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I’m really aware of sounding like some kind of Nazi Revisionist but I thought with a few butterflies namely: (1) the death of PM Stanley Baldwin (2) Moseley remaining a closet fascist. (3) British appeasement resulting in US neutrality in WW2 (4) Aggressive Imperial stance towards Japan. Things could have become interesting if Mosely had continued his rise in the Conservative Party.

Here we go….

1918


Oswald Moseley elected ConservativeMember of Parliament (MP) at the age of 21 for Harrow. He soon distinguishes himself as a gifted orator and politician in the House of Commons.


1922


Reelected to parliament, he took a junior ministerial position in the Ministry of Health before the government fell in 1924. In reference to the young Moseley, the liberal Westminster Gazette wrote that he was "the most polished literary speaker in the Commons, words flow from him in graceful epigrammatic phrases that have a sting in them for the government and the conservatives. To listen to him is an education in the English language, also in the art of delicate but deadly repartee. He has human sympathies, courage and brains.”


1931


Moseley appointed Minister for Employment in the coalition National Government lobbying for State Intervention in respect to employment as well as a raft of isolationist policies to protect the British economy from future world market fluctuations (as experienced in the 1928 Great Depression).


1932


Moseley appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the coalition National Government. He spends the next five years reducing the war debt and tax burden especially amongst the working class. Many of his more radical policies alarm some of his party colleagues however their broad base appeal to the general populous and his subsequent successes in promoting pro-labour reforms gained him widespread support across the political spectrum especially amongst the working classes. Many within the party, foe and friend apart, recognize his unifying qualities in a time of economic and social tumult.


1937

Stanley Baldwin dies suddenly in office. Moseley takes his place as Prime Minister despite party Moseley wastes no time in establishing his authority aongst his detractors installing sympathetic supporters to his ministry as well as top public servant positions. However he appears almost resistant to recognize the growing tide of fascism across Europe fearing he would only appease his detractors who had long standing concerns about his affiliations with the German Nazi Party.


Mosely first act of parliament was to attain a free trade agreement within the British Empire at the exclusion of most Far East nations including Japan and China. Tariffs increases protected British industry as well as provided funds to public housing, transport and major infrastructure projects across the Britain. to provide work and improve housing standards overall. Thirty years later in 1961, R.H.S Crossman described these (visionary) work programmes as "... a whole generation ahead of Labor Party thinking.”

1938


With growing worldwide defense commitments coupled with an insufficient economic-financial base, Mosley adopted several (then radical) Keynesian style economic stimulus packages targeting public works, rearmament projects and transport infrastructure improvements mainly in South East Asia.

These projects led to high inflation and interest rates as well as a balance of payments crisis. However the looming military threat in Europe and Japan along with substantive improvements in the standards of housing prompt detractors in his party to quell their reservations and maintain their support for Moseley


1939


The Moseley Government doubled the Territorial Army (reserve army) from 13 to 30 divisions. For the first time in British history peacetime conscription was ordered with the first conscripts to be used to supplement the labour force involved in major infrastructure projects. Despite widespread populous support of his corporatist economic agenda, his approach to governance within the party was growing increasingly dictatorial with many openly drawing comparisons between Mosley and Adolf Hitler (as depicted in the Charlie Chaplain film classic: ‘The Little Dictators”). Despite his critics the Tories are swept back into power during the General Election with an overwhelming majority.


In his victory speech Moseley spoke passionately of ‘a generation’s horror’ in reference to his first hand experience of war in WW1. It is then that he makes a solemn personal commitment to maintaining peace in Europe.
Of this speech, the London Times wrote,” When Prime Minister Mosley sat down after his victory speech in Harrow and the audience, stirred as an audience rarely is, rose and swept a storm of applause towards the platform-who could doubt that here was one of those root-and-branch men who have been thrown up from time to time in the religious, political and business story of England. First that gripping audience is arrested then stirred and finally, as we have said, swept off its feet by a tornado of peroration yelled at the defiant high pitch of a tremendous voice."

In February 1939 the British government was thrown into a state of panic by the so-called "Dutch War Scare" after false information was circulated that Germany planned to invade the Netherlands with the aim of using Dutch airfields to launch a strategic bombing offensive intended to achieve a "knock-out blow" against Britain and raze British cities.

Since France was the only country capable of stopping a German offensive from overrunning the Netherlands, they issued an ultimatum to Britain that they would do nothing unless a large British expeditionary force was sent to Europe immediately. Believing Britain’s future viability lay in maintaining its Empire, Moseley provides only token military support to its allies on the continent. He also believed that Britain still lacked the required industrial infrastructure and financial power to negotiate from a position of strength with the Axis powers. Thus he sought a clear path of appeasement stating openly in the Houses of Commons, “This country and its Empire can ill afford nor risk the spilling of fresh blood in foreign fields without a just cause in support of our own people.”

In March Germany invades Poland.


After full Staff talks with France broke down, Mosley informed the House of Commons that ‘this country would no longer be automatically committed to war in Europe’. He argued that the only way to avoid a repetition of WW1, Anglo Saxon world must make every effort to tear down existing divisions in Europe both politically and culturally. Like his German counterparts he did view the Axis powers as their natural enemy. Similar positions were eventually put to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands believing that only a political solution was possible.


Having secured a majority in parliament, Moseley pushed through the ‘British Neutrality Act’. Modeled upon its American counterpart, the act allowed for the internment of foreign belligerents and the prohibition of national supplies of war material to warfaring nations. (This act of ‘treacherous pacifivity’ was the last straw for many Tories leading to the resignation of key Conservatives most notably Sir Winston Churchill). Though highly contentious, similar Neutrality acts were eventually adopted by the rest of the Commonwealth with the exception of New Zealand.


1940


Without a substantial British expeditionary force Western Europe is quickly overrun by the Axis Powers. After negotiation with German forces, the small British expeditionary forces are allowed to leave largely intact from Dunkirk.


1941


In response to the war in Europe, the Mosley’s Conservative Government is granted wide-ranging emergency powers by Parliament creating a five member Cabinet (as was the case in WW1). The concentration of power in the Cabinet and partial suspension of democratic processes led many to believe that Mosley was leading Britain towards fascism. These fears are reinforced when Moseley nationalized the coal industry and banking sectors.
These State interventions coincided with elements of various fascist organizations and trade unions uniting into a single entity known as the British Union of Fascists (BUF). With tacit approval from authorities, the BUF were used to quell public descent to the Government policy resulting in several major street riots and an increase in anti-Semitic activities.


1942


Vichy Government established ties with Britain. In retaliation Free French Forces in Tunisia (including its Navy commanded by Darlan) attack British interests in North Africa as well as in the Far East.


1943


At the Quebec conference, Canadian PM Mackenzie King (fostering a belief that Hitler to be a hero of Wagnerian proportions) supported Moseley’s path of appeasement urging President Franklin D. Roosevelt to do the same. In a statement to the press he declared that “they (Canada) would only become involved if Britain was directly under threat.” FDR had already concluded prior to the War in Europe that Britain would seek a path of appeasement and concluded that, “The US would only considered revising neutrality laws if Britain and its Commonwealth were seen to pursue a more confrontational military stance against the Axis Powers”.

In June Germany launches an all out assault upon the USSR however became bogged down into a war of attrition that would last for another 12 years. In the meantime Western Europe is incorporated in the Greater German Reich.



Following reports in the British press of the maltreatment of British subjects wishing to leave or enter the British concession in Tiajin, China, the Japanese Army imposed a blockade leading to the sinking of two British merchant ships. These events so enraged British public opinion that much pressure was placed on the government to take action against Japan. Having viewed war with Japan as inevitable, Moseley sends both Arc Royal and the Hood to bolster the British battle fleet in the Far East. On June 26, 1943 the Japanese launch a preemptive strike sinking both battle ships. On June 27, Moseley had declared that British Empire was now at war with Japan.


1944


With the full weight of the British and Commonwealth forces pitted against the Japanese, the Britain-Japan War eventually petered off into an inconclusive draw after a decisive victory by the British at the Battle of Singapore as well as the threat of US intervention


1945


A British cultural attaché headed by a the reinstated King Edward VII was dispatched to Tokyo to meet directly with Emperor Hirohito leading to establish an agreement of ‘harmony and goodwill amongst the British peoples and the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity of Japan’. (King Edward VIII would remain a close friend and ally of Moseley until his assassination in 1956).


1947


Moseley resigned as British PM and was knighted in 1950 for services to the realm.


1960


After Hitler’s death in August 1953, the Third Reich sought to reintroduce a political party system across continental Europe and its Former Soviet Protectorates. Attempts soon followed to co-ordinate pan-European Nationalism networks in Britain.


In response Sir Moseley sought to establish the National Party of Europe (NPE) largely based upon a loose affiliation of European union groups and pro-nationalist movements. At the Conference of Venice leaders from the British Union of Fascists (BUF), Deutsche Reichspartei, the Italian National Socialist Party ,Jeune Europe and the Mouvement d'Action Civique came together to form the core of the NPE.


The European Declaration at Venice was
released on March 1, NPE launched the NPE the following charter aims:


(1) Support the creation of an elected European parliament within the Third Reich.
(2) Endorse membership by the Britain Empire and the Former Soviet Protectorates into this European Parliament
(3) Reintroduction of democratic national parliaments within the Third Reich with their authority limited to mainly social and cultural areas of state.
(4) The economy to be driven by the wage-price mechanism to ensure fair wages and economic growth.
(5) Creation of an economic alternative to captilism and communism
(6) Increase in worker control and less bureacracy in nationalized industries.
(7) Decolonization with a move to set up single-ethnic governments in former colonies.
(8) Europe to be defined as the mainland continent, the United Kingdom and the former Soviet Territories and Protectorates.
(9) The NPE motto will be 'Progress - Solidarity - Unity

1964


After establishing its membership base mainly in non-German states, the NPE becomes the second largest party in the Third Reich after the Nationalist Socialist Party. The NPE lose its first European Election leading to Moseley’s resignation as party leader.

In his farewell retirement address at the Reichstag, Sir Oswald Moseley said,

“The idea of a Europe under one banner began to develop for me in the final days of the (British-Japan) War. The dream of a European continent no longer burdened by it history of division. But unified under a common cause of shared prosperity and security. For me unification was the only viable alternative in an increasingly globalized marketplace.”


1971


Sir Oswald dies at the age of 72. Offered a Reich Funeral, his family bury him in a private service in Cambridge.
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