The Art Of Politics – September In Political Cartooning
by Richard Bruton
The finest political cartoonists have the ability to skewer the powerful with just a few perfect lines, and here we round up the best from the month – it’s The Art of Politics…
So, I’m a touch late with September’s Art of Politics… somehow the month just raced by, so much so that I only realised it was the end of the month just before the weekend. Ooops. Anyway, time to get into all the best political cartooning… let’s start with war, war, and war…
ISREAL & GAZA… & LEBANON & IRAN…
The conflict in Gaza continues, although most of the media and cartoonists focused, understandably, on the risks of a wider-ranging all-out war between Israel and many others, with Iran and Lebanon both in the mix…
Peter Schrank on the poor innocents captured in it all…
Morten Morland on the futility of it all…
Nicola Jennings on the Hezbollah pager attacks…
Peter Schrank on the same…
Martin Rowson on the suspension of some (yeah, just some) of the arms exports from the UK to Britain…
And Ben Jennings on the USA’s continued selling of a hell of a lot of weapons…
Ben Jennings again with a comment on Netanyahu’s rejection of calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon…
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YA YA USA…
Not that long to go here in the USA until it’s election time…
Well, we had the second (and it turns out, final) Presidential debate – although this time the orange one had a different opponent to face up to, as Kamala Harris took the stage. It was as typical as you would figure. Very little actually answering the questions with straight answers, and some monumental Trumpian moments, none more so than this one…
Ella Baron on Trump’s ‘they’re eating the cats’ moments and the way the cat ladies took it…
Peter Schrank referencing the cat ladies as well…
Bill Bramhall on whether the debates have any impact at all…
And Matt Davies on the thing to remember about the US election – things are so polarised here that the majority of states will be solid red or solid blue despite anything that happens. It all comes down to just the few swing states…
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GREAT BRITAIN
New Labour government, same old same old feeling in the nation. Politicians come in, they lie, they get wrapped up in their power, they succumb to temptation of donations that feels to normal people more like corruption, and hope very swiftly fades…
Chris Riddell on the whole thing just feeling like a wash-out already…
Martin Rowson perfectly skewers the new Labour government with its plans of just carrying on, with the sticking a plaster on it policies just not enough…
Ella Baron on how hope for a new regime soon fades with reality, all by the medium of the Downing Street pet, after the Starmers brought out their new cat, Prince…
Morten Morland on hope failing…
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Perhaps the main trouble Labour ran into this month was that of political donations… hardly a new subject, but one that seemed to be jumped on by the UK media as if it had never happened before. Oh my, heaven forbid.
Still, the idea of so many Labour MPs, from Keir Starmer down, getting jollies, freebies, and the rest (of course, we would never go as far as suggesting them as backhanders, absolutely not) was particularly damning. We had so many revelations, including the Taylor Swift tickets, Arsenal season tickets, personal shopper and clothes for Mrs Starmer, many of which seemed to come from big Labour donors. Over £100,000 plus accepted by Starmer, more than any other recent leader.
Oh yes, political corruption… alive and well no matter who the government is…
Martin Rowson on all this…
… and Martin Rowson again…
… and Ella Baron with the same…
… and Ben Jennings…
… and Peter Brookes…
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One of the big policies that’s getting a lot of flak is the scrapping of winter fuel payments to pensioners – meaning that there’s a big fear that Grandmas and Grandpas up and down the land will go without this winter. Thing is, in many ways, this makes sense, with the existing winter fuel payments going to every pensioner, from the poorest to literal millionaires. But it’s the manner of the introduction – done roughshod and badly thought out – that’s most worrying… Ben Jennings on that…
And Martin Rowson on the same…
Ben Jennings on the Labour 10-year plan for the NHS… a plan that not many are all too hopeful about…
Peter Brookes on the NHS…
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The Grenfell inquiry wrapped up, casting blame where we pretty much always knew it would be cast – but, as Ben Jennings points out, the risks to many other Londoners and further afield from dodgy building practice is all too present…
And more Ben Jennings on Grenfell…
Martin Rowson on the Labour government seeming to be headed towards more austerity, the very thing that the report blames for so many of the factors that led to the Grenfell disaster and so many lives lost…
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Meanwhile, the Conservatives are still casting around for their latest leader…
Nicola Jennings suggesting that Nigel Farage has a rather too large part to play…
Ben Jennings on Kemi Badenoch’s push to become way more right-wing and horrible than those who’ve gone before… her latest target, maternity pay being ‘excessive’.
