My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyAugust 1, 1966, a year ahead of the last crisis and the demand for action which itevoked: 'We need today a government of national union, drawn from all that is bestand most vital in the nation. It should be strong government, but subject always to thewill of the people. It should be elected by their votes, and liable to dismissal by theparliamentary majority. In any case such a government should go when its job is done,because we should then be ready to enter Europe. The life of such a governmentwould thus be definitely limited. The task of such a government is to make Britainstrong and fit again. We must press the wind and water out of our national life. Thenall reward must be related directly to effort and productivity.Government must be given power not just to talk but to act.' I have stressed that thisgovernment of national consensus should be subject to full parliamentary control, butaccorded by Parliament the power to act until it incurs a vote of censure. It should bea government of national consensus drawn from politics, the civil service, thebusiness world, the trade unions, the universities and the fighting services. Then atlast we may get the dynamism in government which our desperate situation requires,the drive to a future even greater than Britain's past.Since the war I have stressed altogether five main objectives. The true union ofEurope; the union of government with science; the power of government to actrapidly and decisively, subject to parliamentary control; the effective leadership ofgovernment to solve the economic problem by use of the wage-price mechanism atthe two key-points of the modern industrial world; and a clearly defined purpose for amovement of humanity to ever higher forms.Oswald Mosley with crowd after Trafalgar Square meeting.It is strange that in this last sphere of almost abstract thought my ideas have moreattracted some of the young minds I value than my practical proposals in economicsand politics. The reason is perhaps that people seek the ideal rather than the practicalduring a period in which such action is not felt to be necessary. This is encouragingfor an ultimate future, in which through science the world can become free from thegnawing anxiety of material things and can turn to thinking which elevates and to419 of 424