The Art Of Politics: October — Everything Building To Carnage In The Midterms
by Richard Bruton
Here we go again, taking a monthly look at the very finest political cartoonists and what they have to say about the state of the world… it’s The Art Of Politics…
Now, you may have noticed this one’s a fair few days late. There’s two ways of looking at this. First, I’m having a terrible time with deadlines at the moment, and the turn of the month caught me by surprise. Or perhaps I just held back a few days to take in the fallout from the US midterms? Yeah, let’s go with the latter, shall we?
So, on we head into October, a month dominated by the midterms looming in the USA, a budget in the UK, and continued issues with Russia…
Mr Trump’s romance with Russia…
Trump started the month with a deal to buy diesel from Russia. A spectacular deal, the best deal, the bigliest deal no doubt. Sure, it broke existing sanctions on Russia about buying oil from the country. Sure, it put money into Putin’s pockets to spend on killing Ukranians. But hey, maybe the less that a couple of million tons of diesel would drive down prices? Yeah, the art of the deal in action. 2 million gallons of diesel for a country that uses roughly half a million tons of diesel a day. Shortly after, Trump announced an ‘energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. I’m sure the Ukranian and Russian people being bombed daily would have preferred something more like an actual ceasefire.
Of course, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called Trump out on this, leading Trump to call out the Ukrainian President, saying the country needs a new President… Nicola Jennings…
The spectre of the Midterms looming over Trump and the Republicans…
Throughout October, nowhere was safe from the Midterms, where the US went to the polls to choose the entire House of Representatives, and a goodly chunk of the Senate, an election that could re-shape the last two years of the Trump presidency. In the end, the Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House, meaning that Trump’s next two years could be very difficult indeed.
The Israel-Palestine Problem…
Over in the UK — the Labour government settles in, budget woes, and Reform carries on being Reform…
Martin Rowson on the first Labour budget under PM Andy Burnham with Chancellor John Healey taking centre-stage…
Ella Baron on the budget…
And Ben Jennings on Healey’s ‘breathing room’ budget…
In a widely criticised move, PM Burnham announced plans to move forward with getting gas from the Jackdaw North Sea gas field… Ben Jennings…
And Martin Rowson on the same…
Reform UK, the far-right party headed by Nigel Farage, carried on doing it’s thing. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, not everyone who votes Reform is a racist, but every racist will vote Reform.
This month they announced plans to suspend all asylum routes into the UK… Ben Jennings…
Ben Jennings on the ITV TV expose on Reform UK councillors making racist, violent comments on camera in an undercover investigation…
And over in France — riot, riot, riot…
Protests in France boiled over this month, as students and activists rally against the country’s education system and rising living costs. Of course, the protests turned nasty, with rioters and looters taking over the streets of several cities, diluting the protesters’ message ahead of next year’s elections, something which could play into the hands of the far-right parties.
Ben Jennings (after Monet)…
