On the 8th May 1946, New Towns Bill received its first reading:
‘If the towns to be built under this Bill are new, neither the need for them, nor the idea, is in any sense new. My researches on new towns go back to the time of Sir Thomas More. He was the first person I have discovered to deplore the "suburban sprawl," and in his "Utopia" there are 54 new towns, each 23 miles apart. Each town is divided into four neighbourhoods, each neighbourhood being laid out with its local centre and community feed centre. Incidentally, Sir Thomas More was beheaded, but that must not be regarded as a precedent for the treatment of town planners——
At this point Lietenant Colenel Sir Thomas More interjected:
On a point of Order. May I claim your protection, Mr. Speaker? It has just been announced by the right hon. Gentleman that I have been beheaded. I want to know whether there is any confirmation of that.
At the heart of this reserach is this crude dichotomy. Moore’s Utopia is invoked with all of its associated ideals only to be dismissed by the buffoonery of the Conservative MP, and prominent Nazi sympathiser, Lietenant Colenel Sir Thomas More