Clement Attlee on Italian gangs

Reformed Covenanter

Reformed Covenanter

Cancelled Commissioner
Recently, I have been reading a bit of history surrounding the British Union of Fascists, who were led by Sir Oswald Mosley, and came across a reference to one of Clement Attlee’s parliamentary speeches on the subject. Those who have Italian ancestry might appreciate it. :lol: Mr Attlee was later to become the UK's Prime Minister after Winston Churchill in 1945:

Sir Oswald Mosley is really introducing into this country ideas and methods that are entirely foreign to us. What is he doing? His is really the Italian method. It is the method of the gang. If you trace through Italian history you get over and over again an instance of the man who raises a gang. Perhaps someone else has a gang. The two gangs fight, and the one that wins proscribes all the followers of the other gang. You can trace that through the history of Italy, from Catiline to Al Capone, and from Marius to Mussolini.

Hansard 5 (Commons), vol. 290, col. 1929, 14 June 1934.
 
His racist hate-speech doesn't shock me. He was chummy with the worst racist the world has ever known... And No, I don't mean Hitler... There's even photo evidence!

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Sir Oswald is an interesting figure from a historical point of view. Christopher Hitchens has remarked on his ability to be two different people depending on whether the cameras were rolling or not. And of course, anyone who provided the raw material for Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts must in the nature of the case have some entertainment value.
 
py3ak said:
Sir Oswald is an interesting figure from a historical point of view. Christopher Hitchens has remarked on his ability to be two different people depending on whether the cameras were rolling or not. And of course, anyone who provided the raw material for Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts must in the nature of the case have some entertainment value.
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From what I have heard of Sir Oswald, he was an outstanding orator. On many issues, he had the right idea but was perhaps carried away with a sense of his own greatness, and he had the misfortune of being a victim of bad optics post-World War 2.
 
py3ak said:
Sir Oswald is an interesting figure from a historical point of view. Christopher Hitchens has remarked on his ability to be two different people depending on whether the cameras were rolling or not. And of course, anyone who provided the raw material for Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts must in the nature of the case have some entertainment value.
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I don't like the way you're behaving, and I know all about Eulalie.
 
Reformed Covenanter said:
From what I have heard of Sir Oswald, he was an outstanding orator. On many issues, he had the right idea but was perhaps carried away with a sense of his own greatness, and he had the misfortune of being a victim of bad optics post-World War 2.
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"Right ideas" is not something I would say, but the little I've heard from him showed that he was an adaptable communicator--speaking one way at a lecture hall to a crowd of supporters, and quite differently when being interviewed (and reportedly, quite differently again when enjoying a weekend at some notable's country house).

Eulalie always makes me laugh.
 
I won't comment on the validity of his statement.

But I will say that the American TV/movie industry would be an empty shell without those beloved dirty, no good gangs.
 
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