on July 24, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
Young Conservatives enjoy a fancy dress event. Image from Wikipedia
The Conservative Party scored a big win in the Norwich North by-election. The party took the seat from Labour with a hefty swing of the vote, although the overall turnout was under 50% of those eligible to vote.
This week also saw the rebrand of the BBC’s Doctor Who with the appointment of a new doctor, Matt Smith. The photographic evidence, available via The Sun, reveals what looks like a tweedy 1950s style Young Conservative. So, the Beeb’s preparations for the zeitgeist are going well.
Let’s hope somebody‘s policies are as sharp as their fashions because the national economic news, from whichever side of the fence you look, is still uniformly grim.
on July 17, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
The Walker Review into the pay of our top financiers has been published, just before the long parliamentary recess, as is traditional. The Wall Street Journal has some interesting colour about it here.
on July 15, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
The government has launched another consultation paper on the future care of the elderly in the UK (brief report here and some reaction too). The report is important because proportionally, the population of the UK is getting older and there will be fewer young, economically productive people to support the growing cost of OAP* care in the coming decades.
The scale of the economic problem is large. No political party really wants to tackle it because it involves ‘hard financial choices’ and this is especially, so on this side of an election. Mind you it was just the same situation back in 1997.
The reference in the cartoon is to recent deaths in service in Afghanistan.
* There’s an acronym you don’t hear so much in the media nowadays – or is it my imagination?
on July 14, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
Fine low-technology chair for Drawnalism at Reuters
I had an interesting day yesterday with Thomson Reuters after they asked me to caricature Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats at an experimental digital interview they were conducting with him. The project involved a massive gathering of crowdsourced, or submitted questions, mainly sourced through Twitter and user-generated video.
Clegg took questions for over an hour without any knowledge of what was coming his way. It was interesting and impressive stuff from both the remote questioners and the man answering them. The journalists practised their new role as moderators and managers of the multiple conversations. Behind that, some very skilled technical folk did wonders streaming live data and social interactions using a liberal amount of communication devices.
Reuters had thoughtfully provided me with a chair which had a clear line of sight to Clegg and I got down to about 40 minutes of watching and drawing. I had to work fast because of the interview deadline and so chose a splashy style and a high contrast colour set. You can see some of the results here.
Nick Clegg MP. Live drawn at Thomson Reuters 13th July 2009 © Matt Buck Hack Cartoons
You can read a fuller analysis of my part in the event here and of the event more generally, here.
UPDATED: 11.25am. There’s a Flickr photo stream from the day here too.
on July 13, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
Some preparatory drawings. It can be harder to caricature young people because life hasn’t left much of a mark on them. This would be despite, in these particular cases, quite a few adventures.
on July 9, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
The Bank of England is to print more money in a further effort to get the banks to get lending again. (The Treasury allowed an initial spend of £150bn in March this year).
Perhaps as a result of printing so much new money, the cost of UK Gilts or, stakes in long-term Government debt, is rising. This means they give less value for money to investors and may as a result struggle for sales against government debt from other countries, such as Germany or the US.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has unveiled new plans for regulation of the banks. He has been criticised for not enforcing a separation of of high street, or retail and investment banking. Many critics feel the crossover of the two jobs has been a major contributory factor in the collapse of most of the UK’s independent banking industry because of reckless investment decisions, particularly in the property and mortgage markets.
on July 3, 2009
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
After Monday’s latest brand relaunch, The Prime Minister gave an interview to Gary Gibbon at Channel 4 News. One wonders who is really doing the talking now.
