The Art Of Politics – March – Covid Chaos, Suez Stoppages, And A Horrible Return To Normal In America
The Art Of Politics – celebrating all the nightmarish moments of the past week in this hellish existence through the very best scribblings of the very best political cartoonists…
This month, in addition to all of the UK government shambles we’re used to, we had either the beginning of the end of the British Monarchy or the celebrity interview that put paid to the Royals formerly known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, depending on who you ask. Plus more Covid chaos and the entire worlds’ economy seemingly brought to its knees when a very, very big ship hit a wall in the Suez Canal. And American continued being American.
So yes, just your regular quiet month really during which we celebrated one year since the UK went into its first lockdown… Martin Rowson –
First though… British politics was all a flutter with the latest Budget, more Coronavirus bumps in the polls for Boris Johnson, bumbler extraordinaire and man promoted way past his haircut, and the sounds of many, many consultants scurrying away with their pockets weighed down with cash that absolutely couldn’t have been better used at all, oh no, not at all guv’nor…
So, we open the month with Covid measures being relaxed a little and schools going back. But Boris’ reluctance to properly regulate borders and seeming to delay on decisions meant the Brazillian variant managed to get in the country… including at least one patient who got in and was lost to the wonderful system in place…
Rishi Sunak, Chancellor, unveiled his budget and the Covid recovery plans for the country. So, a tightening of the belts all round then?
Well, unless you’re Boris and you decide your flat needs a bit of a refurb… £200,000 worth of Downing Street refurbishments to be exact. Plans to cover the cost through a charity being set up caught a lot of flak… really, who would have thought?
One of the reasons paying £200k for a flat refurb sticks in the craw, along with so much else, is the disgraceful idea that the NHS pay rise this year would be a stunning 1%… or £3.50 a week.
Yes, we’ll get out and clap them, we’ll make TV shows saying how wonderful they are, but give them the actual money they bloody deserve? Well, that really is going too far, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, whilst we simply absolutely cannot afford more than £3.50 a week for the nurses, you’ll be proud to hear that the country can afford a monumental 22 BILLION QUID for the track and trace farce that was never fit for purpose, didn’t do what it was meant to do, and was a complete waste of OUR money.
Oh yes… the pigs were in their troughs and Bozza and Co. were so happy to feed them all the cash…
Everyone’s favourite government minister who you get the idea would cheerfully send her own parents back where they came from if it was possible, Priti Patel, ushered in some wonderful new policies that crack down on the idea of peaceful protest…
Martin Rowson on that one…
And then Auntie Priti unveiled possible plans to have asylum seekers processed overseas… Steve Bell…
The insanity of Priti Patel’s move to prevent free speech in Britain was writ large mid-month as a protest to recognise the ongoing issues of violence against women following the murder of Sarah Everard were called off due to Covid restrictions. Instead, there was a peaceful vigil marking yet another murder.
And the police, who are normally so restrained when it comes to protests from anti-lockdown muppets and when football fans decide to gather and march… well, they decided that these fully masked up women were way too much of a threat. Sometimes you just want to cry. But then you hear Auntie Priti saying she’s going to investigate and instead you get angry, realising it’s her fault, bringing in draconian measures that go against everything Britain used to stand for…
And then we got THAT interview… where just for a little while, the entire world seemed to forget all the things going on in the world in favour of Oprah sitting down with a couple of young Royals…
Martin Rowson absolutely nails the way the world’s media absolutely transformed the news cycle for a week or more…
And Martin Rowson again…
Steve Bell on William leading the charge in defence of the Royals…
Elsewhere in the world…
Well, there was the big, big ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal, with the Evergreen Ever Given hitting a wall and holding up the global economy…
Finally, heading over to the USA….
We had the First dog being sent home for training after biting security, the House and Senate really couldn’t agree over the stimulus package, until they sort of did – by not agreeing but getting it through anyway, despite every Republican voting against it.
Oh, and more and more states decided that no, the medical and scientific advice was wrong or could at least be ignored and kept opening up, undoing the mask mandate, and generally risking it all for a buck or two…
Far more important things kept some legislators occupied anyway, such as the Georgia representatives who drew up voter suppression laws that included banning offering someone in line to vote food or drink (yes, really).
Of course, they absolutely deny that there’s any truth to the allegations that they’re just doing it to make it easier for the Republicans to win …
And that last cartoon brings us, sadly, to the true sign that America really was getting back to normal as the mass shootings began again with the death toll rising after 10 dead in Boulder, Colorado, and 8 dead in Atlanta, Georgia.
But the problem is that those are just the ones that made the news.
We only really get to hear about the big numbers nowadays, so inured to the tragedy has American become.
So far in 2021, there have been 114 mass shootings – more than one a day – with 135 people killed.
And there’s little to no hope of anything changing – as this Time article put it so perfectly – this is ‘What normal has come to be like in America.‘
Kal –
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