From Roderick Spode to Danny Tommo, the black shorts & why in 2026 they are no laughing matter
In his book the Code of the Woosters (1938) P G Wodehouse depicts Roderick Spode, a character based on the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley.
Wooster addresses Spode
“It is about time”, I proceeded, “that some public-spirited person came along and told you where you got off. The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting ‘Heil, Spode!’ and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: ‘Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?
Spode’s group are known as the black shorts because as Wodehouse explains by the time they were formed various fascist groups around the world had taken all appropriate shirt colours.
In a TV adaptation Jeeves and Wooster (1990-93) Spode’s character makes various speeches including one promising British citizens a bicycle and umbrella at birth and comments on root vegetables
In September 2026 fascist ‘Danny Thomo’ brought a group of black shorts to protest at the London offices of the Daily Mail after he claimed the paper had given away the address of his mother (in fact he did this himself).
While the scene had an element of absurdity ‘Tommo’ is testing whether its possible to build and mobilise a street fascist gang. That is no laughing matter.
Stand Up to Racism’s Lewis Nielsen has a to the point analysis in Tribune
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