Robert Skidelsky

... fine place, based near Aldgate East, studying a degree in politics.

I wrote my dissertation on the activities of the British Union of Fascists and contacted Robert Skidelsky, who somewhat to my surprise, replied with helpful advice and guidance, and indeed one... provided one of his early papers on the subject of the B- BUF, British Union of Fascists.

I spent many hours researching the subject," says Wayne, "including in the wonderful old British Library reading room.

But of course, Skidelsky's excellent biography of Oswald Mosley was a key source that provided a wealth of information on the man and the movement.

Last week I talked about-

Your relationship

... my, my relationship with Robert Skidelsky, who's one of my dearest friends, who unfortunately died early this year and was, of course, the biographer o- of Oswald Mosley.

And up Mayo is because my late father came from the west of Ireland, and Mayo for the first time since 1951, won the All-Ireland final, the All-Ireland Gaelic football final, and the island of Ireland has bare- barely recovered in recent weeks from-

I must say, Alison, the Cable Street riot is close to my heart.

I learned a great deal about it from one of the most important friendships of my life, which was with a brilliant late historian called – I can barely believe I'm saying late historian – Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky, who was ethnically a Russian Jew himself, who wrote a biography of Oswald Mosley, which in its time was incredibly controversial – because Skidelsky wrote that Mosley, far from being a kind of one-off monster, was actually a product of his time, that there was sort of casual...

Oh, there really was.

...antisemitism at the top of British high society in the interwar years, and that was Skidelsky's point.