Editing Harold Wilson (section)

===Bonfire of controls===
Wilson was appointed [[President of the Board of Trade]] on 29 September 1947, becoming, at the age of 31, the youngest member of a British Cabinet in the 20th century. Initially Wilson favoured a more interventionist policy, seeking requirements for government officials to be seated on private [[boards of directors]], further [[price controls]], and [[nationalisation]]s of [[Private sector|private industries]] which opposed government policy. However, he abandoned these plans after his colleagues disagreed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thorpe |first=Andrew |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 |title=A History of the British Labour Party |date=1997 |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |isbn=978-0-333-56081-5 |location=London |pages=122 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 }}</ref> He made it a priority to reduce [[Rationing in the United Kingdom|wartime rationing]], which he referred to as a "bonfire of controls".<ref name=autogenerated1/> Wilson decided that the massive number of wartime controls was slowing the conversion to peacetime prosperity and he was committed to removing them as fast as possible.<ref>Pimlott (1992) pp 135–132.</ref>  He ended rationing of potatoes, bread and jam, as well as shoes and some other clothing controls.

In November 1948 Wilson announced his Board of Trade had removed the need for over 200,000 licences and permits.  By March 1949 he promised to remove the need for another 900,000, although meat remained in short supply and was still rationed, as was petrol.<ref>W. N. Medlicott, ''Contemporary England 1914–1964'' (1967) p. 506.</ref>  Henry Irvine argues that Wilson's success with the bonfire of controls established his reputation as a modernizing specialist, with both the general public and the political elite. Irving also argues that the selection timing and especially the publicity Wilson devoted to the bonfire represented the emerging skills of a brilliant young politician. While each major bonfire was justified in terms of technical economic advantages, it was selected and publicised widely to reach the largest possible audience so that everybody could understand that their bread and jam became free again.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Henry |last=Irving |title=The birth of a politician: Harold Wilson and the bonfires of controls, 1948–9 |journal=Twentieth Century British History |volume=25 |issue=1 |date=2014 |pages=87–107 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/hws044 |url=http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/2324/2/The%20birth%20of%20a%20politician_%20Harold%20Wilson%20and%20the%20bonfires%20of%20controls,%201948-9.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720140318/http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/2324/2/The%20birth%20of%20a%20politician_%20Harold%20Wilson%20and%20the%20bonfires%20of%20controls%2C%201948-9.pdf |archive-date=20 July 2018 }}</ref>