Ealing North
| |
|
Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
|
|
A Surprising Parliamentary Predecessor October 2003 As an eleven year old boy I vividly remember barracking the former leader of the British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley, when he stood for Parliament in Notting Hill Gate in October 1959. Little did I know that one day I would represent the constituency for which Sir Oswald had sat from 1918 to 1924. My research was sparked off by another priceless nugget of information from Ealing’s excellent Archivist and Librarian, Dr.Jonathan Oates. He was able to confirm that Oswald Mosley had opened the Hanwell Labour Club in 1928. This proud edifice flourished but briefly on the north side of Humes Avenue and is recorded as having closed in 1931. Sir Oswald lasted a little longer in our part of the world. Originally elected as a Conservative in 1918 he became an Independent in 1920 and joined the Labour Party in May 1924. He finally left us in 1931 and his career then plunged into the murky waters of Hitler-worship and British Fascism. Incredibly his constituency not only encompassed Hanwell, Greenford and Perivale but also West Twyford, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Wealdstone and Wembley! Ealing and New Brentford were a separate constituency and, of course, Acton stood alone. Mosley was a large landowner in Greenford and the area covered today by the Litten Nature Reserve and the Litten Tree pub formed part of what must have been a pretty decent sized estate. Oddly enough the old Middlesex County division of Hanwell lay to the west of the W7 postcode and the whole of what we now know as Southall was contained within the Norwood division. Reading a little of Sir Oswald’s life makes you realise how we have forever damned the man for his late life politics. Had he died in the 1930s he would certainly have been recognised today as a remarkably progressive politician. He advocated public works schemes to end unemployment before Keynes had enunciated the doctrine that now bears his name and his faults were those of the impatience for change of the generation that had survived the Great War. I suspect that the world is not yet ready for the rehabilitation of Sir Oswald Mosely, and he was undoubtedly howling at the moon when I heard him speak in 1959, but the fact that he was as mad as a box of hot frogs at the end of his career should not blind us to the achievements of his early life. I think that is about as far as I can go out of solidarity with my Parliamentary predecessor but I do feel a little guilty about the abuse and half-bricks that I threw in the Portobello Road on that long ago autumn afternoon when I was eleven. |
|
|
|
| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
