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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
5534199
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
I'll be back again fit and well before you know it
Artist
Art object
Art Movement / style
Genre
Theme
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
44.5 x 29 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1949
Country
Language
Details
Original political cartoon on card in pen and ink, published in the Daily Herald, 1949, shows a rather battered ‘Steel Bill’ being helped onto the ‘Lords-Commons shuttle line’ by Francis Pakenham, a government minister and being waved goodbye by two members of the House of Lords, Halifax and Woolton. In 1945 the newly elected Labour government embarked upon nationalization (taking into public ownership) of key industries and utilities such as the coal industry and the railways. The last and most difficult of these was the steel industry, nationalization of which many even in the Labour party thought unnecessary. The tension between a Conservative-dominated House of Lords and a House of Commons controlled by Labour led to the Bill being rejected three times by the Lords, the last occasion being in July 1949. According to the Parliament Act of 1911, the Lords could not reject it again and it finally passed into law in October 1949. The Act was short-lived and was reversed by the new Conservative government under Winston Churchill two years later. Card size 44.5 x 29 cm (17.5 x 11.5 inch), image size 41 x 26 cm, signed lower right, dated 22/7/49 and numbered 3377 on verso. In very good condition.