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’