Arthur Seymour Moody (6 June 1891 – 12 December 1976Stenton and Lees' "Who's Who of British MPs" (Vol IV, p. 263) gives his year of death as 1971, but appears to be in error: "Who's Who" continued his entry until the 1977 edition and in 1978 gives the date of his death as above. ) was a British

joiner A joiner is an artisan and tradesperson who builds things by joining pieces of wood, particularly lighter and more ornamental work than that done by a carpenter, including furniture and the "fittings" of a house, ship, etc. Joiners may work in ...

and politician. He was a low-profile backbench Labour Party

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for nearly twenty years.

Early career

Moody was born in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

and went to local schools run by the local council before training in woodworking at Hull Technical College. He was an active member of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers from 1912, holding several union posts, and also joined the Labour Party. In 1934 Moody was elected to Hull City Council, serving a single three-year term. At the 1935 general election, Moody was the Labour Party candidate for Liverpool Fairfield, losing by more than 7,000 votes.

Election to Parliament

In 1942 Moody was elected unopposed to the

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

of the Labour Party in the Trade Union section, his candidature sponsored by the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers. At the 1944 Labour Party conference he replied on behalf of the NEC to a debate about housing. He was chosen again as candidate for Liverpool Fairfield, and in the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

secured a swing of 14% to win the seat by 1,147 votes. He then stood down from the National Executive Committee in 1946.

Political views

Moody was a low-profile Member of Parliament who spoke rarely. In 1946 he criticised the National Insurance Bill for containing "too much Beveridge and too little Socialism". He was generally a loyal supporter of the government, but in 1948 he did break the whip to oppose an annuity to be paid to Princess Elizabeth and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

after their marriage. However, Moody urged disciplinary action be taken against Labour MPs who had signed a telegram to support

Pietro Nenni Pietro Sandro Nenni (; 9 February 1891 – 1 January 1980) was an Italian socialist politician, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and senator for life since 1970. He was a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1951. He w ...

, the Communist-allied Italian socialist. At the 1950 general election, Moody's constituency was merged with others and he was selected instead for Gateshead East where he opposed

Konni Zilliacus Konni Zilliacus (13 September 1894 – 6 July 1967) was the Member of Parliament for Gateshead from 1945 until 1950, and for Manchester Gorton from 1955 until his death. He was a left-wing Labour Party politician. Zilliacus spoke nine lan ...

, who had been expelled after signing the Nenni telegram. He beat Zilliacus into third place and emerged 1,719 votes ahead of the Conservative candidate. His majority increased to over 5,000 in the 1951 general election, when Zilliacus did not stand.

Retirement

Moody was one of the few Labour MPs strongly to support

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

through the 1950s. At the age of 70 in April 1962, he announced that he would not be a candidate at the next election; however, he was criticised by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

TV programme "

That Was The Week That Was ''That Was the Week That Was'', informally ''TWTWTW'' or ''TW3'', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by Ned Sherrin and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and pre ...

" in January 1963 for not having made any speeches in the House of Commons since the previous general election.

Notes

References

*M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981) *"Who Was Who", A & C Black *"The Times House of Commons 1935". {{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, Arthur 1891 births 1976 deaths Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers-sponsored MPs Councillors in the East Riding of Yorkshire English trade unionists Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964