Matt Buck’s Hack Cartoons Diary

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for tobiasgrubbe.com

The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is to make his long awaited Autumn Statement this afternoon. It is unlikely to be happy news for anyone – but it also seems there will be no change in course regardless of the consequences.

The drawing of George lashed to the mast is extracted from The Opinions of Tobias Grubbe.

© Michael Cross and Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

My sometime employer has moved his operations offshore.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

This afternoon the PM is reading the final Leveson report into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press. Truly a tough gig for the Lord Justice but not half as hard as the public dilemmas that now face the PM and the government.

© Matthew Buck Hack cartoons

Following the revelations about the life of children’s entertainer Jimmy Savile the UK media is full of stories about conspiracies and cover ups for similar behaviours by other members of the wealthy and powerful.

Global corporations, including banks, insurers and even hot drinks franchises, are in the firing line too with allegations of corporate tax avoidance appearing ahead of the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Statement. This is due in early December.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell has finally resigned after the Plebgate or Gategate row in which he unwisely became embroiled in a public dispute with the Police and its trade union, or ‘Federation’. His resignation at 6.30pm on a Friday might have been cynically timed to catch most journalists in the pub (I know I was) but it also arrived on top of an embarrassing missing ticket adventure for the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a Virgin Train from Wilmslow to London Euston.

It all added up to an afternoon where government of the country felt entirely at the mercy of events. In the old phrase, in office but perhaps not really in power.

Updated: 27th November 2014. Andrew Mitchell has lost his libel trial carried against The Sun newspaper and the four police witnesses from the Downing Street security detail. The judge, Justice Mitford, decided on the balance of probablities that Mitchell had used the word (or something close to them). Costs of the trial are guesstimated at several million.

Fellow hack Rob Hutton described the misunderstanding at the heart of the #Plebgate hashtag nicely here.

The climax of the 2012 US Presidential election approaches for contenders, President Obama and governor Romney of Massachusettes.

Both men, whoever wins are, in truth, likely to be hamstrung by the parlous state of the national economy. The government is already committed to the Federal Reserve Bank policy of stimulus (money printing/credit creation) and low interest rates for at least two years, well beyond the November 6th election day.

In general terms, neither candidate appears to be particularly popular or trustworthy and this thought delivered another fallen American icon to mind. Seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has also recently been shown to have been over fond of stimulants. I hope you enjoy the connection.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

The ‘Plebgate’ rows within the government and particularly inside the Conservative party continue to threaten to unseat the Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell. The man in question appears before the backbench 1922 committee this Wednesday 17th October.

Updated: 19th December 2012 Revelations produced By Channel 4 News appear to cast doubt on some evidence provided by a civilian bystander, who turns out to have been a policeman.

Updated: 16th October 2013. Of course in the background of all this lies the Winsor review of Police terms and conditions.

© Michael Cross and Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

The government has announced a short term arrangement for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin to continue to run the franchise for the West Coast mainline railway after the unhappy bidding process run by the Department of Transport which was originally granted to First Group.