George MonbiotIn the 1930s, Oswald Mosley claimed to be a patriot, while his British Union of Fascists was secretly funded by the Italian government. We are just beginning to grasp how much of the far right in the UK today has been funded by Viktor Orbán and Russian oil money.
Their "patriotism" is always a con.
Carlton ReidAnd huge big fat cheques from car-maker William Morris. Mosley was given £35,000 by Morris to start the anti-Semitic newspaper Action, and £50,000 in 1930 to finance Mosley's fascist New Party, which became the British Union of Fascists. Henry Ford, too, was fascist, of course. Car makers, hey?
Citation: "Red Shirts and Black: Fascists and Anti-Fascists in Oxford in the 1930s," Dave Renton, Ruskin College Library, Oxford, 1996.
Morris later withdrew his support of Mosley, and his later support of medical charities — giving away almost all of his wealth — were astounding.