on June 6, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
A hardy annual issue for any town possessing a university or college is the conflict between the local inhabitants and the students. HMOs or Homes in Multiple Occupation shelter many students while they are away from the houses of their parents. The sudden conflict of living styles and relative wealth can breed mutual suspicion with the all-year-around inhabitants. Add the often disinterested landlords and a university caught in a hard spot and you have, with luck, a subject rich for jokes.
Credit is due to the local council for attempting to mediate. I wonder if the absentee landlords will be joining in.
on June 5, 2013
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© Michael Cross and Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The Queen has been celebrating 60 years on the throne and the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered the traditional suck up which you can read here, should you wish. If longevity of life while being supported by the best our country can provide is deserving of such praise then, er, um…
on June 4, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for http://tribunecartoon.com
This week actor Michael Douglas, star of Basic Instinct and many more movies, made an ear-catching claim that performing oral sex was connected with his mouth cancer*.
This may, or may not, be true in fact and his publicist has subsequently denied that is what he said but, the fuss provided a handy prompt for this image about other intimate oral relations in the UK. Above, you will see David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage take prime billing alongside a top hat and some filthy lucre.
Yes, the UK is having one of its periodic fits of worry about money in lobbying, party politics and its connection with time in office. As noted previously, the problem of unclear funding (or, benefits in kind) that power naturally attracts has become more obviously acute in recent years because of the end of mass participation subscriptions that used to pay for party politics.
* Happily or not, Douglas also has a high profile movie out about the famously sex interested piano virtuoso Liberace.
on May 31, 2013
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I have met few people who aren’t at least impressed by the idea of champagne. The sparkling wine is a powerful symbol of reward, celebration and achievement. Sometimes it even tastes good.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
So, I was intrigued when I discovered that one of my local Sainsburys supermarkets had been deemed sufficiently posh to stock a very high value brand of the drink – namely, Bollinger. This ‘reward’ is apparently quite rare for any store.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
As a cartoonist this is a lovely subject to receive as a commission and, especially so when it is a time of hardship for many, even in relatively wealthy Winchester. Scattered hereabouts are some of the ideas the subject provoked.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
I wonder which one will get published.
on May 29, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The chancellor’s ‘Help to Buy’ property scheme is a large public subsidy with which the UK government has started to underwrite the risk for private businesses in the mortgage market. It is hard to feel this is wise.
You can also see the still version of the cartoon here.
Updated 23rd July 2013: There is an analysis of the expansion of the scheme announced on Tuesday July 22nd here from John McDermott at the FT – it has some interesting comments too. (Registration may be required to read the piece).
Interestingly, the Institute of Directors describe the expanded scheme as dangerous.
on May 28, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
Plans to develop gas extraction in Hampshire have been announced based on the distribution of exploratory licences which you can see in a map here, courtesy of the lobby group Frack-Off. The Liberal Democrat councillors in the County Council have chosen to ask for a blanket ban on ‘Fracking’ developments across the county – not too helpful really and, hence, the cartoon.
Updated 29th July 2013: Attempts to start the first active exploratory drilling at the village of Balcombe in Sussex have proved predictably controversial.
There is a fine explainer of about the process of Fracking here.
And this appears to be the present government position as outlined by Energy Minister Michael Fallon.
on May 28, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle in 2013
Plans for development of a solar farm in the Itchen valley north of Winchester may offer opportunity for the local inhabitants.
on May 21, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The ‘swivel-eyed lunatics’ of popular political conversation appear to have taken over in the Conservative party and the Prime Minister appears too weak to face them down while they fret in public about the ‘electoral threat’ of Nigel Farage’s UKIP.
The two greatest sources of discontent are Europe and ‘moral’ debate over the legalisation of same sex marriage but, seen from here, the real problem remains the PM’s failure to win the last election outright.
To add to this happy situation, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson (and another would-be Conservative Prime Minister) has lost his long legal fight to cover up the existence of a child born from an extra marital affair. It all reminds of the Cecil Parkinson-Sarah Keays affair from the recent political past.
To Johnson’s credit he has never (wisely) been one to preach morals for political advantage. However, he may have been depending on some of the loons and the accompanying moral minority to vote for him come the next Conservative party leadership contest.
on May 20, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for http://hampshirechronicle.co.uk
A modest proposal to alleviate dispute between the developers of a wind farm and the Ministry of Defence near my home town of Winchester.
on May 14, 2013
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© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
A political mouldy-oldie has popped up again – the Tories and Europe. You might think in the middle of the longest economic recession since the 1930s there might be more important things our leaders could be doing for the country. But, clearly prancing about arguing over philosophical hypotheticals and attempting to undress one another is the collective priority.
The reference for those bemused is to a Eurovision winning song of yesteryear – Making your mind up – by a band called Buck’s Fizz.
