The Art Of Politics: July – 3 Lions, 5 Rings, And Multiple Cock-Ups
by Richard Bruton
The Art Of Politics – taking a spin round the best of political cartooning – putting the world to rights…
Well, July saw the Euros end, the Olympics begin, and the Covid pandemic just keep on keeping on….
The UK celebrated the 73rd birthday of the National Health Service, surely the single greatest achievement in the history of the UK. If you’re not aware, the NHS was created as a service to provide FREE health care from cradle to grave. Being in the USA quite a bit, this may be a strange concept to some, but imagine a world where you weren’t forced into crippling debt when you became ill, all thanks to the government putting a system in place where society supported the weak, the ill, the disadvantaged. That’s the NHS. And it’s continually under threat right now from a UK government looking to slowly sell it off, which would be a tragedy for the future of the country.
Steve Bell on the fat cats circling…
And of course, one thing the NHS need to be celebrated for would be the Covid response. Despite screw-ups left and right from the government, the NHS has continued to work so hard, a dedicated nation of medical workers putting themselves on the front line against the pandemic.
Their reward for putting their lives on the line – a 3% pay rise…
Meanwhile… we had freedom day here in the UK, as Boris and the government lifted pretty much all Covid-19 regulations…
The NHS also had a Covid app… although probably nothing to do with anyone in the NHS, seeing as it managed to cause chaos, essentially creating a “pingdemic” of people having to self-isolate as the app told them they’d been in contact with someone who might have tested positive…
And then first new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, and then Prime Minister Boris and Chancellor Rishi Sunak got pinged.
Amazingly, Boris and Rishi were part of a previously unheard-of trial to get tested daily without needing to isolate.
Yes, it really is one rule for them and one rule for everyone else.
Cue the fastest U-turn in politics as Boris and Rishi, after a wave of public condemnation, decided that no, they should isolate after all.
And despite Boris declaring Britain safe and open, that pesky Delta variant kept on coming, making the world wary of opening up… and that included the risk of the Tokyo Olympics 2021…
Peter Shrank on the Olympics…
In the Euros Football tournament earlier in the month, we saw England’s team take the knee before every game and we saw Boris change tack as the tournament went on. Hypocrisy is alive and well in the UK of course…
And that hypocrisy ran through the entire government, suddenly football fans as the results went the England teams way. And against that, we had a team of footballers who were more socially conscious, ethical, and understanding of the troubles facing the country than any of the politicians cheering them on…
And when the England team went out in the final on penalties, the backlash hit hard, with the racists coming out to troll the players who missed their kicks.
Meanwhile, the government who earlier refused to acknowledge the players taking the knee, even criticised the players for doing it, started condemning the racists who came out of the woodwork.
Tyrone Mings, one of England’s players at the tournament, summed it up best with this tweet…
You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens. https://t.co/fdTKHsxTB2
— Tyrone Mings (@OfficialTM_3) July 12, 2021
Meanwhile, the US opened up and opened up big time, despite a poor record on vaccines, with less than 50% of the population fully vaccinated…
And with that, dear reader, I shall have to leave you. It’s right on the cusp of the end of the month here in Nevada (where I am right now, back to the UK mid-August sadly) – here, the Governor has just re-introduced mandatory mask mandates for everyone inside… it’s not going away anytime soon. So, for God’s sake (or whatever else you may believe in, even if it’s just yerself) – wear your mask, be careful, get your bloody vaccine.
