Catalogue Number
NMLH.1995.39.219
Object Name
Poster
Title
'Today - Unemployed'
People
Labour Party
Events
Elections, 1923 General Election, World War I
Date
1923
Description
A poster featuring a painting of a shabbily dressed couple wearing muted shades of brown. There is a coal mine in the background. The man has his hands in his pockets and stares at the ground. The woman has a baby on her chest. She looks sad. It is captioned 'Today - Unemployed.'
This poster was created as one half of a set by Gerald Spenser Pryse for the Labour Party's 1923 General Election campaign. When viewed together as intended, the posters read as one message: 'Yesterday - the trenches' 'Today - Unemployed'. This was an evocative appeal to voters, criticising the post-war governments of David Lloyd George's National Liberal Party (in power 1918-1922) and Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Party (in power 1922-1923) for failing to deliver on the promised 'fit country for heroes to live in'.
Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party won the 1923 general election, but did not have a parliamentary majority. Without a majority, they could not effectively govern, and only remained in power for nine months.
*On Display*
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