Lessons from the past

Last time I visited the excellent People's History Museum in Manchester, I bought postcards of great campaign posters from history. These two seem particularly apt for the current government (click to enlarge)

1910

Now, of course, pensioners have been hit again, while the minimum wage has been seriously cut for the young too. The noble lord, on the other hand, has received a massive tax break,

1929

God knows New Labour were a vicious crew of rightwing plutocrats themselves, but let's not forget that the economy was in recovery on election day 2010. It didn't last long once the coalition got in. 

Comrades, come rally…

Some more highlights from my photos taken at the People's History Museum. Click on these for larger versions.

Something the government would do well to remember

From the days in which socialists were proud and loud. Ed Milliband and friends don't really cut it in comparison to this. 

Suffrage Atelier banner detail

I sense a new edition coming

This is the Spanish Civil War appeal poster the Manics appropriated.

A typically sensible suggestion for Thatcher's funeral arrangements from the Morning Star

We lefties hated the Murdoch press from the very beginning. 

Return to the source

I took myself off to the People's History Museum last week, to see their exhibition of election posters. Not just because I'm a massive nerd, but because it's a wonderful, unapologetically leftwing place. Going back occasionally is a way to recharge my batteries and cheer myself up.

The exhibition was fascinating: a lesson in how we've returned to the same arguments, over and over again. The Tories are still the party of the selfish rich. The workers are permanently exploited. The Liberals are still untrustworthy turncoats. Only the Labour Party has changed. It used to believe in things. Now its job is to soften the edges of Conservative Capitalism.

I took some photos: they're not very good because the museum lighting is low to protect the textiles and there's so much material that a good angle isn't always possible. Still, see them here, or click on these highlights for larger versions:

They're STILL using this. They keep saying 'the Labour recession' and 'the recession we inherited' despite the facts: the country wasn't in recession in the quarter before the election.

Labour instituted tuition fees, the scum. The Tories and Lib Dems have tripled them, despite campaigning to abolish them!

Deeply ironic.

One of my ancestors fought in the Irish Brigade during the Boer War. The anti-British Irish Brigade, that is. Later on he was the Dublin Commandant of the IRA and one of Michael Collins' closest allies. 

This is a much more honest Tory poster about Ireland. The Union-Jack chaps are famous conservatives. The lad in the shamrock is an Irish nationalist getting a buffing.

What can I say? Has the Daily Mail changed at all? Although given that its owner, Lord Rothermere, claims to be French to avoid tax, perhaps it wouldn't support 'tax the foreigner' these days.

Coalitions: a lesson from history

We've been here before, as this poster from the early 1930s shows. I took it at the excellent People's History Museum in Manchester, on my phone. They should be selling copies.

'Artless git

Now that my debit card's gone, I keep seeing things I'd like to purchase. Oh well, it's good for what passes for my soul, and as one of you pointed out, I can catch up on the books I've bought. I've almost finished the Eric Gill, so perhaps something lighter and fictional next - though I really want to buy some (of the more demure) Gill prints now, despite having no wall space.

My collection of framed prints and posters are in the office. I have the Reds exhibition poster (a historical one on the Communist Party of Great Britain, staged at the People's History Museum in Manchester), a Tree of Literature in Danish, 6 CND reprints of their early posters, a brilliant dayglo 1970s poster of Angela Davies, a limited print of David Jones's Cara Wallia Derelicta (Gwalia Deserta) and a stunning batique of a yacht in the rain, done by Bev, my old fencing coach. I remember a patronising academic telling us penniless postgrads that we should be investing in prints and we all laughed at the idea of having money for art… I'm also really keen on Clifford Harper's work - emotion beautifully muted.