My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyRe-organising the machine of governmentIt remains as true today as when I made my resignation speech in 1930 that we cannotsolve the economic, or any other problem without first making an adequate machineryof government; this still remains to be done. That was the occasion on which a powerhouse of government was first suggested. The reader may recall that I proposed anorganisation operating directly under the Prime Minister and the head of the CivilService, served on the one hand by a research and economic advisory department andon the other by an executive machine composed of twelve higher officials. I wouldsuggest that this organisation should be largely staffed from the Treasury because itsofficials are the ablest in any department of the government. They are attacked todaybecause their duties are negative rather than positive, restrictive rather than dynamic:also they are always overworked. Officials drawn from the Treasury should be used inthe creative machine of government, where their exceptional abilities could be ofparamount importance, and the watch-dog functions of their department should belargely taken over by other officials attached to each department in a judicial ratherthan a normal official capacity. This would secure the far more persistent drive tosecure economy, the elimination of all forms of waste, which has long been necessary.The officials in the Prime Minister's department should, of course, be joined in thecentral administration by outsiders from the business world, universities and tradeunions, as in America and other countries.I have added in recent years the proposal that a consolidated Ministry of Science andTechnology should be constituted, linked directly with the Prime Minister'sdepartment. This would implement my long reiterated desire that 'statesmen shouldlive and work with scientists as the Medicis lived and worked with artists'. Thus alonecan we secure a continual dynamic drive of government to implement the scientificrevolution. The work of this department would not be continual interference, but tolead, to initiate and to do things which business cannot do. We should even take riskswhich business will not take. Ever since my first period of office I have insisted that avital function of government is to carry the new invention from the initial stagesthrough to the capital market, and at last it appears some moves are being made in thisdirection. If some of the best scientific brains of the country were employed for thistask by executive government the wins would much more than carry the losses.I have fully developed this theory in recent years, but in origin it dates back to mylong-held view that the State should be a pioneer and not a parasite, a creator of newenterprise and not a nationaliser of obsolete industries, a leader and not a wet nurseholding the baby for a failing capitalism. Let the experts of industry conduct their ownbusiness with full incentive and reward for their efforts, but let the government assistthem by undertaking tasks too big for industry, and in the sphere of science takingrisks which the future alone can justify. Set industry free, but let government lead.Restore Britain's health—enter EuropeWe need a government of national consensus for a limited period to secure a definedobjective. The object is to restore Britain's health, and to enter Europe. This method ofgovernment can and will end by natural process when its purpose is achieved and thecommunity enters a wider sphere. Such a government, by reason of its own characterand the temporary nature of the situation it is designed to meet, must finish when itstask is done. I have made this proposal for years past, and summarised it again on418 of 424