My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleypower to cut through the intolerable network of governmental and municipalprocedure are needed to make possible the early provision of work on schemes ofurgent and immediate importance. In addition to constructive works already detailedin parliamentary debate, we suggest an attack by direct action on the great problemsof slum clearance and rehousing. . . . Nothing should be allowed to stand in the wayof using a very large number of our unemployed men on this vital task. . . .' Snowden,Churchill and the Treasury view suffered short shrift in the phrase: 'In finance weshould pursue a producers' policy. The producer, whether manufacturer or worker, hasbeen penalised for ten years by a financial policy which benefits the bond-holder andhandicaps production. The first concern of financial policy must be the maintenanceof industry, and this demands a stable price level. . . .'The Manifesto concluded with a clear definition of the difference between theimmediate necessity for action and long-term principle: 'In the advancement of thisimmediate policy we surrender nothing of our socialist faith. The immediate questionis not a question of the ownership, but of the survival of British industry. Let us putthrough an emergency programme to meet the national danger; afterwards politicaldebate on fundamental principle can be resumed. . . .'Most men of sense would surely agree that in a moment of national crisis this was arealistic assessment of the position. The events and the pressures which prevented thisremarkable company from pursuing to conclusion the policy in which they expressedtheir belief, could be subject to a long analysis. Why did Aneurin Bevan retreat infilial fidelity and slumberous content between the twin bosoms of the Labour Partyand trade union movement which had so long nurtured him, only to awaken again in1959 to the realisation that nothing could be done to implement his ideals until the'commanding heights'1 of finance were assailed and occupied? He had seen the lightthen, but it faded from his eyes for the lifetime of a generation. His ultimate, belated,but again transient return, to that vision was then hailed as a flash of inspiration by theLabour Party, though he merely repeated the main theme held by the signatories ofthe Manifesto in 1930, which derived from the Birmingham proposals in 1925.Why did John Strachey after giving so much time and energy to the development of apolicy which rested the whole economic system of our country on a partnershipbetween Britain and the Dominions in an insulated economy, suddenly present amemorandum to say that we must work with Russia instead of the Dominions, andthen leave me on the nominal ground that I would not accept a change which madenonsense of the whole policy? Harold Nicolson recounts in his Diaries that Stracheywas much offended by my description of his conduct as 'pathological', which wasindeed tactless; irritation should never intrude on these serious occasions. There werereasons, of course, in the deep psychological sphere; once again emotion destroyedpurpose. What matters in life is to get things done that have to be done: things whichwere then necessary to reduce human suffering and to maintain the greatness of agreat nation, and in this age may be necessary to prevent the destruction of the world.Mankind in my time has paid a sad price for personal feelings and emotions, and mayyet pay more dearly still.Yet I shall always remember with gratitude that four M.P.s accompanied me at first inthe formation of the New Party, as well as Allan Young as organiser, after theatmosphere of crisis had been temporarily dissipated, and men could again convince234 of 424