My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleydenounced as fascism by those who use as a term of abuse a subject to which theyhave never devoted five minutes' serious study, but in fact such measures are nothingof the kind. Before this age of intellectual intimidation, experienced parliamentarianswere quite convinced of the need for some such reforms of government method andparliamentary procedure as were outlined in my resignation speech and latercrystallised in my detailed evidence to the Select Committee.On December 8, 1930, a document with seventeen signatures was printed in the DailyTelegraph under the title of the Mosley Manifesto and extensively in most otherpapers. It was signed by sixteen Labour M.P.s—who included Aneurin Bevan, W. J.Brown, Secretary of the Civil Service Clerical Association, Oliver Baldwin, JohnStrachey, and myself—and by Arthur Cook, General Secretary of the Miners'Federation. The Manifesto followed closely the general line of my resignation speech,and today it is startling in its sharp departures from traditional Labour thinking andfrom the prevailing psychology of the party in recent years. It affirmed that 'animmediate policy is required, more drastic and determined than any policy yetformulated by any government in the House of Commons ...', and suggested similarreforms in the machinery of government and in the parliamentary machine: 'It isimpossible to meet the economic crisis with a nineteenth-century parliamentarymachine. While the power to maintain or change the government must, of course, beretained by parliament, wide powers to deal with the present economic crisis must bevested in the government of the day for a stated period, subject only to the generalcontrol of parliament. The whole organisation of the executive machine, Cabinet, anddepartmental structure must be adapted to the needs of the present situation. Anemergency Cabinet of not more than five Ministers, without portfolio, should beinvested with power to carry through the emergency policy. The normal Cabinet ordepartmental chiefs should be retained for less frequent meetings to deal with normalbusiness. . . .'The Manifesto also accepted the insulated economy: 'The home market must be thefuture basis of British trade, and that home market depends on the high purchasingpower of the people, which in turn depends on high wages. Purchasing power canonly be maintained and increased if the wages and conditions of the workers aresheltered from the present crisis in world conditions, such as price fluctuations,organised dumping, and the competition of sweated labour. . . .' Import control boardsand commodity boards were to be adopted for this purpose, with the additional use oftariffs accompanied by various safeguards. It was argued that 'centralised' purchase ofour foodstuffs should give us powerful leverage to secure acceptance of our exports inreturn. 'Excellent opportunities clearly exist for the early conclusion of suchagreements in the British Commonwealth. . . . The Dominions have for the most partfoodstuffs and raw materials to sell, and we have manufactured goods to sell. Thisnatural balance of trade should be developed under a Commonwealth plan of mutualadvantage. . . . We should aim at building within the Commonwealth a civilisationhigh enough to absorb the production of modern machinery, which for this purposemust be largely insulated from wrecking forces in the rest of the world. . . .'The concept of the insulated economy resting on the mutual development of Britainand the Dominions was accepted in full. To this complete departure from normalLabour Party policy was added a bulldozer to drive through their cherished,traditional network of local authority procedure: 'We believe that only the will and the233 of 424