gas, electricity, rail and steel industries. Coming immediately after the end of a highly
destructive Second World War, this was a time when the British government was seeking
to rebuild the peacetime economy with the ultimate goal of achieving full employment
and economic prosperity. Under what was then clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution,
public ownership was seen as a desirable policy objective and one which would
provide a Labour government with control over the ‘commanding heights of the economy’,
thereby ensuring that the country’s key strategic industries would receive the huge
level of investment they needed in the immediate post-Second World War period. Looking back at this point in history, it seems fair to suggest that economic justifications