My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyfinance in order to conquer unemployment. . . this brilliant Keynsian manifesto was awhole generation ahead of Labour thinking.'Many other authorities agreed with this view, and at the time of writing a newgeneration, struck by the close parallel between the politics of 1930 and today, hastaken up the theme: for instance, Blackwood's Magazine, so long representative ofstaid and traditional opinion, wrote in January 1967:'Mosley's genius soared and fell like a rocket for the saddest of reasons: he was in hisideas a generation too early ... his economic ideas are now almost universallyaccepted'.The practical and pragmatic aspects of my work in the 1929-30 government wererecognised by Mr. Harold Wincott, writing in the Financial Times on January 21,1968:'Even those of us who lived through those years can only marvel, re-reading theeconomic history books and the biographies and autobiographies, at the stupiditiesthat were perpetrated— and hope that had we been in positions of authority andinfluence we would have been on the side of the small and oddly assorted band ofangels who then had the right ideas. Keynes, Oswald Mosley and Lloyd George, forexample'.Yet in the twenties the answer to this thinking was a combination between parties andpopular Press to smother the thought and action which might have averted thetroubles of today. Throughout that period it was impossible outside Parliament, orcertain party conferences, to get serious discussion of any subject except at the massmeetings I addressed continually throughout the country; and while popularenthusiasm can supply the necessary motive power to implement ideas, it is not thelaboratory for their detailed examination and development. Both major partymachines were in the power of conservative elements who lived completely in thepast, and rejected modern ideas which they were generally incapable of understanding,even if they had been willing to make the effort. National newspapers at that timewere the main instruments of forming opinion, and they were largely in the hands ofPress lords who were masters of certain aspects of business and finance but almostentirely ignorant of serious politics. Support for any new idea depended more on theirwhims and predilections, personal likes and dislikes which varied fitfully andcontinuously, than on any understanding of national problems or sense of nationalresponsibility. Their dream was to form governments of their cronies in the way thatmen form clubs, not serious parties supporting new ideas and clear courses. To doanything with them it was necessary to become a crony, and at a later stage I croniedmyself with some result. The grinding of personal axes was the game, and the seriousbusiness was circulation. Keep it silly was the watch-word, and treat them rough ifthey get serious was the action.It is a blessing of the present period that the Press has much improved, for the reasonthat it is mainly conducted by genuine businessmen. The new idea is gaining groundthat Press proprietors should sell genuine news like other industrialists sell genuinegoods. Over a large area of the Press slanted news is becoming a thing of the past. Acertain sense of responsibility to the public replaces the peddling of interest and thepursuit of personal feuds. There is a serious attempt to present unbiased news, and158 of 424