Mass Observation

What was on the mind of the average Brit in the mid-to-late 1930s? Did things feel then as they do now—that an absolutely cataclysmic world war was on the horizon? And yet, did they, as most people seem to do today, refuse to believe their leaders could be quite so stupid? Were they confident a resolution would be found that didn’t involve tens of millions of corpses? I’m afraid I don’t share that confidence, if that is indeed what they were thinking.

It’s a shame people weren’t blogging back then. But they were writing diaries. I came across the Mass-Observation project not long ago and must look into the content it produced. I bet most of it is dull as dishwater, but isn’t that what makes it interesting? Normal, everyday, boring life from a fascinating, increasingly distant time. Whilst it seems absurd now, I bet plenty of people thought Hitler had a point, or that he was Europe’s saviour. At that point in time, he hadn’t yet murdered millions; he was just on a bit of a rant. They still invite people to participate in the project. I might volunteer.

Obviously, we have a 1930s Farage in the shape of Oswald Mosley. But there must also have been pre-war versions of Tommy Robinson and Nick Griffin, the pro-Nazi gang. I wonder if those folk, and the disciples who walked among the general population, appear in those diaries. I know the type; I’ve worked with one or two of them. One in particular is a fan of Trump. There are a niche few who are fans of Putin, too. They’re smart enough not to say too much out loud, but dumb enough to test the water with comments to see where I stand. (I do not stand with Putin). I wonder how many Brits supported Hitler even after the war kicked off, perhaps limiting their vocal support to the occasional joke to see how it landed.

Did the 1930s Brit do anything as war closed in? I’d say we are still some way off from a direct military confrontation with Russia, but we know from recent experience that toilet roll, flour, eggs, and petrol quickly become scarce. There are shortages of unleaded right now because people are panic-buying in response to Iran closing the Straits of Hormuz. Yesterday, I passed a station dispensing the “good stuff” from a green handle, so I topped up. I did a bit of panic-buying before the panic-buyers bought it all. I don’t imagine there was much for the average 1930s person to hoard; toilet paper didn’t really take off until after the war. They used old newspapers and rags.

Brits in the run-up to WWII can’t have been as pissed with the state of the armed forces as we are today. They at least had the Royal Navy to boast about. We’ve got two massive aircraft carriers which likely won’t last two minutes in a full-scale war with a major power, and that’s it. I despair. Truly I do. We’ve watched the situation in the East and the US deteriorating for over a decade, and we’ve done nothing to prepare for what is becoming an inevitable conflict. Churchill thanked God for the French army; I’m inclined to thank <any deity of your choosing> for the Ukrainian and Polish armies. We, I’m sorry to say, are an embarrassing shit-show of a “major power.”

Part of that is because our politicians are too scared of the population, far too much of which has become lazy, feckless, and downright mental. A certain amount of fear is fine, but when it prevents leadership, it’s disastrous. We’ve lacked true leadership since Gordon Brown left office, and there is no better example of this abdication of proper governance than David Cameron handing over the decision-making to opinion polls which ripped the country apart. I wonder how conspiratorial WWII citizenry were. Surely not as bad as today. Back then, the village idiots were kept apart, without an internet to let them mingle. I’m increasingly viewing Skynet from the Terminatorfilms with new eyes. I walk around Bournemouth, look at the folk passing by, and wonder if Skynet might actually be an act of kindness, putting a terminally ill species out of its misery.

I’m not sure where the world goes from here. Things aren’t too far gone yet, but Trump and Putin are only making things worse. The US is no longer our ally. Europe and the EU need to man up, detach from the US wherever possible, re-arm, and support Ukraine. We should expel both the US and Hungary from NATO, and the latter from the EU. We should wait for the US bombing to finish and then reinstate the nuclear deal with Iran. There are so many obvious steps to take, yet we seem to be sleepwalking into catastrophe.

My final thought: If war does break out with Russia, I’d put a tenner on Boris Johnson being back in No. 10 fairly quickly. I don’t know what I would think of that. I will likely continue to despair.