Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

Green politics and policies are at the whim of strange human forces, such as a lack of willpower and economic chance.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

New drawing for No2ID. There is an link to a leaked document from the government here. It is interesting to track the way in which the non-compulsory ID cards will become compulsory for the younger members of our society. Link from Anorak. The BBC pen profile of No2ID is here. No2id themselves live here and there is a handy guide to directions to your local interview centre for your very own card here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Some excellent reporting, photographs and jokes from Lou McKeever who was at the policeman’s pay protest march in London yesterday.
24th January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The forgetful Peter Hain featured in this animation about Labour's dubious donations which I made for Channel 4 back in November 2007. Peter is the orange one.
12 January 2008

UPDATED: 15th January 2008
There's a good short analysis of how untransparent Mr Hain's financial arrangements were here



Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

’Tis the season to draw daft ecards...mind you, I did get to do kazoos...one of which could even be desribed as flirtatious.
19th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Back.
16th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

’Tis the time of year for the annual political cartoon awards, at which I traditionally win nowt. The idea is to offer an image for the year (2007) and hope it catches the jury's eye as the best single image entered.*

My entry for this year's Political Cartoon of the Year award

There is also the highly desirable cartoonist of the year award. This invariably goes to one of the daily newspaper cartoonists. The event is an excuse for lots of professional cartoonists to get together, smoke, drink and bitch about the lucky winners. It is also, as a result, unmissable and one of the drawing years’ absolutely fixed points. It also, bizarrely, always clashes with other social events you cannot easily avoid. Kudos to Dr Tim Benson of the Political Cartoon Society who organises and promotes the event which this year is being held at The Guardian newspaper's Newsroom. You can see Dave Brown of The Independent and his winning one-off image for last year here - scroll down a bit.

* Cynics say, and there are a few about, the key to victory is to have one's entry stationed strategically close to the drinks.

5th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

After this evening's announcement that the Met Police will get to decide whether they investigate the current Labour party donation row, I wonder if John Yates will fancy another go the sources of party political funding? It is beginning to look as if Harman and Brown are briefing against one another. If the PM has lost her loyalty, he is in a lot of trouble, because hitherto, she has been about as loyal to him as it possible to be in party politics. This image was made for Channel 4 News in October of 2007.
29th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

It is always reassuring to read this sort of thing. A hat-tip to David Hughes and also to Iain Martin, who takes a long hard look at Harriet Harman, who's facing some very awkward questions today. She's also married to the Labour party treasurer, Jack Dromey. Yesterday, he claimed he had no knowledge of the dodgy donations to the party. It's the second time he's has to do this in the last two years as he did not know about the cash for honours loans which bedevilled Tony Blair at the end of his time as Prime Minister. Realists might wonder how much shredding of email has been going on in the background during the last week - and this trend applies to all political parties.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...
28th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The news that HM Revenue and Customs have managed to loose rather a lot of customer details on a pair of computer discs. It doesn't breed great confidence for national ID cards does it? Expect reassurances that the system will be changed to ensure that this sort of thing can never happen again...

20th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who deceived Zeus, King of the Gods, and stole fire for mankind. His punishment was to be chained to a mountain top and have his liver pecked out every day, by a visiting vulture or eagle. Generally, I steer away from classical references like this in my drawing but I felt that the mess that the Prime Minister is in over Northern Rock really deserved an unpleasant image and this is certainly one.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings
A potted history of Prometheus:

Here on Mount Caucasus, Prometheus was tormented day and night by a giant vulture tearing at his liver. By day, the eagle would come down to the cliff and devour Prometheus' liver, and by night the liver would regenerate, only to have it destroyed the following day again.

Will you stand up, not to be counted? No to identity cards. Why are so many people worried about having their name on a list owned by the government? Well, you could read this and then have a think about it. The clause about us being responsible for the accuracy of all the information collected is particularly interesting, because if it isn't correct, and we all know how reliable large databases and call-centres are, we'll be individually liable for £1,000 fines. And get this, we don't even have a choice about signing up, at least, not if we want a working UK passport. A bit further down the road on which the government plans to take us, signing up, will become compulsory for everyone over the age of 16.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

And it's not just on his trousers...
Fat boy's become a trendsetter.

Link from Chicken Yogurt - 22nd October 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Kudos to Mike Power for this video celebration of an ongoing dissent. If you need information on exactly what this is all about, please read this and this.

UPDATED:041007 Worth reading this from Tim Ireland on Mr Usmanov's response to all the bad publicity.

UPDATED UPDATE: 061007
Further news from Tim Ireland and some pleasing candour from the News Editor of the Financial Times.

There are several events I am exhibiting at coming up in the next few weeks. First up is Politics Pays Back, which opens on Wednesday 3rd October at the Kowalsky Gallery in central London. This is organised by the Design and Artists Copyright Society and I have some original artwork and news and political animations on show. The show runs until Jan 31st 2008.


This drawing isn't on show, but it might be called the artist in preparation...can you see the fear?

And on the weekend of October 13th and 14th, I shall be taking part in the annual Big Draw. This year's London launch, is in Covent Garden market and the theme is High Life-Low Life. There's a link here to last year's excitments (thanks for reminding me Clare.) If the track record of the event is anything to go by, it should be a great, fun weekend. Please come along and watch the Battle of the Cartoonists on Sunday afternoon.

Lastly, I also have to give a talk to a room of sixth formers at a school in Cambridge about what it is I do for a living. Of all these upcoming events, this is the one that scares the pants off me the quickest...

A recent commission.

It is a busy time of year for political cartoonists and a lot of old rhetoric is about to get recycled. A commissioned drawing for the Local Government Association.