LEARNING ENGLISH FROM CARTOONS

The Return of the Iron Lady

This cartoon by Andy Davey from The Sun is inspired by the recent visit by Meryl Streep to London to promote her new film 'The Iron Lady' (see trailer), in which she plays former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

In the cartoon we see current PM David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne outside Number 10 Downing Streep (ha ha!). Streep/Thatcher is heading their way, waving to a cluster of photographers. Cameron exclaims, "Oh my God! She's back."

COMMENT

Looks like we're in for a wave of Thatcher nostalgia. I wonder how Mrs. T—who, in her famous 1988 Bruges speech, railed against a "European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels"—would have handled the euro-zone debt crisis.

Cartoon #2: Merkel Channels Churchill

In this cartoon from The Guardian, Steve Bell portrays German Chancellor Angela Merkel as British wartime PM  Winston Churchill (photo here). She is flanked by the New Greek and Italian prime ministers holding axes (a symbol of the austerity measures they must take to save their countries' economies).

COMMENTARY

The cartoon is inspired by a Churchillian speech Merkel gave on Monday in which she said that the  euro zone sovereign debt crisis has plunged Europe into what is perhaps its most difficult crisis since the end of World War Two. Her 'toughest hour' quote sounds like something the great man himself might have said (what he actually said was, " This was their finest hour"). And, of course, the WW2 reference also makes one thinks of Churchill.

NOTES

1. Note the German helmet spike sticking through the top of the hat.

2. The underpants outside the trousers is a reference to the way that Steve Bell used to portray former British PM John Major. Bell used the allegation by Alastair Campbell that he had observed Major tucking his shirt into his underpants to caricature him wearing his pants outside his trousers, as a pale grey echo of both Superman and Supermac, a parody of Harold Macmillan [source:  Wikipedia]. Could the fact that the new Italian PM Mario Monti has been dubbed 'Super Mario' have something to do with that?

Source: TheEnglishBlog