Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, was an Act of Parliament passed in Britain under Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberal government in 1913. Some members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU, commonly referred to as suffragettes) had been imprisoned for acts of vandalism in support of women's suffrage. In protest at being imprisoned some of the suffragettes undertook hunger strikes. The hunger strikers were then force-fed by the prison staff leading to a public outcry. The act was a response
Cat and Mouse (Sheep) new work was now as unpopular with managements as it had previously been with critics alike and the play was only able to be shown in Britain as part of a programme of "foreign" plays in a production financed by French money. Motton's was an early and isolated dissident voice, but one of limited effectiveness due to his marginalisation, in the nascent debate within the left over the direction of the movement. "Cat and Mouse (Sheep)" was written while the middle class leadership established control of the Labour Party and five years before it formed the centre-left government under Tony