Matt Buck’s Hack Cartoons Diary

The government’s pre budget report is due on December 9th. It’s not hard to imagine the curry houses of Westminster having a bumper week as Mr Darling and the treasury staffers try to work out what the public sector borrowing requirement is going to be while their spending continues to hold up the national economy. The last public estimate was £173Bn during 2010.

Updated: 6th December 18.40. There is a mass of pre-announcement speculation about this weekend much of which focuses ona possible one-off super tax on bankers, or bank, bonuses (the distinction between the two is important.)

Wednesday will reveal all, or some of the substance, but the actual amounts raised by anything such as this will continue to be dwarfed by the scale of the underwriting and borrowing that the Chancellor hand prime-minister have been forced to undertake to bail out the banks on behalf of the UK

The FT does a job on the bigger picture here.

News that a government owned property company in the Emirate of Dubai has asked for a moratorium on repaying its debts has spooked more than a few global financial marketplaces.

Wikipedia reveals the emirate’s main revenues are from tourism, real estate and financial services. All of these areas are, or have been, hard hit by the global downturn/recession/revaluation of asset prices*.

Dubai has been a place of conspicuous consumption for the recent past and the sort of place where footballers like to to buy second, or third homes. In that last link, The Times explains how these seemingly unrelated stories connect. The absolutely last paragraph in the story is worth reading.

AIG and Manchester United cartoon © Matt Buck Hack Cartoons

The BBC is reporting the story as a financial crisis in the ’middle east’ and this is true although it is important to remember that the global financial system is interconnected and there is a likelihood that debt default problems in Dubai will have unintended consequences on a much wider scale.

The cartoon is from March of 2009.

* Take your pick.

It’s a sad thing about news that you usually only get it in dribs and drabs and rarely all at once.

• The Chilcott Inquiry into the Invasion of Iraq opens

• Bank of England reveals undeclared £60Bn loan to part-nationalised financial houses HBOS and RBS

Cartoon made for Tribune.

Post updated: 11.30am George Eaton of the New Statesman has an interesting story about problems with full disclosure in news and opinion here.

The following is a short advert on behalf of a piece of creative thinking.

Poles Apart, is a theatre show in which two Britons go to Poland to get a job and to reverse recent trends in human migration.

It reflects the real life experience of its creators, Mark Whiteley and Daniel Hoffmann-Gill;

We spent 2 weeks as immigrants and ate a lot of lard, so we came home and made a show about our adventures that includes traditional Polish dance, moustaches, jokes about Russians and Poland’s leading avant-garde theatre co-operative re-enacting the Gdansk iron ore factory strike of 1963.

The show is on in London at the RichMix on Bethnal Green Road on the 27th and 28th November, starting at 7:30pm sharp. Quality Polish vodka and some sausage will be available for the audience.

The show may also feature BNP the sit-com.

The Press Association reported the start of the national ID scheme in Manchester early this week. The items are on sale priced £30 for anyone aged over 16 years. The Home Office Press Release is available here. The Grocer magazine identified a marked lack of enthusiasm for the voluntary scheme back in October of this year.

This cartoon was made for No2ID the anti ID card campaign organisation.

Promises of jam tomorrow are a fine political tradition and the last Queen’s Speech before the general election of 2010 will honour them today. This set-piece event allows Her Majesty’s government to lay out its planned legislation for the next session of parliament.

Despite the usual spin from all parties, including calls for it to be cancelled*, it is not half as important an event as the forthcoming pre-budget report. This is because the formal report from the UK Treasury, due on December 9th, will have to deal with the mucky but important matter of money and how it will be spent. Whatever Chancellor Alastair Darling announces will define the Labour spending-Conservative cuts argument set to dominate the coming political campaign.

* which are entirely futile if you work in the highly traditional world of Westminster.

UPDATED: 19th November at 9pm. The national public sector, or government, borrowing requirement in October was the highest on record. This sort of news may have some effect on what the pre-budget report brings (Link from the BBC.)

Today I shall be mostly drawing The Devil’s Guide to iT in preparation for the regular Wicked Wednesday. Old Nick, the Antichrist, is employing me to help offer a business advice service for anyone who uses computers, systems technology and IT in their mortal lives. The service, which is fronted by the evil little IT offers a huge range of guidance, tips, tricks and expert technology advice on all aspects of using, buying, selling, making and running the rather hellish IT. You can find out more here.

The Jacqui Janes – Gordon Brown Sun newspaper sponsored row rumbles on (link from the Telegraph.) Above is a cartoon featuring the old BBC Test Card and which is about the context in which the current debate is taking place. Below, is something short written in the summer of 2009.

Before Digital Britain can arrive, the old analogue powers are going to have to be placated or assured they will be able to keep their traditional share of the money pie. Top-slicing the BBC’s license fee seems to be one of the chosen methods for struggling broadcasters and publishers. More independent and proactive media business people will have had other ideas.

Obviously, would-be prime minister’s have a key role in facilitating this sort of thing.