The Art Of Politics – August: Same S*%$, Different Month
by Richard Bruton
Well, it’s been another month of chaos in the world, fear and destruction seem to be the order of the day. Well, that’s just grist to the mill for the world’s political cartoonists… welcome once more to the Art of Politics…
Okay then, where shall we start… how about here, with Ella Baron, consistently doing some incredible work, always getting straight to the heart of the matter. This one on the famine in Gaza…
WAR PART 1 – ISRAEL & PALESTINE…
More of the same really – starvation in Gaza, bombings in Gaza, Hamas terrorists still not giving up hostages, and no end in sight.
Martin Rowson on food distribution in Gaza…
Martin Rowson on the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima…
Ben Jennings on the killing of journalists in Gaza… first the Al Jazeera reporter Anaa al-Sharif and four colleagues killed in an Israeli air strike….
… and then Ben Jennings again on another five journalists killed in the strikes on Nasser Hospital in Southern Gaza…
Meanwhile, in Britain, the crackdown on Palestine Action continues. The government’s proscribed the group as a terrorist organisation, meaning hundreds of people protesting carrying anything related to the group…
Ella Baron nails it…
… and again – Ella Baron really is one of the best of the new, young political cartoonists in the UK…
WAR PART 2 – RUSSIA & UKRAINE…
After promising to end the war in Ukraine on Day One, Trump finally got around to doing something about it. Well, he had meetings with Putin in Alaska, then with Zelenskyy, then with Europe’s heads. And precisely nothing has changed…
Martin Rowson… half-baked Alaska… genius…
Nicola Jennings on Trump’s promise of ‘big progress’…
And Nicola Jennings again on the prospect of peace talks…
Ben Jennings on the possible meeting between Trump, Zelenksyy, and Putin…
TRUMPLAND USA…
The chaos continues. Tariffs went into force, meaning everything in the USA jumped in price, hitting the hard-working man and woman in their pocket, hardly making America Great Again. Then, late in the month, the tariffs were struck down by a federal court, saying the President had overreached his powers by enacting the tariffs. He’s got till October to appeal to the Supreme Court. So, another couple of months of chaos beckons….
Martin Rowson on the tariffs…
And Nicola Jennings on the tariffs being struck down… for now…
Of course, in all the things he does, Trump believes he’s the hero. Hence his desire for a Nobel Peace prize…
The first week of school in the US, and already a school shooting. This time in Minneapolis. Two children killed, 17 people injured at a Catholic School. As a Brit living in the USA, I’m sharing the sentiments of most everyone living outside the USA – we just cannot get our heads around a country that simply seems to think this is okay. Insanity, absolute insanity.
The Onion says it best – ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens’
…Ben Jennings on that.
OVER IN THE UK – CRISIS AFTER CRISIS & THE RISE OF THE FLAG WANKERS…
The Labour government just can’t catch a break, lurching from one crisis to another, an impossible billion pound hole in the budget, assaulted on all sides.
Pete Songi on the Chancellor’s $40 billion hole in the finances…
Meanwhile, the likes of Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party go for the one-policy plan – rile up little Englanders about the immigrants, talk about a wave of immigration threatening the country, and cheer when asylum seekers put up in hotels because there’s nowhere else to put them are threatened by flag-waving bigots. This led to a wave of people putting up the St George’s cross and the Union Jack across the country as a sign of patriotism. Except, to adapt something someone once said, not everyone putting up a St George’s flag or a Union Jack is a racist, but every racist has put up a flag or cheered on someone doing it.
Ella Baron on Farage and the flags…
Stephen Lillie on Starmer’s Labour government pledging yet another policy on small boat crossings…
Ella Baron on Farage’s dog-whistle politics…
Ben Jennings on the Farage/Reform UK plan to deport the immigrants and asylum seekers…
And Morten Morland again…
