Hated and adored, trusted and feared, respected and scorned - public opinion has never been indifferent to Sir Oswald Mosley. A skilled politician, Mosley turned his back on conventional party politics to found, in 1932, the British Union of Fascists. Over the intervening years, many have worked hard to guard Mosley's reputation but Blackshirt casts new light on the man. It reveals the true nature of his relationship with the Nazis, and challenges the prevailing view of his descent into anti-Semitism. With ground-breaking research, Stephen Dorril uncovers an extraordinary set of characters and behind-the-scenes friends and colleagues who supported Mosley - the crooks, swindlers, political and royal figures, secret agents, Nazi spies, lovers and 'crackpots' - and who helped to create the most infamous politician of the twentieth century. Praise for Blackshirt: 'The authority of this book rests on thorough research' - Sunday Telegraph 'An exhaustively researched and provocative study' - Sunday Times Stephen Dorril is a widely respected authority on the security and intelligence services. He has written several books on intelligence and contemporary history, most recently MI6, covering the last fifty years of special operations. He is a regular consultant on TV documentaries and is a senior lecturer at Huddersfield University. He lives near Huddersfield

Sir Oswald Mosley came upon the political scene like a meteor. A hero of World War One, he was the youngest MP elected to the British Parliament at age 22. When the Labour Government refused to tackle the problem of unemployment he resigned from office. On 1st Oct, 1932 he founded the British Union of Fascists. Fascism was the new creed which constituted a Third Position, rejecting both the greed of capitalism and the class warfare of socialism. Oswald Mosley created the ideology of the "thought-deed political soldier." Many people were thoroughly indoctrinated in his new doctrine of placing the good of the entire community above that of the privileged cliques. He sought to elevate society for the betterment of all and not the enrichment of the few. Sir Oswald Mosley attracted supporters from all walks of life. Here are the true, remarkable stories of some of the men and women who sacrificed their social status to follow Mosley, regardless of what fate might lie in store for them. They were believers in the man and his mission. His philosophy of leadership by the elite and not the mob is more important today than ever before. As Mosley said: "The Spirit Lives The Rest Will Follow."

Britain is celebrated for having avoided the extremism, political violence and instability that blighted many European countries between the two world wars. But her success was a closer thing than has been realized. Disillusionment with parliamentary democracy, outbreaks of fascist violence and fears of communist subversion in industry and the Empire ran through the entire period. Fascist organizations may have failed to attract the support they achieved elsewhere but fascist ideas were adopted from top to bottom of society and by men and women in all parts of the country. This book will demonstrate for the first time the true spread and depth of fascist beliefs - and the extent to which they were distinctly British. Like the Continental movements, fascism in the UK encompassed the corporate state, charismatic leadership and youthful rejection of the decadent rule of the older generation. But was it less anti-Semitic? Was it readier to adopt a feminist agenda? And was the fact that Britain finally repudiated fascism more a matter of timing and chance than of fundamental obstacles in British society and politics? HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS!, rich in anecdotes and extraordinary characters, shows us an inter-war Britain on the high-road to fascism but never quite arriving at its destination.

Oswald Mosley decided he could carry on where Hitler and Mussolini had left off. On street corners his fascist speakers would proclaim 'not enough Jews were burned at Belsen'. Enter the 43 Group. In a ferocious, bloody and brilliantly covert five-year campaign, they destroyed the Mosleyites. The membership of the Group was almost entirely made up of British servicemen, the original 43 members quickly swelling to more than 300 and including a Battle of Britain ace, a VC winner - and Vidal Sasson! The Groups philosophy of the '3 D's' - Discuss, Decide and Do it - were quickly manifested on the streets of London, with thousands of fascist meetings and rallies sent packing. The Group was organised in 'wedges' of a dozen or so. These wedges would attend a BUF rally and at a given signal would storm the speaker's platform, attacking BUF stewards and speaker. The members' military background ensured tight discipline and brutally effective actions. This, combined with a number of spies within the fascist ranks, ensured the 43 Group almost always came out on top, closing down two-thirds of all fascist activity in the UK until its simultaneous demise with organised fascism in Britain in 1950.As capitalism falters, fascism is gathering strength in Europe today. This book is a timely reminder of how it gathers that strength - and one way of stopping it.

This edition investigates fascist activities in the period of turmoil leading to World War II and raises disturbing questions: how far was the British establishment involved? What were the links with Nazi Germany? What were the plans for the future of British Jews? How much did the British secret service know? Despite the revelation of the horrors of Nazi Germany, British Fascism survived 1945. The author discusses the organization, aims and techniques behind British Fascism, including the formation of the National Front. This revised text analyzes the period 1984 to the present day, including the effect of the end of the Cold War and the collapse of Communism in Russia and Europe, the disturbing growth of illiberal nationalism and the growth of neo-fascism, anti-Semitism and racialism.

The publication of the first edition of 'The Greater Britain' coincided with the formation of the British Union of Fascists by Oswald Mosley in 1932. It provided hope and inspiration for tens of thousands of British men and women seeking an end to the Great Depression - and an alternative to communism and capitalism. In this important book Mosley set out his plans for a new economic order - and a new system of government to implement it. This would involve Britain's withdrawal from the chaos of world markets into a self-sufficient trading area based on Great Britain and her Empire. It was argued that this alone could free the people from exploitation by International Finance which used cheap labour in Asia and the Far East to undercut British and Empire workers - resulting in the destruction of our major industries. The book also outlines an alternative to 'sham democracy' and its replacement by a British Corporate State. Under this proposal all working people would share the profits they helped to create and they would be empowered by voting along vocational rather than 19th. Century geographic lines. Other chapters deal with 'The State and the Citizen', a new concept of public service, and 'Fascism and its Neighbours', the new movement's attitude towards foreign relations and defence. Any understanding of what the Modern Movement really stood for in Great Britain is incomplete without having read 'The Greater Britain'.

Following the economic depression of the early 1930s, antisemitism, whipped up by anti-alienist and fascist agitators, became a serious threat for British Jews. However, the British Jewish establishment - the Board of Deputies, the staff of "The Jewish Chronicle", etc. - refused to believe in the viability of British antisemitism and regarded it as an export from Central Europe, alien to Britain. After 1934, the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, became the main promoter of aggressive antisemitism. It was the Jewish population of London's East End who led the struggle against the fascist and antisemitic danger and formed defense organizations of their own, unsupported by the Jewish communal leadership. While in 1936, and later, it was impossible to ignore the rise of antisemitism in Britain, the leaders and spokesmen of the Jewish community resorted to a propaganda campaign and to self-criticism of "the Jews who rushed to the professions", they voiced anxiety about Jewish youth joining "extreme anti-fascists", and they opposed violent forms of struggle. In October 1936 it was the rank-and-file Jews, supported by non-Jewish workers and communists, who succeeded in thwarting a demonstration of the BUF in the East End.

Levensbeschrijving van de Britse politicus en fascistenleider Oswald Mosley (1896-1980) en diens echtgenote Cynthia Curzon Mosley (1898-1933) door hun zoon.