Another blog, this time with a look at how politicians have been represented in satirical publications and TV programmes. The example I will use here is Ken Clarke, who has served as the Conservative MP for the constituency of Rushcliffe (South Nottinghamshire) since June 1970 - when his preferred political party unexpectedly won that election. Despite all the opinion polls in the months beforehand suggesting a third Labour election victory for Harold Wilson (his first two being in 1964 and 1966, with another one in October 1974, with a hung parliament in February 1974), the Conservatives won a surprise majority and thus got into power.(Image taken from http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/t/the_conservative_party_gifts.asp)
Before I start analyzing this image, I feel it is necessary to have a brief explanation of Clarke's time as an MP to better understand the hidden codes in this image.
Ken Clarke was a minor backbencher to start with (as all politicians are at the beginning of their political career) and slowly rose through the ranks of his party, until he became a prominent member of the cabinet in Margaret Thatcher's third government (1987-1990, that government in total ran from 1987-1992, the Conservatives being in power that time continuously from 1979-1997).
His roles, alongside being an MP for his constituency, were:
1972-1974 Government whip (under Edward Heath's government)
1976-1979 Margaret Thatcher's industry spokesman (when the Conservatives were not in power)
1982-1985 Minister of state for health
1985-1987 Paymaster general
1985-1987 Minister of state for employment
July 1987 - July 1988 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
July 1987 - July 1988 Minister at the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)
He then entered senior cabinet roles:
July 1988 - November 1990 Secretary of State for Health
November 1990 - April 1992 Secretary of State for Education and Science
April 1992 - May 1993 Home Secretary
May 1993 - May 1997 Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was appointed as Chancellor after John Major, the then Tory leader and Prime Minister decided to sack Norman Lamont from that position after the events of Black Wednesday in September 1992, when millions of pounds were wiped off share values and the UK had to pull out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
After the Conservative party lost the May 1997 election in spectacular style (the Conservatives had lost 171 seats!), Clarke returned to the backbenches, and stayed there until recently, when on 19th January 2009 he was appointed the Conservative's Shadow business secretary. Who knows? If the Conservatives win the upcoming election (planned for May 6th 2010), which, if they win, will be a slim majority, judging by opinion polls, Kenneth Harry Clarke may return to the cabinet. However this is becoming ever more unlikely as Clarke will be approaching his 70th birthday when the election comes around.
The image is supposedly a representation of Clarke's time as a senior cabinet minister. The Conservative party, have, for many years been well known for public spending cuts. He also introduced an "internal market" concept to the NHS and provoked the ambulance drivers' strike of 1989. He is then said to have "ruined" state education when he was Secretary of State for Education and Science. The sharpness of the blades on his fingers, along with movement lines around them to suggest that they are moving a little suggests that he is actively plotting more savage public spending cuts, while the smile on his face is the impression that he gives to the media - that everything is OK and hunky dory when in fact in the real world, everything is not OK.
The image has links to the film Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), in which one of the main characters, Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund) also has sharp blades for fingers. The other source of inspiration for this picture may have been a 1987 episode of Spitting Image, in which, in Krueger style, Margaret Thatcher has blades on her fingers, which she places over Scotland ("the testing ground" as her Spitting Image counterpart called it, referring to the fact that many of her policies were "tested" in Scotland before being introduced elsewhere), suggesting that she is just as much a psychotic maniac as Freddie Krueger. The joke here is different though. Whereas in Spitting Image, the blades on the fingers suggest that Margaret was psychotic, in this picture, the blades on Ken Clarke's hands suggest that he makes many cuts - just as many injuries to many parts of the body populated the film which was the obvious inspiration for this drawing. There is also the fact that this image is in black and white - showing a stark contrast, probably representing the stark contrast that there was between rich and poor or Labour and Conservative before Tony Blair decided to completely transform the Labour party when he became leader after the death of John Smith in May 1994.
I suppose in many ways, you could still apply the blade fingers to a satirical drawing of any politician today, as whoever gets in power, it is currently being well publicised in the media that whoever wins the next general election will have to make sizeable public spending cuts. However, if you got many people who were old enough to remember the Tories of the 1980s and early 1990s, it would be most likely that they draw David Cameron with blades on his fingers. There is also a similar operation to this, as there is a website in which the Tories' many advertising campaigns for the next general election are lampooned.
The massive head may also be a nod to the fact that many anti-Tory people thought that they were arrogant, the slang term for which is "big-headed". This could suggest the era when this image was drawn. There had always been a feeling of arrogance among Tory MPs by the general public, however, during John Major's second term as PM (and the Conservative party's fourth consecutive term in office), the feeling of arrogance among Tory MPs was much greater than usual, fuelled by a seemingly continuous string of squabbles, scandals (remember Cash for Questions? and David Mellor's extramarital affair?) and resignations, plus the Conservative party's inability to win by-elections during this bleak period.
The framing of the image is simply with Ken's head (which identifies who he is) and Ken's hands (which can identify his intentions to cut, cut, cut) in the top left corner, with simply his legs in the bottom right corner, so that all of the important aspects of the image are bundled together.
Before I start analyzing this image, I feel it is necessary to have a brief explanation of Clarke's time as an MP to better understand the hidden codes in this image.
Ken Clarke was a minor backbencher to start with (as all politicians are at the beginning of their political career) and slowly rose through the ranks of his party, until he became a prominent member of the cabinet in Margaret Thatcher's third government (1987-1990, that government in total ran from 1987-1992, the Conservatives being in power that time continuously from 1979-1997).
His roles, alongside being an MP for his constituency, were:
1972-1974 Government whip (under Edward Heath's government)
1976-1979 Margaret Thatcher's industry spokesman (when the Conservatives were not in power)
1982-1985 Minister of state for health
1985-1987 Paymaster general
1985-1987 Minister of state for employment
July 1987 - July 1988 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
July 1987 - July 1988 Minister at the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)
He then entered senior cabinet roles:
July 1988 - November 1990 Secretary of State for Health
November 1990 - April 1992 Secretary of State for Education and Science
April 1992 - May 1993 Home Secretary
May 1993 - May 1997 Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was appointed as Chancellor after John Major, the then Tory leader and Prime Minister decided to sack Norman Lamont from that position after the events of Black Wednesday in September 1992, when millions of pounds were wiped off share values and the UK had to pull out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
After the Conservative party lost the May 1997 election in spectacular style (the Conservatives had lost 171 seats!), Clarke returned to the backbenches, and stayed there until recently, when on 19th January 2009 he was appointed the Conservative's Shadow business secretary. Who knows? If the Conservatives win the upcoming election (planned for May 6th 2010), which, if they win, will be a slim majority, judging by opinion polls, Kenneth Harry Clarke may return to the cabinet. However this is becoming ever more unlikely as Clarke will be approaching his 70th birthday when the election comes around.
The image is supposedly a representation of Clarke's time as a senior cabinet minister. The Conservative party, have, for many years been well known for public spending cuts. He also introduced an "internal market" concept to the NHS and provoked the ambulance drivers' strike of 1989. He is then said to have "ruined" state education when he was Secretary of State for Education and Science. The sharpness of the blades on his fingers, along with movement lines around them to suggest that they are moving a little suggests that he is actively plotting more savage public spending cuts, while the smile on his face is the impression that he gives to the media - that everything is OK and hunky dory when in fact in the real world, everything is not OK.
The image has links to the film Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), in which one of the main characters, Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund) also has sharp blades for fingers. The other source of inspiration for this picture may have been a 1987 episode of Spitting Image, in which, in Krueger style, Margaret Thatcher has blades on her fingers, which she places over Scotland ("the testing ground" as her Spitting Image counterpart called it, referring to the fact that many of her policies were "tested" in Scotland before being introduced elsewhere), suggesting that she is just as much a psychotic maniac as Freddie Krueger. The joke here is different though. Whereas in Spitting Image, the blades on the fingers suggest that Margaret was psychotic, in this picture, the blades on Ken Clarke's hands suggest that he makes many cuts - just as many injuries to many parts of the body populated the film which was the obvious inspiration for this drawing. There is also the fact that this image is in black and white - showing a stark contrast, probably representing the stark contrast that there was between rich and poor or Labour and Conservative before Tony Blair decided to completely transform the Labour party when he became leader after the death of John Smith in May 1994.
I suppose in many ways, you could still apply the blade fingers to a satirical drawing of any politician today, as whoever gets in power, it is currently being well publicised in the media that whoever wins the next general election will have to make sizeable public spending cuts. However, if you got many people who were old enough to remember the Tories of the 1980s and early 1990s, it would be most likely that they draw David Cameron with blades on his fingers. There is also a similar operation to this, as there is a website in which the Tories' many advertising campaigns for the next general election are lampooned.
The massive head may also be a nod to the fact that many anti-Tory people thought that they were arrogant, the slang term for which is "big-headed". This could suggest the era when this image was drawn. There had always been a feeling of arrogance among Tory MPs by the general public, however, during John Major's second term as PM (and the Conservative party's fourth consecutive term in office), the feeling of arrogance among Tory MPs was much greater than usual, fuelled by a seemingly continuous string of squabbles, scandals (remember Cash for Questions? and David Mellor's extramarital affair?) and resignations, plus the Conservative party's inability to win by-elections during this bleak period.
The framing of the image is simply with Ken's head (which identifies who he is) and Ken's hands (which can identify his intentions to cut, cut, cut) in the top left corner, with simply his legs in the bottom right corner, so that all of the important aspects of the image are bundled together.
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