Oswald Mosley - Briton, Fascist, European

"No rising star in the political firmament ever shone more brightly than Sir Oswald Mosley. Since by general assent he could have become the leader of either the Labour or the Conservative Party. What Mosley so valiantly stood for could have saved this country from the Hungry Thirties and the Second World War". - Michael Foot, M.P.

"The greatest comet of British politics in the twentieth century . . . an orator of the highest rank. He produced, almost unaided, a programme of economic reconstruction which surpassed anything offered by Lloyd George or, in the United States, by F. D. Roosevelt... He has continued fertile in ideas.. These ideas came to him by inspiration . . . Interned quite absurdly under Regulation 18B during the Second World War. . . He was never anti-Semitic - only opposed to a Second World War for the sake of Jews elsewhere. He was never unpatriotic - only indifferent to German conquests in eastern Europe... A superb political thinker, the best of our age". - A.J.P.Taylor

"A man who had aimed throughout his life at what he might describe as a Greek idea of excellence . He is anxious to synthesise the impulses of religion and science ... In the field of ideas he was a creative force... His tremendous talents as a platform speaker and parliamentary debater were available to give maximum effect. If events had so decided and awarded him the supreme office he would not have lacked the dedication nor the courage" - Earl of Longford

"He had an impeccable record in the First World War . . It was silly to intern Mosley during the Second World War. He was not in the least unpatriotic, any more than he was anti-Semitic or in favour of revolution by force.. . He had, I think, greater natural political talent than any survivor of his generation from the First World War" - Sir Colin Coote

"Attentive, considerate and infinitely courteous. . . he talks like a statesman who may be in the wilderness but who knows he is not finished yet... Sir Oswald believes in a consensus government, with people from the parties, the universities, public life and the army.. . Would go to the stake for Britain and her people" - Geoffrey Moorhouse

"A man of powerful will and bold intelligence, self-disciplined, by no means lacking in shrewdness or even humour, a spell-binding speaker, a truly formidable figure". - Colin Welch

"In his extraordinary career as soldier, politician, socialite, international sportsman, he had known most of the prominent people of his time.., a spectacular career". - George Murray

"He might have been able to lead either the Conservative or the Labour Party and in either case . . . I should have joined him. I discerned in him . . . this kind of quality of leadership that I discerned in only two other men during all my period of political life. One is Lloyd George and the other is Churchill". - Lord Boothby

"The stuff of greatness - more than a spark of genius". - John Blake

 

Diana Mosley - Loved Ones

IT may be considered inappropriate to include a short memoir of Oswald Mosley in a book about friends. We were married for forty-four years, my knowledge of him and my love for him can obviously not be compared with the affection I bore the other characters I have tried to describe. As I shall never write his biography, which on the political side has been adequately done by Robert Skidelsky and is certain to be done again, and as his autobiographyMy Life was a highly-praised bestseller when it was published in 1968, all that seems necessary is a short account of the man himself in private life, and perhaps to clear up one or two mysteries.