The General Election campaign of 2017 has started, officially.
The Prime Minister has also made a rather inflammatory speech with some large claims.
Theresa May speech in Downing Street on 3rd May 2017
Cartoon – Very Well, Alone by David Low
One image that merits the overused and abused term, iconic, is in the news again because of Brexit.
Extracted from Gideon Rachman column in the FT – 2nd May 2017
The acute analysis about ‘Very well, alone‘ offered by Mr Rachman in his column should be supplemented by knowledge of the next cartoon – All alone in the world – displayed by Fougasse aka Kenneth Bird.
Cartoon – Fougasse (Kenneth Bird) on World War Two at Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
Aside from being funny, Bird’s drawing was a more accurate depiction of the reality of late Imperial Britain’s efforts in the last world war – which ended almost seventy years ago.
I argue that in the murky realm of national mythologies these two cartoons occupy positions akin to yin and yang. the epitomy of complementary or conflicting opposites – emotion and reason – pride and pragmatism.
We have long seemed as a nation to have chosen World War Two as our national lodestar and these two pieces of imagery sum up the nation’s conversation with itself as well as anything else I know of.
My own modest efforts at reinterpretation of Low’s classic are below and are firmly #Brexit related – watching the Conservative Party become UKIP has been a most unedifying watch.
Flirting with Fascism – Matthew Buck at Hack Cartoons
And its consequences following the EU Referendum of June 2016 are becoming ever clearer.
La cri de coeur – by Rene Magritte
The general election of 2017 has started.
Making: ‘Elections are (usually) unpredictable things’ (#Brexit consequences)
It’s a long way anywhere when all you can see is granite, grass and gorse.
© Matthew Buck at Hack Cartoons
In 2016 there was a gift for everyone.
Confession: I am a lover of black humour.
Cartoonist and Illustrator Chris Burke gets down to some painting beside the seaside Photograph © Kasia Kowalska
I was delighted to be asked back to draw at the wonderful and fast-growing Herne Bay Cartoon Festival this year.
I hope you enjoy the following photographs from event photographer Kasia Kowalska which are the better ones in comparison with mine.
Eight feet high is a struggle for tiny tot like me Photograph © Kasia Kowalska
That’s me starting work on a big upright board! It’s all very REACH FOR THE SKIES!
The event theme was Postcards from the Beach following the genereally inspiring example of Donald McGill – don’t miss Saucyseasidepostcards.com to find out more about him.
McGill’s postcards were famously a target of the UK censors back in the 1950s probably because of their MASSIVE (geddit?) public popularity. There’s a great link to some of the censored pieces at the McGill Museum (which actually lives on the Isle of Wight – not so far from me in Hampshire.
Inside the Herne Bay town bandstand. Photograph © Kasia Kowalska
Livingcartoon. Photograph: © Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The town of Herne Bay benefits from a fantastic venue for the event – the Bandstand – as the picture above shows. Every year the promenade gets busier and busier and the crowds in this year, the event’s fourth, were as big as they have ever been. There’s easy access to ice cream, chips and beer and all the other necessities of seaside life so nearly everyone is happy – even when they are being caricatured.
That’s my colleague Rob Murray to the right, enduring the addition of a Glenn Marshall nose at one of the many exhibition opening shows scattered around the town.
Below, you can se the finished Herne Bay board from the first picture in this blog post – and being used by myself and The Surreal McCoy.
Sorry about the hat.
Journey’s end. Photograph: © Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
I’ll draw up another post with what I drew and why on another day.
On 23rd June 2016 The inhabitants of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.
The UK national parliament has a useful aggregation of information about what may happen now with a ‘Brexit’.
Some of the first tangible signs of the economic shock about which the unsuccessful Remain campaign spoke have become obvious in the decline in value of pound sterling against, the US Dollar, the Euro and other currencies.
2016 is also the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme from World War One and hence the cartoon at the top of this post.
You can read about the national experience of the Somme at the UK archives. Personally, I think the euphemisms of the letter sent on July 2nd 1916 by General Sir Douglas Haig are applicable to our own ongoing disaster of ‘Brexit’.
© Matthew Buck_Hack_cartoons
There are only ten days to go in the prolonged campaign about the UK’s membership of the European Union.
I’ve been a remainer for a long time for both practical economic and emotional reasons. I’ve found the campaign depressing for its negativity and focus on fear – both being sides guilty.
Intellectually, I understand that this behaviour is about motivating voters with the strongest emotion known to humans – fight or flight.
I think we should stay in the European Union to fight through negotiation for our interests.
The attempted manipulation of behaviour through psychology isn’t unusual in elections and referenda and I recommend a very good read here about the particular challenges of referenda and ‘direct democracy’.
As a country, we will all have to take what we get on June 24th.
The cartoon above owes something to this – and the lack of any sane plan for leave that I can see or hear.
This – not stupid but ignorant – is also worth a read. The legacy of years of poor public information (and outright lies – thanks Boris) may lead to a disastrous outcome, in my view.
Light relief from the cares of drawing for your living
See Facebook for details of the lineup of performing artists and the Battle of the Bands. There’s also a report from the local paper here and, if interested, find out more about plans for 2017 here.
Winchester Uke Jam at play
If I get time, I will post a few drawings I made of some other participants I made in between sets of songs.
