Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 was viewed as violating basic human rights, not only of the suffragettes but of other prisoners. The Act's nickname of "Cat and Mouse Act", referring to the way the government seemed to play with prisoners as a cat may with a captured mouse, underlined how the cruelty of repeated releases and re-imprisonments turned the suffragettes from targets of scorn to objects of sympathy. The Asquith government's implementation of the Act caused the militant WSPU and the suffragettes to perceive Asquith as the enemy — an enemy to be vanquished in what the organisation saw as an all-out war. A related
Cat and Mouse (Sheep) your elbow". Like much of Motton's writing for the theatre "Cat and Mouse (Sheep)" antagonised and bewildered theatre managements and critics, as well as some audiences. The work comes from a position already reached by the author and makes no concessions to any need to lead the audience to share his outlook. Instead it deliberately seeks to confront and embarrass the audience by tricking them into thinking they are being invited to agree with ideas that are then quickly discredited and ridiculed. This process is what gives the play its title The result, while startling and amusing when it isn't