ABSTRACT
As we have seen, the invention of radio had threatened to challenge newspaper hegemony over news. Largely as a result of newspaper owners’ pressure, with the creation of a BBC monopoly, a ban on advertising and strict restrictions on news output, that threat was neutralised. The forthcoming war was to change that forever. The 1930s were a time of great political upheaval in Europe. Three ideologies – fascism, communism and democracy – were competing for control and the apparent economic and social success of communist Russia and fascist Germany seemed to offer alternative models to representative democracy. Several senior Conservative politicians of the time openly sympathised with fascist ideology (Pugh 2005), and Labour, despite the party owing more to Methodism than Marxism, had clear affinities with communist ideology. Oswald Mosley’s move across the ideological spectrum provides some indication of the volatility of the time. The future of democracy in Europe was under threat.
