The Road to War 1935-39 - essays on an imminent conflict - Oxford University Press, 1952
Mosley did what Mosley did best. He walked and he talked. Donning a grey boiler suit, he strut the streets of comunities throughout the Kingdom, listening to the ordinary people and discussing their day-to-day lives. He was the public face of Labour, much more so than Atlee, and with his enturage of young diciples he was making the Party what it had never been before - both electable and sustainable.
His young followers were a generation that had never known the horrors of war first hand - vibrant youths with a solution to every issue.
With the deteriorating situation in Germany and the surrounding nations under Hitler, Mosley brought a breath of fresh air to matters. Of course, the German rearmament issue was of concern, but no-one believed, other than Mr Churchill, that war was imminent once more. Mosley originally advocated disarmament for both the western allied nations and for Germany, but as Hitler rose and his ambitions on a Greater Germany became clear, he became a strong advocate of rearmament as a threat to prevent war - a form of mutually assured devastation, as he liked to call it.
Of course, the war came when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, and for the majority it had been predicable since Mr Chamberlain had returned from Munich the previous year.
The National administration that Mr Chamberlain constructed really paved the way for the running of the war. Whilst many people now criticise his failure to act as the catalyst for the quagmire of European conflict, the fact that he almost immediately appointed Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, and Mosley to a non-portfolio, almost ambassadorial cross-party position within the cabinet was, at least during the conflict, testimony to his legacy.
After the fall of France it was time for review, and the groundwork undertaken by Mosley made the acceptance of Labour to join the government all the more likely. The combination of Churchill and Mosley looked good to Attlee, whose own personal preference was anyone but Chamberlain, and as such a united National Government was formed, with Attlee taking the post of Deputy Prime Minister.
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"It's either my man or yours, Clem." Mosley was insistant with the Deputy Prime Minister. "He's good. Bloody good, and the people like him."
"But so is Dugdale." rebuked Attlee. "We need a military man to hold the seat. It is a time of war, and no-one knows this better than Dugdale."
The resignation of Fredrick Roberts had opened up the West Bromwich seat for Labour, and Mosley wanted his local man to get it. Attlee, on the other hand was keen to see his loyal former secretary, John Dugdale, rewarded with a seat in the Commons.
In the end it was agreed that the people of West Bromwich needed an MP with whom they could identify, and no one achieved that more than the popular radical that was the incumbant Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. Emmanuel Goldstein.
On 16th April 1941 Goldstein was returned unopposed for the West Browich seat, marking the step up from regional to national politics.
Mosley did what Mosley did best. He walked and he talked. Donning a grey boiler suit, he strut the streets of comunities throughout the Kingdom, listening to the ordinary people and discussing their day-to-day lives. He was the public face of Labour, much more so than Atlee, and with his enturage of young diciples he was making the Party what it had never been before - both electable and sustainable.
His young followers were a generation that had never known the horrors of war first hand - vibrant youths with a solution to every issue.
With the deteriorating situation in Germany and the surrounding nations under Hitler, Mosley brought a breath of fresh air to matters. Of course, the German rearmament issue was of concern, but no-one believed, other than Mr Churchill, that war was imminent once more. Mosley originally advocated disarmament for both the western allied nations and for Germany, but as Hitler rose and his ambitions on a Greater Germany became clear, he became a strong advocate of rearmament as a threat to prevent war - a form of mutually assured devastation, as he liked to call it.
Of course, the war came when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, and for the majority it had been predicable since Mr Chamberlain had returned from Munich the previous year.
The National administration that Mr Chamberlain constructed really paved the way for the running of the war. Whilst many people now criticise his failure to act as the catalyst for the quagmire of European conflict, the fact that he almost immediately appointed Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, and Mosley to a non-portfolio, almost ambassadorial cross-party position within the cabinet was, at least during the conflict, testimony to his legacy.
After the fall of France it was time for review, and the groundwork undertaken by Mosley made the acceptance of Labour to join the government all the more likely. The combination of Churchill and Mosley looked good to Attlee, whose own personal preference was anyone but Chamberlain, and as such a united National Government was formed, with Attlee taking the post of Deputy Prime Minister.
-----
"It's either my man or yours, Clem." Mosley was insistant with the Deputy Prime Minister. "He's good. Bloody good, and the people like him."
"But so is Dugdale." rebuked Attlee. "We need a military man to hold the seat. It is a time of war, and no-one knows this better than Dugdale."
The resignation of Fredrick Roberts had opened up the West Bromwich seat for Labour, and Mosley wanted his local man to get it. Attlee, on the other hand was keen to see his loyal former secretary, John Dugdale, rewarded with a seat in the Commons.
In the end it was agreed that the people of West Bromwich needed an MP with whom they could identify, and no one achieved that more than the popular radical that was the incumbant Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. Emmanuel Goldstein.
On 16th April 1941 Goldstein was returned unopposed for the West Browich seat, marking the step up from regional to national politics.
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