My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyfirst election programme; they were combined with the urgent and practical demandfor social reform —notably housing—to give ex-servicemen the land they deserved. Iwon by a large majority against an Independent Conservative whose chief argumentwas that I was much too young; a point easily countered by 'old enough for Flanders,old enough for Westminster'. So on the wave of post-war enthusiasm I was swept tothe House of Commons at just twenty-two years of age as the youngest M.P., which Iremained for some time.The Air Navigation Bill provided an early and appropriate opportunity for my maidenspeech. After quoting Chatham's celebrated reply to Horace Walpole concerning the'atrocious crime of being a young man' and mentioning in becomingly modest termsmy flying experience in the war, I launched into my main theme, which was thesaving of the nation's air industry from the stranglehold of bureaucracy. Heavypenalties for negligence were preferable to the tender care of some governmentinspector who worked on the time system. It required no exercise of the imaginationto see that the aircraft and the tank would soon supersede infantry as the decisivefactor in war. The Secretary of State for War, Mr. Churchill, was falling into the sameerror as his predecessors at the War Office, who had refused to credit the possibilitiesof such a rapid extension of the activities of aircraft as had already occurred. Theresult of this quite lively assault was agreeably flattering to youthful vanity: amongother references to the occasion was a cartoon in Punch showing the young anddynamic airman painting Mr. Churchill as a doddering old man and urging him tobring his ideas up to date. It was our first encounter in debate, and I was on theperennially popular ground of the youth racket. It is entertaining in retrospect to see itused against Churchill when he was just forty-four years old; if the youth mania hadthen been in full swing he might have been retired from politics twenty-one yearsbefore he became Prime Minister in the Second World War.It was a thin House, but a number of influential members were present, notably thedistinguished Speaker Lowther, who was in the Chair. It was his praise of this firsteffort in the inner circles of Westminster which really made my early parliamentaryreputation. I realised fully how much he had done for me in this respect some timelater, after his retirement to the House of Lords as Lord Ullswater, when he devoted tomy maiden speech his opening remarks from the Chair in presiding over a debate inwhich my opponent was the Duke of Northumberland, a man of 'die-hard'Conservative principles but engaging personality.Lowther was an outstanding Speaker who had already become a legend on account ofhis firm character and penetrating wit. My favourite example was a pre-war tale ofsome pretentious bore making a speech of inordinate length and finally saying: 'Now,Mr. Speaker, I ask myself this question.' Both front benches distinctly heard a voicefrom the Chair replying: 'And you'll get a damned silly answer'. The secret ofLowther's success was a sense of the drama of the House of Commons. He wouldalways, if possible, call the member, old, young or middling, who was most likely tomake an effective reply to the previous speaker. He liked to heighten the tension ofthe debate in the confidence that his personality could maintain order, while lessgifted Speakers sometimes try to diminish it and to reduce discussion to thecommonplace. His decisions were clear and firm, but I was warned soon after arrivalby the Cecil brothers—well versed in the subtleties of procedure and of humancharacter—never to spring anything on him; this always entailed a negative. The79 of 424