Interesting stuff, though I have no doubt that many a lefty blogger will try to twist all of this into National Review’s nostlagia for Fascism. Since, that can’t be helped, I might as well join in. I’m working on a book about Fascism, as some of you know, but I haven’t spent too much time on Mosley, largely because he’s pretty perepheral to the stuff I’m interested and partly because he seems to have been a crank. But if you’re interested, here’s a site dedicated to the man
Also, as I think was commented here before, there’s another link between Wodehouse and Fascism. Wodehouse was hired to adapt the musical “Anything Goes” for British audiences. The New York (1934) version of the song “You’re the Top” included this lyric:
“You’re the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire
You’re an O’Neill drama
You’re Whistler’s mama
You’re Camembert.”
There’s some debate on what exactly Wodehouse changed the lyrics to. But the most famous is:
You’re The Top
You’re The Great Houdini
You’re The Top
You’re Mussolini!”
Another version includes, “You’re A Mussolini/You’re Mrs. Sweeney.
Mrs. Sweeney was the wife of a famous English amateur golfer by the name of Robert Sweeney. The relevance of the allusion is beyond me.