Sir Oswald Moseley leads a British Union of Fascists march in east London, UK, 1936. (960×693)

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  1. My grandma was born in the London East end in 1937 and when they went to register her name, her sister advised her parents not to call her the name they had planned because it was a very obviously Jewish name and they lived in a fascist area. So she was called something else.

    Tbh, her surname gave away her Jewishness anyway, so it probably wouldn’t have made much difference, but that’s the story.

  2. From P. G. Wodehouse’s 1938 book *The Code of the Woosters* (Spode is a thinly disguised Mosely):

    >“The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting ‘Heil, Spode!’ and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: ‘Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?’”

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