After his election failure in 1931, Mosley went on a study tour of the "new movements" of Italy's Duce Benito Mussolini and other fascists, and returned convinced, particularly by Fascist Italy's economic programme,[82] that it was the way forward for Britain. He was determined to unite the existing fascist movements and created the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932.
The British historian Matthew Worley argues that Mosley's adoption of fascism stemmed from three key factors.[83] First, Mosley interpreted the Great Slump as proof that Britain's economy, which had historically favoured liberal capitalism, required a fundamental overhaul in order to survive the rise of cheap, global competition. Second, as a result of his experience as a Labour minister, Mosley grew to resent the apparent gridlock inherent in parliamentary democracy (see criticism of democracy). Mosley believed that party politics, parliamentary debate, and the formalities of bill passage hindered effective action in addressing the pressing economic issues of the post-war world. Finally, Mosley became convinced that the Labour Party was not an effective vehicle for the promulgation of "the radical measures that he believed were necessary to prevent Britain’s decline."[84] As Worley notes about Mosley, "Cast adrift from the political mainstream, he saw two alternative futures. One was the 'slow and almost imperceptible decline' of Britain to the 'level of a Spain'...[and the other] a deepening sense of crisis opening the way for a 'constructive alternative' to take the place of both liberal capitalism and parliamentary democracy."[85] Mosley believed that Britain was in danger of a Communist revolution, of which only fascism could effectively combat.
The BUF was protectionist, strongly anti-communist and nationalistic to the point of advocating authoritarianism.[86] He claimed that the Labour Party was pursuing policies of "international socialism", while fascism's aim was "national socialism".[87] It claimed membership as high as 50,000, and had the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror among its earliest supporters.[88][89][90] The Mirror piece was a guest article by the Daily Mail owner Viscount Rothermere and an apparent one-off; despite these briefly warm words for the BUF, the paper was so vitriolic in its condemnation of European fascism that Nazi Germany added the paper's directors to a hit list in the event of a successful Operation Sea Lion.[91] The Mail continued to support the BUF until the Olympia rally in June 1934.[92]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Mosley
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