“Bring out the Gimp”

 Thursday 13th November 2014. The Guardian – Steve Bell/John Heartfield

Today Steve Bell reuses a John Heartfield political poster that he has used previously (see here). This time George Osborne, in his gimp outfit, is seen receiving wads of cash in his back pocket from the “Fat Cat” banker. Major banks have been fined for fixing LIBOR (London InterBank Offered Rates). Rates that help the banks make more money – making it work for them rather than their clients. This on top of many other misdemeanours they have been perpetrating.

Bell has taken this image from one of John Heartfield’s political photomontages published in Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung. This workers’ newspaper cleverly used deceptively realistic montages cheek-by-jowl with straight documentary photographs, many of which savagely satirized the Nazi regime,.

Here, Heartfield specifically links Hitler’s electoral success with his courting of wealthy industrialists and businessmen. He and Bell gives pictorial representation to the  idea that money fuels political power and whilst Heartfield specifically links the Nazi salute to a plea for cash, Bell highlights the belief that this time Osborne is in the pocket of the banks and will use the fines from regulator’s crackdown on currency market rigging will be ‘used for the wider public good’. Whatever that means. Remember not one banker has gone to jail for all this illegal activity.

                DER SINN DES HITLERGRUSSES: KLEINER MANN BITTET UM GROSSE GABEN.

Motto: MILLONEN STEHEN HINTER MIR!

The Meaning of the Hitler Salute: Little man asks for big gifts.

Motto: Millions Stand Behind Me!

John Heartfield, 1932 – (German, 1891–1968), Rotogravure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Chris Walker.

 

“I know my place”

In previous entries I have discussed the reuse of Fine Art and Cinema imagery by modern political cartoonists. Well today I can expand the use of iconic images to television and magazine photomontages. We are still in deep Tory party conference mode and also reference a big news story about a hugely controversial company having to admit wrong doing and writing off several hundreds of millions of pounds.

Friday 03 October 2014. The Telegraph – Christian Adams.

David Cameron’s speech was based around his promise of (currently unfunded) tax cuts, whilst George Osborne was  freezing ‘working-age’ welfare payments to the poorest and withdrawing it all together from 18-21 year-olds. This really show Cameron’s and the Tory ideology and in this lurch to the right shows that he is scared of the perceived threat from UKIP. He seems to have forgotten what he said on The Andrew Marr Show, May 2nd 2010:-

“I want to, if I’m elected, take the whole country with me. I don’t want to leave anyone behind. The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society. And that test is even more important in difficult times, when difficult decisions have to be taken, than it is in better times.“

Pah!

THE FROST REPORT – THE CLASS SKETCH.

Writers: Marty Feldman and John Law Stars: John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett. First Broadcast: Television, UK, Black and White, 7th April 1966.

Friday 3rd October 2014. The Guardian – Steve Bell

 Steve Bell’s contribution acknowledges Heartfield in his depiction of Cameron and ties to a controversial loan company who was found out by the financial regulator. Bell morphs the

logo into a loan shark and I think the link between Wonga, payments from that company, and closely linked Adrian Beecroft, to the Tory party and what they were expecting from Cameron is pretty obvious.

Bell has taken this image from one of John Heartfield’s political photomontages published in Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung. This workers’ newspaper cleverly used deceptively realistic montages cheek-by-jowl with straight documentary photographs, many of which savagely satirized the Nazi regime,.

Here, Heartfield specifically links Hitler’s electoral success with his courting of wealthy industrialists and businessmen. He and Bell gives pictorial representation to the  idea that money fuels political power and whilst Heartfield specifically links the Nazi salute to a plea for cash, Bell highlights the belief that Cameron is in the pocket of business and if they don’t get their way funding will cease.

 

               DER SINN DES HITLERGRUSSES: KLEINER MANN BITTET UM GROSSE GABEN.

Motto: MILLONEN STEHEN HINTER MIR!

The Meaning of the Hitler Salute: Little man asks for big gifts.

Motto: Millions Stand Behind Me!

John Heartfield, 1932 – (German, 1891–1968), Rotogravure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Chris Walker.