civil service as they were. Nicolson had been offered a position at the foreign office and was interested in re-entering the diplomatic corps whereas Strachey had resigned his commission in the airforce after a nervous breakdown and sought a job at the Ministry of Air. Both proposed Mosley join the Ministry of War, with Nicolson privately commenting it could lead to an eventual cabinet posting but Mosley declined and instead sought to travel to Europe with his family. In Europe, Mosley and his family first visited Paris where he mingled with local French socialists and wrote his 'horror' at their chaotic and divisive politics. Later he visited both Switzerland and Austria, mingling with members of the SDAPÖ in the latter. Their tour later took them to Italy, where Mosley met the Italian socialist and centralist, Benito Mussolini. Mosley was deeply impressed by Mussolini and his 'good natured character of shrewd cunning and deep intellectualism'. Mussolini introduced Mosley to the works of Sorel, who became interested in his socialist theories and sought to merge it with his own budding ideas, taking inspiration from Mussolini's statist and developmentalist doctrine.
Despite plans to return to Britain, Mosley instead opted to travel to Free India. In Delhi, Mosley rekindled his relationship with Gandhi who personally hosted Mosley's family. The two men were cordial and as Gandhi's guest, Mosley and his family were allowed to observe some of the political machinations occurring in the budding Indian state. Mosley was deeply impressed with the Indian state apparatus and believed that it would 'serve as the future model for the anti-colonial struggle'. Having been introduced to the centralist politician, Subhas Chandra Bose, by Gandhi, Mosley would go on to praise both men as the 'future leaders of a free and united Indian state'. His trip was cordially received by both and Mosley left India to return to Britain, a convert to the Indian independence movement.
Mosley returned in early 1927, and had now been immersed in the budding developmentalist ideologies of other syndicalist off-shoot movements, European economies and plannist economic theories such as those of Henri de Man. Having followed Keynes work closely from abroad, Mosley sought to bring his ideas to the mainstream and as such rekindled his political career. Working with his friends John Beckett and John Strachey (who he maintained correspondence with from abroad) alongside other ILP allies he sought to establish a new political faction within Labour that he felt would strike as a third path between 'Old Labour' and its timid moderation and the radical but economically decentralised orthodoxy of syndicalism. Mosley regarded these ideas as an evolutionary convergence of the present socialist movement into one, syncretic ideology to combine the best of all ideas. This came to be when Mosley and his followers formed the Popular Revolution Party: a political party affiliated to Labour but operating more as a ginger-group within the ILP. Indeed, Mosley did not resign his ILP membership and wished to use the PRP more for political campaigning rather than outright political gambits. With the tacit endorsement of John Wheatley, Mosley began to work on formalising his ideas.
By the end of 1927, he published a new edition of the Mosley Memorandum that largely expanded on the ideas of the original, and adapted them to a peace-time economy. Politically the TUC would largely be stripped of its control of the economy and given more general powers while the executive would adopt a presidential system of powers. Far more emphasis on developmentalism and interventionism with renewed calls for the Ministries of Finance and Labour to be abolished, instead all economic decisions would be handled by a separate Five-Man committee of ministers without portfolio, ran much like the 1916 War Cabinet, that would report directly to the Chairman. The Committee would additionally be advised by a cadre of industry experts, technocrats and a permanent secretary to oversee an entirely separate civil service department responsible to the council. This expanded memorandum was signed by 30 sitting Federal Congress members and Labour notables including Mosley, his wife and fellow Labour MP Lady Cynthia and among others: Oliver Baldwin, Joseph Batey, Aneurin Bevan, W. J. Brown, Robert Forgan, James Lovat-Fraser, John McGovern, John James McShane, Frank Markham, H. T. Muggeridge, Morgan Philips Price, Charles Simmons, James Maxton, Harold Nicolson, Wilfred Risdon, John Beckett and John Strachey. Other members of the TUC in the syndicalist lobby were interested in the proposals, most notably Arthur Horner who felt that Mosley's 'radical push for unbridled development' was 'the stuff of brilliance'. While Cook and Wheatley provided only some limited endorsement for a 'moderated version' of the Memorandum, it has been proposed that it would ultimately inspire Abe Moffat's more economically interventionist approach at the Ministry of Finance.
By 1928, Mosley had been re-ingratiating himself to his old Birmingham home and re-entered politics altogether. Triggering a recall election for the aviation union in Smethwick, Mosley used his renewed political clout and the Memorandum to sponsor his immediate rise to a seat in the TUC. His PRP saw an immediate burst of interest as the Memorandum was brought back to public light and some TUC members even opted to join. To the shock of much of syndicalist Labour, Mosley had re-asserted himself with a bang and quickly headed to Scotland to help campaign for the Unionist side in a further boost to his clout. Back in London, Beckett and later Mosley began secretly lobbying Wheatley for representation in the cabinet. Wheatley was deeply impressed with Mosley's stamina and political enthusiasm, but suspicious of his centralist tendencies and was not eager to upset the careful balance between the syndicalist-dominated trade unions and the ILP, particularly as his own influence in the party was under attack from Philip Snowden. Nevertheless, Wheatley finally relented by the February of 1929 and lobbied Cook to bring Mosley into the government.
Climbing the Ladder[]
On the 16th of March 1929, Mosley was invited to Whitehall where he was officially offered the junior position of the Congressional Undersecretary to the Ministry of Works. Despite still being outside of the cabinet, Mosley enthusiastically accepted as he believed his placement at the Ministry of Works was a tacit endorsement of his proposals for massive public works. Some 4 years on from the civil war, some regions still showed the scars of fighting and unemployment remained an issue. Serving under Jimmy Thomas, the Minister for Works & Forests, Mosley was tasked with the issue of solving this of unemployment and overseeing the final stages of reconstruction. Thomas was suspicious of Mosley and disliked his presence, believing that the young man often overstepped his bounds as Congressional Undersecretary. Furthermore, both men clashed on how they sought to conduct the Ministry's affairs with Mosley essentially seeking to repackage his Memorandum proposals whereas the ex-National Labourite Thomas was more closer to Philip Snowden. Thomas bemoaned Mosley's plans and dismissed 'all the humbug of curing unemployment by Exchequer grants'. Likewise, many of his ideas were vetoed at the cabinet level owing to the Executive Committee's distrust of his policies. Mosley repeatedly petitioned for a seat on the cabinet so he could better defend his ideas but he was denied.
In the TUC, Mosley was not trusted by most of his fellow delegates. One TUC delegate, Clement Attlee, said Mosley had a habit of speaking to his colleagues 'as though he were a feudal landlord abusing tenants who are in arrears with their rent'. John Bew described Mosley as 'handsome... lithe and black and shiny... he looked like a panther but behaved like a hyena'. Other colleagues regarded him as 'shying away from practical work in favour of speculative experiments' and 'offensively vain in himself'. Likewise many TUC members lambasted his haughty and aristocratic demeanor; his reputation for philandering and his often-pedantic criticisms of fellow TUC member and wife, Cynthia. His known clashes with Thomas became common-place, particularly as Thomas attempted to close off areas of responsibility to Mosley. This spurred the young man's suspicions and he began to believe that Thomas was seeking to strip him of responsibility in anticipation of expelling him from the government though no such action came to be.
Outside of the TUC, Mosley ran other political machinations within the PRP, for in the Summer of 1929 his party underwent a major reorganisation as he sought to professionalise it and turn it away from being a simple pressure group. The modern 'Popular Revolutionary Guards', better known as the Blackshirts, were formed under the leadership of an ex-constable, Eric Piercy. Their uniform was heavily modelled after Mosley's personal fencing uniform. A female wing was also established by Canadian suffragette, Mary Richardson, termed the Blackskirts and he began to attract many women to his ranks. In response the Daily Worker ran a Pg. 3 contest around a Blackskirt Beauty Contest. Not a single member of the women's division partook. Mosley capitalised on the incident shortly after and declared: 'These are serious women dedicated to the cause of their country rather than aspirants to the Gaiety Theatre chorus.' A newsletter and short-lived trade union committee were formed though the party failed to gain coveted influence in the legislature, even if its national visibility and influence among the bureaucracy rose considerably.
1930 would prove to be an eventful year for Mosley, not least with the death of his political patron, Wheatley. Following Wheatley's death, a leaked communique was released to the press in which Thomas requested permission from Cook to sack Mosley and replace him with Clement Attlee, then a back-bencher. Fearing Thomas was now moving to sack him, a beleaguered Mosley claimed in the TUC that Thomas was so fed up with him that he 'had looked around and choose the most uninteresting, unimaginative and mindlessly loyal among the backbenchers to do his dogsbody work' before threatening to resign. Mosley was promptly disciplined by Cook for his 'rancorous attitude' and demanded he reach an accord with Thomas. Cowed by higher powers, Mosley retracted his threats to resign and privately apologised to Attlee and later referred to him as a 'a clear, incisive and honest mind within the limits of his range' when he was offered a position at the Board of Trade.
Mosley attempted to temper his attitude for the time being but found himself wrapped up in political scheming once more by the end of the year. At the party's October conference, the Minister of Labour Tom Mann, had been selected to Chair the conference owing to Cook's worsening health due to cancer. When Cook announced his intention to resign, a leadership election was declared and to be contested by Mann and the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Henderson. This was to be one of the major conflicts in the reorganised Labour Party, seeing the syndicalist Mann campaign against the moderate 'Old Labour' Henderson. Holding no loyalty to either man, Mosley sought to capitalise on the affair as a means of advancing his own political career. Consulting with Beckett, Nicolson and his PRP associate and close confidant, Wilfred Risdon, he schemed as to which man would be most likely to reward him in exchange for support. Beckett and Nicolson were wary of Mosley declaring himself for one man; Nicolson felt that while Mann would win he would not take positively to 'sycophancy' and it could damage Mosley's prospects; Beckett on the contrary was concerned that the race was too close and Henderson could still drum up a powerful lobby. Ultimately, Risdon would eventually convince Mosley to throw his lot in with Mann, arguing that it would help compensate for Mosley's lack of popularity among the Syndicalists. At the end of October, in a press conference in Birmingham Mosley declared that he supported Mann to be Cook's successor to much buzz from the press.
Despite his hopes, Mosley received a far more tepid reaction in the TUC. The Welsh miner and TUC representative, Lewis Jones, led the charge and accused Mosley of political sycophancy and attempting to 'bribe' his way into the cabinet. Arthur Greenwood, one of Henderson's agents, likewise attacked Mosley and proclaimed that his conduct was 'unbecoming of a politician'. Mosley engineered a meeting with Tom Mann and his protege, Harry Pollitt, to discuss their options but Nicolson wrote to his wife Vita that, 'the two Tom's did not strike it off very well' and that Pollitt, who at the time was irritated with Mosley's posturing, took a hostile tone. Nevertheless, Mann assured Mosley that 'so long as he kept up good work' he had no reason to dismiss him in a looming cabinet reshuffle but Mosley left disappointed he was cheated out of high office yet again.
In the First Mann Ministry[]
Mann went onto comfortably win the 1930 Leadership Election after extensive campaigning, and per his promise, he allowed Mosley to retain his position amid a major cabinet reshuffle. Much to Mosley's dismay however, Thomas remained in his position as well with. Further friction emerged between the moderate ILP member Thomas (who's party was now controlled by Snowden) and Mosley who had opted to abandon the ILP and sit as a member of his own PRP. The cabinet make-up had now rapidly shifted from the Cook Ministry with Mann promising to clamp down on factionalism and unite the revolution behind a singular vision. Publicly, Mosley was a supporter of this policy and he praised the Chairman for 'seeking to do away with the rot' while uniting the nation behind 'true British virtues' of socialist unity. Despite still sitting as a member of the PRP, he nevertheless contended this was no obstruction to his anti-factionalism and that he was still bound to follow the party line.
Behind closed doors though, little truly changed in his day-to-day affairs and he lamented to Cynthia and Strachey about how his 'life had seemingly hit a dead end'. Indeed, he had grown a constant if uninspiring fixture of the Ministry of Works and found little potential advancement in politics. Frustrated with his dampened political prospects, he became gradually more interested in radical divergences of syndicalism and immersed himself in the violent and growing authoritarian current of European politics. To Mosley and his supporters, this was simply the natural extension of his already heavy-handed and interventionist politics. Indeed, at a rally Mosley asked if the state was trusted to intervene to set the economy right, why could the same not be said for the individual.
Elsewhere in politics, clouds were amassing and Mosley's political fortunes were set to turn. On the 5th of June, an anonymous civil servant at the Ministry of Works posted confidential documents to the Manchester Guardian causing a major budgetary leak. This was to be the first crisis for the Mann government, in which Thomas was accused of using his influence to embezzle funds and take bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts. Mosley was largely unaware of this - though had earlier confided to Nicolson about 'strange happenings' - but now knew a brief window of opportunity had opened. In a major political gambit, he wrote to all major newspapers calling on Thomas to resign over his 'disgraceful, unsocialist actions'. Mann was reportedly furious with Mosley but lamented to Pollitt that 'the greatest tragedy of all of this is that Tom speaks only the truth'. Pressured, Mann privately summoned Thomas and warned him he had two options: resign with some degree of dignity and forfeit his membership of the TUC or fight it and most certainly be sacked in disgrace. Thomas opted for the former.
Roughly two weeks later it was announced that Thomas had to 'forfeit' his position in the TUC, and that he was being appointed as the historic Steward to the Manor of Northstead - a fictitious sinecure role. The manor no longer existed, and following the revision of the legal code, the Steward no longer served the crown but the local authority. The position was effectively that of an unpaid, assistant groundskeeper for Peasholm Park and served simply to carry on a British parliamentary tradition in which MPs could not actually 'resign'. This was not the end for Thomas however, for his faux-resignation was received poorly by factions in the TUC. Sylvia Pankhurst, a prominent left-Federationist, and her associate J.T. Murphy made unlikely allies of Mosley in attacking the appointment as 'disgraceful' and needless. Murphy contended that the TUC was not bound to the same protocols of Westminster and as such there was no need for a legal fiction. Mosley built upon this argument, publicly attacking Thomas (though not Mann) by accusing him of seeking to 'bung himself a new title' and contending that a minister resigning over embezzlement should not be afforded the luxury of 'leaving with pomp and grace'.
Ultimately, Mann was left with no other option but to suspend the 'appointment' and Thomas resigned officially from the TUC by the end of the month amid rumours of a recall vote. With his political career in ruins, the Welshman was forced to take an obscure position as a foreign liaison in Blyth, Northumbria, working in the local paper industry. The resignation of Thomas nevertheless came as a shock to much of the TUC but one that was bluntly regarded as necessary. Mosley had significantly built up his political clout and was now able to paint himself as a morally uncompromising anti-corruption crusader. Despite the carnage, even Mann was able to come out somewhat unscathed with Mosley vocally praising his superior's 'quick-witted decision making' and pledging that the Mann ministry would have 'no tolerance for sleaze'. The gambit paid off and now Mosley was depicted as a high profile and loyal servant of Mann. Encouraged by his advisors and with a vacant position to fill, he was left with no choice but to appoint him to the cabinet.
On the 1st of July, Mosley was summoned to Whitehall to be informed of his impending promotion and was offered the Ministry of Works. He immediately accepted the position and was introduced to the cabinet shortly after, with Jack Lawson being appointed as Under-Secretary. Mosley had since drifted from the possibility of using his Memorandum as an open blueprint, instead wishing to sponsor large-scale public works to combat unemployment and for the betterment of the nation. The new Finance Secretary, Abe Moffat, was impressed by Mosley's plans and dedicated large budgets for their consumption. Under Mosley's tenure, he continued the policy of sidelining his Under-Secretary, instead preferring for Lawson to act as an increasingly underused liaison and assistant. Nevertheless, his tenure did see the creation (and passing) of the Land Drainage Act (which provided some degree of progress in river management), the Public Works Facilities Act (to establish new employment opportunities and facilitate easier funding for projects) and the Cleaner London Campaign which introduced a number of facilities in London parks such as new gardens and boating ponds. On the effort of Lawson, youth parks were given special interest with new swings and sandpits for children. Future Minister, Tommy Moran, cited the campaign as the precursor behind his own 'Brighter Britain' campaign.
In the background though, Mosley had been reorganising the Popular Revolution Party, now believing that as an affiliate organisation it would be restrained its influence and become 'just another crank society' akin to the Fabians or the recently founded Christian Workers' Association. Internally, the PRP was split between two informal factions: the Professionalists and the Militarists. The former faction combined the likes of Strachey, Nicolson, Beckett and Risdon: the men and women who were professional politicians and wished to pursue a 'legitimate' course by working within the TUC and politics at large. Opposed to them were the Militarists informed by figures such as Eric Hamilton Piercy, William Joyce and Neil Francis Hawkins. Largely comprised of the more 'thuggish' rank-and-file that filled the Blackshirts, these more radical members wished to turn the PRP into a wholly militarist movement aimed on violent action rather than legislative politicking. Mosley had long aligned himself with the Professionalists and worked with Nicolson to integrate the PRP into the Labour Party proper despite the opposition of the Militarists. On October 1st, the party was finally wound up and members were encouraged to formally Labour underneath the PRP's successor organisation, the New Labour Association (NULA) socialist society, to steer Labour policy and 'work from within'. Most of the membership followed him but some remained outside Labour proper while still associating with Mosley. Moving forward he considered himself a 'centrist' within Labour but by mid 1932 had begun referring to himself as a 'Maximist'.
Rise to Power[]
The year of 1932 would once again prove to be eventful and is often contended as the time when Mosley was able to make a true name for himself due to events surrounding the concurrent Parliamentary Crisis. While only a minor minister, Mosley had nevertheless gained a reputation as a hard and efficient worker in charge of the Works. His projects were beginning to bear success and the dual issues of unemployment and underemployment began to gradually fall. Unfortunately for Mosley, these efforts were soon overshadowed by the far larger Representation of the People Act 1932 and Local Government Act 1932, along with the ensuing controversies that surrounded the bills.
OLD LORE, SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Before the end of 1930, Mosley truly began to show his ambitions when a wave of arrests were made, predominately among smaller opposition parties, which he described as rooting out a “Monarchist Conspiracy”. Major Liberals were imprisoned and swiftly tried and convicted, many confessing to having been in contact with the exiles in Canada in order to win backing for the overthrow of the syndicalist government and restore the king. Presenting taped and written confessions to the Federal Congress, Mosley warned that there are “traitors on the right among us” who intend to subvert the republic and foster a return to what he calls “The politics of reaction, the politics of beggaring the masses in the name of the wealthy.” Despite the arrests, Cook did his best to reign in Mosley and some amnesties were granted.
With Mosley once again returning to prominence, the Popular Revolution Party rode this tide making a meteoric rise from the wilderness with its membership rapidly increasing. Like the decade before, Mosley was being tipped for high office in the Chairmanship with the young man making clear his intentions to take the position.
Return to Labour[]
Early in the year, Fenner Brockway penned an open letter denouncing Mosley’s prior appointment to head the CIC as “granting a young man with overweening pride and no accountability, the power to decide the future of the Union”. Referring to Mosley’s flagrant abuse of power and warning that soon Britain would become a ‘tin-pot dictatorship’ unless action is taken. He then introduced a motion that would add replacing Mosley to Labour’s election manifesto. Around this time Mosley allied with Tom Mann, the Minister of Industry and Labour, who was chairing the Labour Party conference. Mann became a keynote of resistance to Brockway, arguing that Mosley’s brief tenure of the office of deputy chairman had seen the Union deepen ties with France, increase the pace of syndicalisation beyond what Wheatley had managed in his entire career and promote orthodox syndicalism as the new British way of life. Though Mann soon found his sympathies for the young Deputy wavering following Mosley's attempts to have Brockway (who Mann personally liked due to their shared Anglican beliefs) removed from the party ballot.
Following the conference, Cook announced to the party that he would not stand for re-election owing to his rapidly declining health and that he felt Mann was to be his 'natural successor'. Mosley briefly attempted to contest this, calling for an 'open ballot' in the hopes that he could secure the Chairmanship but ultimately back down. The 1931 elections in January were held without incident (though many Liberals and ILP candidates were delisted) and Mann reappointed Mosley to the Deputy Chairmanship following the PRP experiencing large gains in the TUC. Mann promised to form a mixed cabinet of Labour and PRP members and despite a slight rift, agree to immediately greenlight various expansions to the intelligence services.
The cabinet crisis and parliamentary crisis[]
However, the relationship between Deputy and Chairman quickly fractured during the so-called 'Cabinet Crisis' occuring shortly after the election. Constitutional law was vague on the nature of cabinet appointments and precendent dictated that while Cook de jure made the appointments, his deputy had been heavily involved in prior discussion. Leveraging this practice, Mosley drew up his own list of cabinet positions which saw a 50/50 split between Labour and the PRP. After being convinced by Beckett to tone down these proposals, he instead presented an alternative draft with plans for the PRP to control the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Board of Education, with the War Office and Ministry of Information already controlled by the PRP.
Mosley issued these proposals to Mann, citing the need for 'bipartisan collaboration' though the Chairman stalled for time as he held concerns over the possibility of the PRP controlling two great offices of state. Mann's original choice for the Foreign Office, Arthur Henderson, had rebuffed the role and Mann was left without an alternative option. Mosley began to petition prior cabinet ministers and other notables to support his plans, forcing him to ultimately choose Harry Pollitt for the role. With his path to securing the foreign office blocked, Mosley attempted to negotiate for other concessions but Mann (acting through Pollitt) offered the Ministry of Industry and Labour to Alexander Raven Thomson who acceped, following Mosley's acquiesence.
Forgan also requested he be appointed to the Ministry of Health (as he was a physician) under Mosley's instruction, but the position had already secretly been offered to Albert Salter, a Brockwayite. Forgan was offered a much less glamorous position at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, despite having no prior experiene with either role. Despite being regarded as a purposeful snub by Mosley, he instructed Forgan to accept the position anyway. With his plans to take over the cabinet snuffed out, he voiced his frustrations both privately and publicly. Towards the end of the 'crisis' period, he penned an open letter to Mann condemning his 'narrow-minded' appointments and question if he truly saw it is a coalition of equals. Mann did not respond.
Contemporary politics[]
Mosley remains the Deputy Chairman of the Federal Congress, and by this position Director of the Central Intelligence Committee. He also serves as an observer on the Military Intelligence Committee and is a common speaker for the openly authoritarian 'Friends of Socialism' society. He also serves as a chief editor for the Maximist affiliated newspaper 'Action' and has wrote numerous books on the subject of British Sorelianism. He is also the Maximist faction's chief public orator, often appearing at rallies and speeches. It also rumoured that Mosley is collaborating with other 'Totalist' figures in the creation of some kind of international political charter, something which he has been keen to promote.
Mosley is the formal head of the NULA and 'Maximist' faction within the Federal Congress which subscribes to the eponymous ideology though it is also called British Sorelianism and rarely Hyndmanism. Mosley openly advocates the creation of an authoritarian dictatorship, the use of populist rhetoric for mass mobilisation and further central planning of the economy via a system of 'managed unions' alongside large public work programs to alleviate unemployment. He is also notable for condemning the rise of what he has referred to as 'the class betrayal of the civil service' and called for working class candidates to be given priority in bureaucratic appointments. Mosley's exact views on the federal system are vague and at times contradictory, having openly opposed the creation of the English Council on the grounds of 'only worsening a bloated bureaucracy' along with referring to the devolved administrations as simply elongating political processes. Despite this he has spoken positively on the system and at times acknowledged that he would not seek to abolish it but rather 'streamline' it.
Personal life[]
Mosley is an avid fencer and patron of the Republican Amateur Fencing Association. He married Lady Cynthia Curzon in 1920 though he later had two separate affairs with her younger sister, Lady Alexandra Curzon, and then their stepmother Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston. The couple have had three children together:
- Vivien Elisabeth Mosley (Born 1921)
- Nicholas Mosley (Born 1923)
- Michael Mosley (Born 1932)
Literary works[]
- England Arise Revisited: Notes on H.M. Hyndman, (1924)
- Mussolinism, (1926)
- Stagnation in the Republic, (1927)
- Essays on Sorelianism, (1928)
- Revolution by Reason and Other Essays by Oswald Mosley, (1929)
- Totalism: The New Enlightenment, (1930)
- The Greater Britain: Plans for the Future, (1930)
- The Alternative, (1932)
- Understanding British Sorelianism and Neo-Cromwellianism (1934)
- Tomorrow We Live, (1935)