Learning English from Cartoons: New Democracy ...

This cartoon by Dave Brown from The Independent relates to the Greek parliamentary elections, which were won by the conservative New Democracy party.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is shown on a crumbling balcony draped with the Greek flag. She is giving the 'V for Victory' sign to an invisible crowd, while holding a mask in front of her face with the likeness of New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras.

EXPLANATION

The title of the cartoon is meant to be ironic (ellipsis is used to emphasize the point). New Democracy is the name of the Greek political party which won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday's poll, but the cartoonist is also presenting the elections as new form of democracy—one in which the voters are more or less told how to vote by an outside agent, in this case Angela Merkel. If the Greeks hadn't voted for the pro-austerity party, they would probably have been forced to leave the euro, so the result was dictated more by fear more than anything else. However, that crumbling balcony suggests that any respite will be short lived.

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Learning English from Cartoons: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

This cartoon by Schrank from The Independent on Sunday relates to today's Greek elections.

A Greek man is shown standing on the edge of a cliff. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is wagging her finger at him (a sign of warning or disapproval) and indicating with her thumb that he should take the path into the black mountains, where lightning is flashing. A thought bubble indicates that the Greek man sees Merkel as a devil with horns giving a Nazi salute.

COMMENTARY

If you say that someone is between the devil and the deep blue sea, you mean that they are in a difficult situation where they have to choose between two equally unpleasant courses of action (see here for a discussion of the origin of this idiom). In this case, Greece has the choice between the path of austerity (as dictated by Merkel and symbolized by the forbidding mountains), or a suicidal leap into the sea (exit from the euro zone). The ruined temple can be seen as a metaphor for Greece's economic ruin.

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Cartoon: The Eurozone Whirlpool

In this cartoon from The Independent, Schrank uses a visual metaphor for the eurozone debt crisis. EU leaders are portrayed as ducks being sucked into a eurozone whirlpool. We can assume that the duck which has already disappeared into the hole is former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. Next in line is outgoing Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are swirling round on the outside, while David Cameron looks on in dismay (the UK is not part of the eurozone but risks being tipped into recession by the eurozone debt crisis).

COMMENT

It's possible that the cartoonist was also thinking about the expression 'to go down the plughole'. A plughole is the small hole in a bath or sink which allows the water to drain away. If something goes down the plughole, it is wasted or ruined.

• Austerity measures are hurting and without the necessary rate cut to help with the pain, Portugal could be heading down the plug hole.