Political Cartooning For July: The Best From The UK

We’ve had a relatively quiet month over here in the UK politically … Oh, if only!
As you might have heard, we have a brand new Prime Minister here in the UK. Yes, the highest position in the land is now occupied by the buffoon-in-chief, Boris Johnson, a man who did practically everything he could to scupper his chances yet still managed to get in. (Although seeing as he was voted for purely by the Conservative party membership, just 0.13% of the UK population, it’s little surprise).
So, as we career off the social, financial, and political cliff that is Brexit, at least the political cartoonists will have plenty of material…

(John Riordan – what a lot of people feel about Boris in Number 10)

The month began with the ongoing, you couldn’t make it up if you tried epic farce of both Brexit and the Conservative leadership election, where Boris (idiotic buffoon) Johnson and Jeremy (you wouldn’t be the first to get the name wrong) Hunt were going up against each other to see who can lead Britain into the wilderness.
Boris makes a hash of everything he touches, the carefully crafted loveable buffoon facade slips occasionally so we can see what a nightmare he could be – but no worries, he’s perfectly capable of taking Britain off the huge cliff that is a no-deal Brexit… here’s Chris Riddell…

And here’s Riddell again, later in July, with a cartoon perfectly illustrating just what the potential future PM is taking us towards when he blusters and blunders towards the no-deal Brexit…

Boris really is the gift that keeps on giving though, early in July we discovered that our future Prime Minister was considered such an incompetent ass that Theresa May and the intelligence services did everything they could to keep him away from the super-sensitive intelligence stuff – here’s Martin Rowson‘s take on that…

In other news, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party (totally against the European Union and trying to get us out of Europe) took up their seats in the European Parliament and turned their backs on the opening of parliament in a display of childishness that simply defies belief. Every time you think these idiots get any more ridiculous, they simply up the ante.
Here’s Steve Bell on one of those Brexit Party MEPs giving her speech to the European Parliament…

And over the pond, President Trump had a problem with leaks that mentioned Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador to the USA talking trash over Pres. Trump… here’s Ben Jennings…

Donald went ballistic, responding to the email leaks by calling out the Ambassador, calling him wacky and a ‘very stupid guy’.
The political elite over here jumped up and defended the confidentiality of official emails etc, etc, with everyone up in arms over it all and promising to support the Ambassador… all except… have a wild guess… Yep, BORIS…
Here’s Steve Bell on that particular mess…

The end result of it all… the UK Ambassador to the USA felt he was in an impossible position and had to resign. So, thanks to Trump and Boris, we’re in an even worse state than ever… all perfectly summed up by the wonderful R Fresson…

 
Next up in what did Donald do next… we had the absolutely not, oh no, not at all racist statements about the Democratic ‘Squad’, four young congresswomen, four women of colour, three born in the US, one refugee from Somalia who became a citizen at 17, in 2000.
Steve Bell on that…

 
And finally to end the month in the UK, we got Prime Minister Boris and one of the hottest ends to July in recorded history. The irony wasn’t lost on a lot of people… Britain, both in politics and in temperature, is descending into hell in a handcart.
Nicola Jennings on Prime Minister Bozza entering no. 10…

Stephen Collins on Boris’ career…

It was also a month where we saw the end of MAD magazine, at least new material, which is why this German Der Spiegel cover is just so magnificent…

 
So… we end the month with a new Prime Minister, the same old President, and the prospect of these two responsible for quelling the rising tensions over Iran and the West. Oh God, we’re all doomed…
Ben Jennings with a reminder (if only we could forget) of Boris’ most glorious moment as London Mayor in 2012, getting stuck on a zip-wire celebrating the Olympics…

 
 
And now to end… what seems like the regular report on bad decisions in political cartooning.
Early in July, the great political cartoonist Michael de Adder‘s freelance contract with the Brunswick News and all papers in Brunswick was cancelled, just after this cartoon was published…

It’s a brutal and powerful cartoon, referring to the image of Oscar Alberto Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande River to get into the USA. It’s a perfect example of a picture painting more than a thousand words.
Trouble is, the Brunswick News is a privately-held publishing company owned by James K. Irving, one of the wealthiest men in Canada and part of Irving Oil, with huge interests in the USA. It doesn’t take all that much to connect the dots here – de Adder being a poster boy for the anti-Trump movement versus a business tied to an oil company inexorably linked to the USA and dependant on so many political favours.
Yet another example of how important political cartooning is and sadly, another in a long line of examples of how it doesn’t take all that much to trample over the freedoms of expression we all should uphold in this day and age.