The Art Of Politics – Scarier Than Halloween October Edition
by Richard Bruton
Oh 2020, you really are the gift that keeps on giving, aren’t you? It’s month 10 and things really aren’t getting much better. Covid still on the rise, Brexit happening in a few months, the US Presidential elections in just a couple of days… enough to put a shiver down your spine for sure!
So, it’s The Art Of Politics – October – our monthly round-up here at Comicon of the craziness going on all round…
For Halloween, Martin Rowson gives us this…
Yep, it’s Halloween, yet there’s NOTHING scarier anywhere in this world (or any other) than the absolute shower of politicians we have ruling over us right now and the nightmare is that things really don’t seem to be getting any better anywhere yet.
And this Halloween nightmare from Chris Riddell…
Okay, back in time now to the start of October…
Here’s a thought – if you’re the British government and you fancy spending a fortune on a Track and Trace app for the British people to use as the frontline in the fight against Covid-19, do you create a specialist system to track and trace everyone or do you rely on a private company who only records positive tests from that private company?
Worse, when recording the contact tracing, do you create a specialist bit of software to record things or do you rely on Excel and manage to cock it up so much because of the data limits on that software that 16,000 Covid cases went unreported in early October?
Ladies and Gentlemen – the British government. What’s the old phrase involving piss-ups and breweries?
Martin Rowson on that particular mess…
Yeah, world-beating… Brian Adcock –
Obviously, with such magnificence in charge, Britain’s Covid situation shows no signs of getting better, so it was no surprise that new lockdown regulations coming into play, with a new three-tier system coming in with differing restrictions on local areas, all imposed by central government…
And Ben Jennings on the same…
And Chris Riddell on the same…
Finally on that particular mess, Brian Adcock pointing out the disparities through the dis-United Kingdom –
And just because things aren’t bad enough, Boris Johnson decided to bring back the spectre of a no-deal Brexit on 1 January 2021 – you know, that thing that everyone, Bozza included, said wasn’t going to be happening at all… oh no, definitely not.
You know, it’s almost as if them that rule us have no idea what they’re doing and don’t care about us at all.
Here’s Martin Rowson on the darkening shadows of Bozza…
And Morten Morland on the continued hole digging…
Towards the end of October, the UK went towards half-term for school kids.
Now, during the summer, at least partly because of the actions and campaigning of Marcus Rashford – a young soccer player at Manchester United, the free school meal system had been continued across the holidays. Just in case you didn’t know, the free school meal system provides a hot meal for those children whose families qualify. Often, it’s the only hot meal these kids will get.
But this half-term, despite the pressure before half-term, the Conservatives decided that no, these kids don’t need the free meals in half-term. In fact, certain of the Conservative MPs, let’s call them what they are – absolute bastards, claimed that some parents in their constituencies used the free school meals vouchers to exchange for drugs… yeah, despicable is not the word.
Anyway… Ben Jennings on that…
As part of the whole Tory turning down the idea of giving hungry kids food over half term, Labour deputy leader, Angela Rayner, called a Tory MP ‘scum’ in parliament. Huge uproar in parliament, demands for apologies, loads of Tory MPs and right-leaning press talking about how disgraceful that was. A reminder… Children. Are. Going. Hungry. In. Britain. Yeah, they totally have the right priorities in parliament.
And, elsewhere in the world…
As Kal says… Meanwhile in Rome… yep, that one sneaked through in the midst of everything else going on in the world…
And speaking of things going on in the world – over to the USA…
President Trump caught Covid-19 at the start of the month. And perhaps no-one in the world was in any way surprised. No masks, massed gatherings, a White House that seemed to see taking the preventative measures that all sane, rational scientist types said were just bloody obvious… yep, it really was not a surprise at all.
Fortunately, it wasn’t something that put him into intensive care and he was back to the White House within the week… at which point he walks up to the balcony, takes off his mask and starts waving… but of course he does.
Absolutely no shades of any previous facist politicians and balconies at all…
There were more Presidential and Vice Presidential debates going on, this time with a mute button for the second Pres debate to stop a certain someone butting in all the time. It sort of worked…
Meanwhile, America has already been voting, both by postal votes and by early voting…
Chris Riddell on that…
Poor old The Donald, he’s been moaning at his (un-masked, non-socially distanced) rallies that Covid has been dominating the news in this election season.
Oh exactly… Steve Bell on that one…
However, in American politics, things are never quite as clear cut as you’d think. Sure, a President’s 4 or 8-year term is important, but there’s plenty would say that it’s not as influential as the Supreme Court nomination that’s going to be bulldozed through, with Trump loading the Supremes with Conservative views for the next couple of generations. It will be a huge shift in the political landscape of America for decades.
Ann Telnaes on that particular delight…
Okay then, that’s October over and done with… next up, the ELECTION of a new President. Please, please, please let it be a new President.
More next month. In the meantime… even though it’s Halloween – try not to have nightmares about the world we’re having to live in right now. It’s honestly going to get better.
