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Steve Bell’s Guardian cartoon on Theresa May’s Brexit away day is everything

John Plunkett. Updated February 23rd, 2018

Sometimes you see a cartoon and it just nails it. This is one of those cartoons, the Guardian’s Steve Bell on Theresa May’s Brexit away day with her cabinet.

And here’s one of the most recommended comments that it prompted on the Guardian site.

This would be funny if it wasn’t true.

We are being dragged over the edge of an economic and social cliff and for what?

I started working when I left school, just as the recession hit. After 8 years of struggling through real wage shrinking, austerity, services being slashed across the board, streets and infrastructure crumbling, things were finally starting to get better. We were just coming out of years of negative growth with real prospects of improvement on the horizon. Then Brexit happened. While the Eurozone including Greece is experiencing growth, in the last 18 months I have watched 300 of my colleagues being made redundant because of Brexit. And tomorrow it is now my turn, my last day of employment. One could argue that these job losses were a mere coincidence have to factor in some people have had their jobs with this firm for over 30 years. It is a global company based on the continent but looks like they’ve hedged their bets in Holland, Poland and Romania instead of the UK.

The toughest and most bitter part of this is that the British government held many of the contracts. They’ve shipped as many British jobs oversees as possible, the only stuff that is remaining is what cannot be sent abroad, i.e. parts of contracts that involve our defence and security. If they could they’d be gone too.

And what is all this for? To appease some fantasy of making Britain great again or is it just to get rid of the foreigners? For sure certain people stand to profit from Brexit, some always do profit in hard times. I suppose I can consider myself lucky, as I’m sure notification of termination of employment and severance pay in a few years will be a distant and sad memory as employment laws and British not human rights erode our rights.

The future is being gambled and for what? I am in my 20’s and may I remind some that we’ve had very little in the way of opportunities, coming of age in tough times and the future just doesn’t look any better. Since the referendum there has been nothing really achieved. Since article 50 nothing has really been achieved. We still don’t know what the hell we’re doing, why we’re doing it or where we are going.

The clock is still ticking. The time that has been wasted can never be recovered. There isn’t much time left and its being wasted in a criminal way, while our positions run around or just stick their head in the sand.

Personally I plan to enjoy 2018 as come March 2019 I don’t think they’re is going to be much left to enjoy. Even the possibly of escape for those inclined to move away will possibly be closed. I wish I was wrong, I really do but the people who are driving this (for lack of a better word) don’t take any time to look at the realities, just put out phrases like “Lets leave now and negotiate from a position of strength” or lets show them how tough Britain is.

Slogans are cheap, look no further than communist and fascist societies from the 20th century and and you will see slogans and brightly coloured posters mean nothing.

But a comment now about the Illustration from Steve Bell. I wonder if he’s gone to the trouble of ensuring that only 51% of the union flag is actually on the train going over the cliff? Lead by a remainer who is too much of a coward to admit what way she’d vote again if there was a hypothetical referendum called tomorrow. Even Jeremy Corbyn has had the integrity to say he’d vote remain if he had the chance again, after looking over the edge of the cliff. Personally he has a lot to answer for as well whipping article 50 through the way he did but that can’t be helped now.

Here’s another take on the Brexit away day by @davidschneider. Similar, but different.

Lots more Steve Bell here.

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