Max Mosley’s half-forgotten far-right past catches up with him

In the summer of 1962, Sir Oswald Mosley decided to make a return visit to the East End of London. At his side was his 22-year-old son, Max.

Oswald must have known there would be trouble. When the notorious Blackshirts of his pre-war political party, the British Union of Fascists, attempted to march through the East End in 1936, there were pitched battles with Jewish residents. Scores of people were injured.

This time he was back with his new far-right outfit, the Union Movement, and again threatening to march through an area, Dalston, which at that time had a large Jewish population. The chant of the marchers, according to Time magazine, was “Jews out”.

In the violence that followed Oswald Mosley was knocked to the ground and his son was filmed lashing out. Max was among those arrested, but was acquitted in court after arguing that he had been attempting only to defend his father.

Fast-forward 56 years, and Max Mosley’s half-forgotten past as a supporter of his father’s far-right movement, and allegations about his “racist and thuggish past”, have been paraded over 11 pages of the Daily Mail and led to a bruising interview on Channel 4 News.

Infamously, the Mail also flirted briefly with support for fascism in the 1930s. But Mosley has found himself on the receiving end of the newspaper’s attentions not because he is his father’s son, nor because of anything he did or did not do during his long years as president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of Formula One motor racing. He is in the line of fire because he is a leading combatant in the battle over the future of press regulation after the Leveson inquiry.

Source: theguardian