Never a Gabriel Over Whitehall: Fictional Representations of British Party Politics During the Mosley Era

Abstract

This paper assesses how the British political parties were popularly perceived during the early decades of the twentieth century. Despite most historians' stress on the extent to which class sentiment increasingly aligned the population with either the Conservative or Labour parties, novels of the time indicate the existence of considerable levels of cynicism about politicians. If such mistrust came to a head during the early 1930s, due to the country's unprecedented economic crisis, it existed long before and continued to be expressed long after. Oswald Mosley was just one of a number of politicians who sought to take advantage of these sentiments during this moment of crisis. His failure to establish himself as a major force was, of course, due to many reasons. One of them however was undoubtedly that while Mosley tried to exploit any-party feelings he was himself a victim of them—most notably through the pen of P. G. Wodehouse.

Keywords:

• Political Parties
• Literature
• Oswald Mosley
• Fascism

Notes

 [1] Edelman, From Art to Politics. 2.

 [2] Ross, Working-Class Hollywood.

 [3] Bloomfield, Peaceful Revolution.

 [4] Krukones, ‘Motion Picture Presidents’, 157.

 [5] For background to the film and the novel on which it was based, see McConnell, ‘Genesis and Ideology’, 7–26.

 [6] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0.9171.787995.00.html, accessed 1 August 2007.

 [7] Cross, Life with Lloyd George, 31; Thompson, David Lloyd George, 391–2.

 [8] McConnell, ‘Genesis and Ideology’, 11.

 [9] Tweed, Rinehard, 95–6.

[10] Tweed, Rinehard, 16–9.

[11] Tweed, Rinehard, 169.

[12] Tweed, Rinehard, 115.

[13] Tweed, Rinehard, 196.

[14] Tweed, Rinehard, 253.

[15] Campbell, Lloyd George, 299.

[16] Muir, How Britain is Governed, 4–6; Grey, Some Thoughts, 6–7.

[17] Tweed, Rinehard, 55 and 226.

[18] Williamson, National Crisis, 133–9 and 520.

[19] Pollard, Evolution of Parliament, 345.

[20] McKibbin, Classes and Cultures, 96–8.

[21] Belloc, Mr Clutterbuck's Election, 217.

[22] Villis, Reaction and the Avant-Garde.

[23] Wells, The New Machiavelli, 241, 256–7 and 260.

[24] Wells, The Shape of Things, 270–1.

[25] Wells, The Shape of Things, 123–6.

[26] Wells, The Shape of Things, 126 and 136.

[27] Bennett, Lord Raingo, 27, 29 and 61–2.

[28] Holtby, South Riding, ix–xii.

[29] Holtby, South Riding, 53, 81, 132–6 and 445.

[30] Holtby, South Riding, 106–7, 289 and 425.

[31] Holtby, South Riding, 384–6, 389–90 and 439.

[32] Vachel, John Verney, 377.

[33] Vachel, John Verney, 199.

[34] Vachel, John Verney, 150–1, 157, 162–3, 166 and 172.

[35] Vachel, John Verney, 50–1, 99–100, 154, 215 and 237.

[36] Vachel, John Verney, 286–7, 298–300, 328, 303 and 367.

[37] Vachel, John Verney, 196.

[38] Vachel, John Verney, 30–1, 136–7 and 285–6.

[39] Orwell, Coming Up for Air, 140–50.

[40] Buchan, Thirty-Nine Steps, 50–6.

[41] See his comments in regard to Dorrell and Son, in McKibbin, Ideologies of Class, 272.

[42] Wright Bakke, The Unemployed Man, 223–5.

[43] Krukones, ‘Motion Picture Presidents’, 147–9.

[44] Birmingham's Labour Weekly, 13 March 1931.

[45] Mosley, Greater Britain, 12–3, 17–8 and 24–5.

[46] Mosley, The British Peace, 8.

[47] Tom Harrisson Mass-Observation Archive, ‘British Union May Day Special’, 1940, File 8/A Middleton and Prestwich 1940, Box 8, By-Elections 1937–47.

[48] Mosley, Greater Britain, 25.

[49] Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters, 111–2.