The Art Of Politics: June — Revolving Door Prime Ministers & Schrödinger’s Peace Deal In Iran
by Richard Bruton
Political cartoonists, telling truth to power through their art. Every month, The Art of Politics attempts to round up some of the best …
Another busy month in politics, another busy month of great art … running a little late this month, so expect a little early July works to sneak in here …
War, Peace, War, Peace, War, Peace, War, Peace, War, Peace — the Trump Iran mess just keeps on going…
It’s been another month where the whole USA/Israel vs Iran/Lebanon war marches on. Or it doesn’t. Depends who you believe. One day it’s war, the next it’s peace talks, ceasefire, and war is over. Then, a few hours later, Israel hits Lebanon, Lebanon launches missiles, the US strikes strategic targets in Iran (despite us being told that all those strategic targets have already been wiped out so many times by the President), Iran strikes back (with the sorts of weapons that Trump’s told us so many times he’s wiped out already). And it just continues.
Remember when Trump promised that this would be over in days? Yeah, me too.
Meanwhile, Trump is regularly on the socials telling us that the non-deal he’s got is the bestest deal ever — even though it looks an awful lot like a continued failure to get anything…
Rebecca Hendin on the war/peace thing …
Clay Bennett on the memorandum of understanding …
And Bill Bramhall …
More white flags — Michael De Adder
Ben Jennings on Israel striking Lebanon’s terrorist targets…
Dave Rowe on the troubles with any ceasefire/peace plan …
Meanwhile, back home, America gears up for its 250th celebrations …
4th July 1776, America declared independence from Britain, not wanting to be ruled by a despotic overlord that cared little about the American people. (You can see where I’m going with this, no doubt)
Anyway, there were grand plans for the 250th celebration put in place by Congress a decade ago, with America250 established as the official, bipartisan nonprofit meant to use federal funding to create a grand celebration of the country. Freedom 250 is a public-private partnership brought about by Trump. The former were focused on community works, block parties, and nationwide celebrations. The latter, like the President, wanted the bigleyest things, hence the UFC event /abomination on the White House lawn, the disastrous concert without any performers, and the current sparsely attended 16-day Great American State Fair. Oh, and there’s plenty of questions being asked about just how much of that federal money and private funding for America250 has been diverted into Fredddom 250.
It is, as you’d expect from America right now, a bit of a shitshow. Oh, and there’s the excellent job done on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Still, at least Trump, his family, and his pals are making bank – the latest revelation was that the Pres made just the $1.4 billion from crypto. Meanwhile, everyday America gets progressively poorer and more divided.
But hey, Happy 4th July, America!
Dave Rowe on the Great American State Fair …
Dave Rowe on the UFC taking over the White House …
And Clay Bennett also …
Dave Rowe on the President’s windfall…
And Michael De Adder on the same …
Dave Rowe on the reflecting pool debacle …
And Clay Bennett on the mood of the nation…
Then there was the World Cup …
It’s fascinating watching the World Cup of Soccer/Football over here in the USA. [Aside, seems ‘soccer’ is not the bad term we all thought it was. I found out recently the term comes from a shortening of ‘Association Football’ to ‘Assoc’ and then ‘Assocer’ and, finally, ‘Soccer,’ all coming from England.] Anyway, the World Cup. Back in the USA. And Canada. And Mexico. Where FIFA makes a fortune. Where those mandatory ‘hydration breaks’ are proving very profitable in terms of advertising revenue. But anyway, at the time of writing, all the host nations are still in the competition, and England have done their usual thing of getting through whilst making it horribly stressful to watch them doing so.
Anyway, it’s the first World Cup where we have a team whose country is actually at war with one of the host nations…
Ben Jennings on that …
Anarchy in the UK? …
Well, it’s all really hit the fan in the UK this month. Another month of political chaos ended with the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, announcing he was stepping down, after what’s been a disastrous return on a Labour landslide just two years ago in 2024. Waiting in the wings we have Andy Burnham, previous Labour MP, Cabinet Minister, and most recently the Mayor of Manchester. He’s essentially awaiting his coronation, having won the Makerfield by-election and marching triumphally into Westminster. Yes, the UK’s getting a new Prime Minister very soon.
Oh, and it was the tenth anniversary of Brexit as well … Ben Jennings on that…
Now, onto the whole changing of the Prime Ministerial guard …
First, Peter Brookes on Starmer’s last days … well, he’s not leaving yet, but he announced he was, so you get what I mean …
Martin Rowson on Andy Burnham’s seemingly inevitable coronation …
Stephen Lillie on the same …
Nicola Jennings on Burnham’s popularity without actually specifying what he’s standing for or what policies he might introduce …
Morten Morland in a similar vein …
Ella Baron on the same…
And Morten Morland on the same, with added Wimbledon reference…
Peter Brookes on possible regret after the seemingly inevitable change…
Finally, Starmer announces a Defence spending increase plan, complete with a £4.7bn gap in defence spending that will need to be found by the new Prime Minister. A real moment, seemingly, of F-you, to the new regime … Ben Jennings on that …
Morten Morland on the same …
And Dave Rowe on the troubled times of being British Prime Minister…
Meanwhile, a terrible crime – the death of student Henry Nowak, fatally stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh, saw the politicians rushing to condemnation. Digwa falsely claimed to police that Nowak racially abused him, which led to the police ignoring Nowak’s cries that he had been stabbed, handcuffing him as he lay dying. Digwa has already been jailed for life as a murderer; the police involved are subject to an ongoing gross misconduct investigation. A crime dealt with badly, for sure, police officers getting it wrong, and a young man dying in horrible circumstances.
What happened after the death of Henry was the worst of politics. As the Sikh community unilaterally condemned the murderer, as the family of Henry Nowak pleaded with the media and politicians to not exploit this murder, the politicians decided, basically, fuck that, we’re going all in here.
We had Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Kemi Badenoch both stepping up to score political points by fanning racist fires, pushing their far-right agenda. Coincidentally, the resultant media firestorm around this pushed the ongoing questioning of Nigel Farage’s £5 million gift he received from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne. Because of course, we can absolutely understand that there are absolutely no strings attached to a little gift to a major player in UK politics. Of course.
