A Spotter's Guide to Conservatism

Have the Conservatives changed? Here are some old Steve Bell cartoons. You may want to click on them to enlarge

While listening to Tories eulogize Thatcher today, remember how ruthlessly they defenestrated her when the gloss wore off

Here's Bell's summary of Denis Thatcher's views: now official Conservative Party policy if you listen to Osborne, Camron, Gove et al. 

Satire then: reality now with some councils giving out Asda vouchers instead of emergency loans.

'And still you vote for us'. True then, true now. 

You're all just jealous of my jetpack

I had a good rant the other day about science fiction and generic boundaries. I'm not going to reopen that debate - but it reminded me of two lovely Tom Gauld cartoons from the Guardian. I tried to buy the first one, but someone else had snapped it up. I did get hold of the second one though: it hangs in my office, next to the 'Horrid Children in Literature' strip.

Political Penguins - why?

We've discussed Bloom County recently, featuring Opus, a highly political penguin from the Falkland Islands.

There's also Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World, which features a penguin.

And of course there are the original and best satirical penguins, Steve Bell's maniacal Falkland Islands refugees (seen here mourning the death of Diana):

The question is  - why? Is there something inherently satirical about penguins? Are there any more of them?

Geeks rock!

I'm a sucker for intertextuality and geeky cartoons, so I've added this maths one to my list. Here's a good example: