The Art Of Politics: Oh, What A Year!
by Richard Bruton
Welcome once more to The Art Of Politics, where the world’s finest political cartoonists prove, time and again, that a picture really does paint a thousand words and more…
ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT…
Yes, the conflict between Israel and Hamas continued. The cartoonist’s coverage continued. The deaths continued. Again, it’s a simple thing, terrorists on the one side, a state seemingly determined to wipe those terrorists out no matter what the civilian cause on the other. No winners, just death on both sides.
Martin Rowson on Christmas in Gaza:
COP (OUT) 28 – THE WORLD IN SAFE HANDS?
December also saw the latest UN Climate Change Conference, COP 28, held in the United Arab Emirates. And the tone was set when Sultan Al Jaber, president of COP 28, caused controversy with his views on climate science by saying that there was ‘‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels and that it would take the world ‘back into caves’. Take a wild guess how much progress they made for averting a climate crisis?
Ben Jennings on the whole ‘transitioning away’ from fossil fuels:
GO GO USA…
The gun epidemic keeps on going…
Well, it was a month where there wasn’t a major, newsworthy mass shooting in America. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t mass shootings. Oh Hell no. 655 total mass shootings in 2023, 25 in December.
When will it stop? I used to think when something really terrible happened and really young kids were killed. But Sandy Hook happened and very young kids died and absolutely nothing happened. So I don’t know what the hell needs to happen to effect change. I just wish change would happen.
2024… Election Time!
Oh yes, it’s finally here. The big election where an as yet unknown Democrat (which everyone knows will be Biden) and an as yet unknown Republican (which everyone knows will be Trump, imprisoned or not) fight it out to be the old man in the White House. It’s going to be messy as all Hell.
Trump takes heavy hits for the Presidential race… but still keeps going…
First Colorado and then Maine found that Donald Trump’s behaviour in the Jan 6 riots/insurrection/minor disturbance* (*delete as appropriate depending on political ideology) is cause to block him from presidential primary ballots, thanks to a constitutional provision that prevents insurrectionists from holding office.
Maine’s secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, had this to say over it:
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” said Bellows, a Democrat, in the decision. “I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section 3 of the 14th amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
And to show just the sort of danger she was talking about, the day after this, her home was swatted.
Later in the month, Colorado Republican Party appealed that state’s Supreme Court decision putting the decision on pause. But this one will be going all the way to the US Supreme Court.
GREAT BRITAIN’S LATEST MONTH OF CHAOS….
It’s all Stop The Boats and to hell with everything else here…
New Home Secretary James Cleverly (a man yet to live up to, in any way, his name) announced a new asylum policy, still including the ridiculous and expensive plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s obsession with stopping the small boats coming across the English Channel continues whilst the infrastructure, the NHS, and anything good about the country gets ignored.
It’s Carry On Government at its finest.
Covid inquiry continues… the epitome of the lying bastard in politics…
The Covid inquiry really was the perfect illustration of Jeremy Paxman’s famous words, “Why is the lying bastard lying to me?” Although, more accurately it’s why are the lying bastards lying to us. And December saw the lying-est bastard of them all, Boris Johnson, give evidence.
Ella Baron – a perfectly brutal assessment of what it really means…
And Ella Baron again with another perfectly on-the-nose piece about Rishi Sunak’s incomprehensible “Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme during Covid…
Lou McKeever on the same…
And speaking of lying… the Michelle Mone scandal
Oh, the saga of Michael Mone, member of the House of Lords, businesswoman, and now absolutely a liar. Long story short, her and her husband have finally admitted involvement with a company that supplied crappy PPE in Covid times.
Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman’s Knox Group had clear links to PPE Medpro, a company formed during Covid that was awarded two contracts worth a total of £203m in 2020 to supply 210 million face masks and 25 million sterile surgical gowns – with the gowns later found to be not fit for purpose and unsafe. Costing the government £122m, Barrowman was paid at least £65m from PPE Medpro’s profits, £29m of which was siphoned off to an offshore trust with Mone and her three adult children as beneficiaries.
These contracts were processed via the “VIP lane”, specially formed in Covid to fast track PPE offers from companies introduced by people with connections to the government. Mone and Barrowman denied any involvement with Medpro, throwing lawyers legal threats out left, right, and centre. Finally they went on a PR blitz in December to admit for the first time that Barrowman made multi-million pound profits from the PPE deals and that Mone and Barrowman were involved in the company. Mone’s admitted she lied but said she did it not to get attention from the press and to protect her family.
Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency continues its investigation of “suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro” and the government is suing PPE Medpro for the return of the £122m paid after the gowns were rejected as unsafe for use.
Yeah, the Paxman quote about lying bastards works here too as well.
Anyway, after all that… Ben Jennings
And Morten Morland again…
