Post-war Politics

The general election of 1945 was a significant turning point for British politics that brought the Labour Party to power and ushered in the era of the welfare state. It also marked a significant moment in the political development of the Daily Mirror, which for the first time in the Bartholomew era adopted a clearly identifiable political position. Although not endorsing Labour explicitly, the paper nevertheless articulated broad support for the policies and principles that the party represented, whilst the primacy of the visual within the Mirror’s authorial system allowed both cartoons and comic strips to become central to the paper’s electoral messaging. By the time of the general elections of 1950 and 1951, other popular newspapers had begun to emulate the Daily Mirror’s use of comic strips, and their use as a political messaging tool had become more widely adopted. Using examples including Jane and the Ruggles in the Daily Mirror, the work of Sidney Strube in the Daily Express, and John and Mary in the Daily Herald, this chapter will examine how comic strips were used within their parent publication’s wider political address during the postwar period. Finally, the chapter will chart some key developments that occurred within the Daily Mirror itself, where in 1951 Harry Guy Bartholomew, the architect of the paper’s modern success, was deposed by Cecil King.