Oxford University is facing fresh criticism for accepting ‘tainted and dirty’ money after taking £12million from the family fortune of fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.
Oxford and other universities, including Imperial College London, UCL, and London, are being asked to send funds back to the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust.
Max Mosley (a controversial privacy activist and supporter of his father’s racist policies) was the charity’s administrator. He died May at the age of 81.
Jewish student groups claim it is ‘inconsiderate’ and inappropriate for Oxford and its two constituent colleges, Lady Margaret Hall and St Peter’s, to take money from the trust.
It comes amid allegations that the sector is losing its “moral compass”. Sky News’s Professor Lawrence Goldman (emeritus fellow in the history of Oxford) said yesterday that universities should refuse to accept any ‘tainted, dirty money’.
Recent funding scandals have seen Oxford face multiple challenges, including an unsuccessful attempt to name a professorship in physics after Tencent. This was after receiving a donation.
Meanwhile the graduate-only Linacre College wants to rename itself Thao College after being offered £155million by a Vietnamese budget airline tycoon.
Oxford University is facing fresh criticism for accepting ‘tainted and dirty’ money after taking £12million from the family fortune of fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley (pictured)
Although the university claims that all major donations have been properly reviewed by the ‘Committee to Review Donations,’ there are few publicly accessible examples or evidence to support this claim.
London’s Imperial College was also under investigation for its China-funded funding, which has come under fire from critics who claim it is at risk of intellectual theft.
Professor Goldman said there were many reasons to reform the university system and perhaps increase state control. Professor Goldman added that Oxford is rich and has the ability to continue receiving money from outside sources. The argument that you shouldn’t keep what’s essentially dirty and corrupt money because you’re able to do good things in Oxford doesn’t seem to me to be true.
Max Mosley was an ex-student of Christ Church College. Alexander, Alexander’s son, was a St Peter’s College alumnus (pictured). He overdosed on heroin in 2009.
Max Mosley was an ex-student of Christ Church College. Alexander, Alexander’s son, was an alumnus at St Peter’s College. Alexander died from a heroin overdose on September 9, 2009. The Alexander Mosley Professor for Biophysics Fund has been established. But plans to name a St Peter’s Accommodation Block after him have been stopped.
According to Imperial College London, all gifts must be vetted thoroughly.
A Daily Mail investigation revealed Max Mosley’s racist past in 2018. It was triggered by the discovery of a 1961 bigoted election pamphlet.
UCL could not be reached for comment. Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust couldn’t be reached.
Disgrace and hypocrisy of my alma mater: Jewish Chronicle editor STEPHEN POLLARD hits out after it emerged Oxford University accepted ‘tainted’ money from family fortune of fascist leader Oswald Mosley
My proudest moment was the day that I graduated more than thirty years ago from Oxford. But I am now ashamed to look at my university.
The revelation yesterday that the university and two of its colleges have accepted a £12 million bequest, derived from the fortune of the late British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, should sicken any right-thinking person.
It is particularly offensive for the British Jewish community.
Mosley, a Hitler-worshipper and racist, was rightly interned in the Second World War.
Oxford willing to accept money from Stalin’s heirs. Kim Jong-un’s North Korean government? Perhaps a new library, endowed by Pol Pot
The new grants have been made from a trust set up a decade ago by Oswald’s late son, the Formula 1 tycoon Max Mosley, himself a thoroughly questionable character and – thanks to a seminal Daily Mail investigation – a proven former racist.
The new grants have been made from a trust set up a decade ago by Oswald’s late son, the Formula 1 tycoon Max Mosley, himself a thoroughly questionable character and – thanks to a seminal Daily Mail investigation – a proven former racist
Since the trust is founded on Max’s bloated inheritance – the tainted money of his fascist father – it is Oxford’s disgrace to have accepted it.
Oswald Mosley is well-known for his racist bigotry. He was a leader of one extreme far-Right sect after another for many decades. His British Union of Fascists pre-war became the so-called Union Movement throughout the 1950s, 1960s. He was largely repulsed by the British in his wisdom.
However, one particular rotten apple was not too far away from the tree.
Max Mosley, who passed away earlier in the year, was very close to his father. We aren’t concerned about his sexual proclivities. However, suffice it to say that some sadomasochistic acts, such as whipping prostitutes in striped pajamas and counting in German in German, may not be to everyone’s liking.
Max Mosley died in May this year. He was his father’s only son. These are not the issues we have to worry about because of his questionable sexual tendencies.
His politics are more important than his views. Max Mosley spent much of his last years trying to suppress the press and hide his racist past.
End result: He couldn’t hide the fact that during the 1960s he supported his father’s movements.
Max Mosley marched through east London’s Jewish neighborhood in 1962 shoulder-to-shoulder with his father’s followers. They chanted, ‘Jews Out!
The Mail spoke to him about his fight against Jewish protesters. Some of them were Second World War veterans. One of those contacted by the Mail during its investigation had relatives who died in Auschwitz.
The Mail published the shocking details about Max Mosley’s racist past in 2018. It included a 1961 leaflet that Mosley produced to promote venereal disease, tuberculosis and leprosy and threaten children’s health.
He refused to apologize for the appalling act until his final breath.
Oxford University today insists it took ‘legal and ethical’ issues into account when accepting the gift from Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust. This trust is named after Max Mosley, a son of Max Mosley who was killed by a heroin overdose in 2009.
It could not have done it with the required rigour. The Mosley grant will, for one, be used to establish the Alexander Mosley Professor in Biophysics Fund.
I’ll say it again: the Mosleys supported Hitler, who murdered six million Jews – among them members of my own family.
The Mosley name will now be visible to Jewish students at Oxford every day. It is woven into the fabric and culture of the university.
Which ethics are involved?
Yet perhaps even worse than taking the money – and don’t forget, Oxford and its colleges have a combined endowment of over £6billion, so they are hardly struggling – is the context.
Oxford has been unable to meet the demands of an elite group of students for several years.
In the midst of tortured arguments about taking down long-dead statues like Cecil Rhodes (Victorian mining magnate), curriculums have been “decolonized”.
Peter Conrad, an internationally respected English don, bemoaned recently how ‘the academic study of literature’ has been ‘reduced … to an annexe of identity politics’, while calls have been made for buildings associated – however peripherally – with the slave trade to be renamed.
Oswald Mosley’s racism is well-known. He was a leader of crackpot far-Right sects for many decades. His British Union of Fascists pre-war became the so-called Union Movement in the 1950s, 1960s.
Sir Oswald Mosley (founder and leader of British Union of Fascists & the Blackshirts), inspects womens+ sections prior to a march up Victoria Embankment
Oswald, Max Mosley and Rhodes are figures of the distant past.
People are alive and well today that stood strong against Oswald Mosley’s white shirts of the 1930s.
Max Mosley’s father was a Jew-hating Union Movement. I was a young child when he campaigned for me.
To their credit, several prominent Oxford academics protest the donation and encourage students to do so.
Is it not the students who are so awake now and insist that “Mosley must Fall”?
They are both hypocrites and the university’s.
Oxford is a leader in this field.
Only last week we read how one Oxford college has accepted an eye-watering £155million from a self-made Vietnamese billionairess airline tycoon, with alleged links to that country’s tough communist regime, and who has been fined several times for using semi-naked stewardesses to promote her flights.
Linacre College is changing its name to honor her. These double standards can be nauseating.
Since years ago, I’ve made a monthly contribution to my college. It’s a difficult decision that I have to make.