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LONDON DAILY · EDITORIAL ART

Caricature archive

The news in caricature, with the stories behind each illustration.

An enormous cuckoo made from a winter energy bill monopolises a household shopping basket, demanding money with its open beak and pushing out a small shopping bag. Two adults watch with a nearly empty purse.

Cuckoo in the Basket

The winter bill has moved in. Everything optional is being asked to move out.

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A technology engineer and an intelligence official jointly unplug a many-armed AI burglar outside a shuttered digital public-services entrance. A maintenance tag reads “SOFTWARE FLAW”. Beside it, a member of the public waits with a smartphone, equally unable to get in.

Access Denied

Tech firms are helping take unsafe AI offline. Government portals, shut as a precaution over a separate software flaw, have rather stolen a march.

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A satirical 3D caricature shows a householder examining an ordinary, unlit light bulb in a luxurious jewellery case by candlelight. Its tag reads “WINTER TARIFF FORECAST”, beside an upward pound-sign arrow. Beyond the window, storm-driven rain lashes houses with a damaged power line, where repair workers are at work.

Precious Little Power

Storm Boelo has put the lights out. The winter tariff forecast threatens to put them out of reach.

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In a symbolic 3D cartoon, an IMF economist tries to pay at a supermarket by tapping an optimistic UK growth forecast against the card reader. A patient cashier watches while a weary shopper waits with a small basket and an energy bill.

No Cash Value

The IMF has upgraded its UK growth forecast. Unfortunately, the tills still insist on money.

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A fictional state official in enormous protective armour uses long tongs to lower a theatre microphone into a bomb-disposal container. An actor and a writer watch with incredulous expressions. The official’s armour reads ‘ANTI-TERROR LAW’.

Overacting

Actors, writers and lawyers condemn anti-terror powers used to ban groups such as Palestine Action. For once, the theatre is asking for a less dramatic interpretation.

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A satirical Conservative official backs away from a suspended former candidate, measuring their separation with an enormous tape measure labelled ‘STANDARDS’. A documentary camera illuminates the former candidate. The official looks pleased with the growing distance, apparently overlooking the tape that still connects them.

Measured Response

After an undercover documentary revealed a former candidate discussing arrangements involving contract killers, the Conservatives found a new measure of standards: distance.

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A satirical cutaway car shows a worried central banker keeping his shoe on a brake labelled BANK RATE. A huge, heavy winter energy bill weighs down the accelerator, while an inflation gauge points above its 2% target mark. A household sits belted in behind him, watching anxiously.

Dual Controls

The Bank is wary of easing the brake. The winter energy forecast has its foot on the other pedal.

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In this satirical scene, a giant red Budget purse contains an NHS ward. Wes Streeting wheels an empty hospital bed through its clasp while Rachel Reeves braces the purse open, looking strained. The bed becomes a literal purse-stretcher.

A Bit of a Stretch

More room in A&E. A rather tighter fit at the Treasury.

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On a railway platform, a Scottish transport worker carries a document marked “TENTATIVE DEAL”. An officiously polite ticket inspector with a domestic energy meter for a head punches an enormous notch from the worker’s pay envelope. The worker’s own small ticket punch hangs unused at his belt. A waiting train has an open door behind them.

The Other Ticket Inspector

A tentative deal keeps Scottish transport moving. Getting the pay packet past the winter energy forecast is another matter.

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A crouching worker supports an enormous horizontal spirit level labelled “EMPLOYMENT”. Heavy weights marked “WINTER ENERGY” and “INTEREST RATES” sit at opposite ends. A statistics official studies the perfectly centred bubble while the worker strains to keep everything level.

Holding Steady

Stable employment is welcome. A comfortable position is another matter.

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A deadpan environmental regulator tightens an enormous pipe wrench around a water company’s oversized purse. Coins fall into a maintenance worker’s wheelbarrow beside a replacement pipe, while a cracked sewage outfall awaits repair. The wrench is labelled ‘INVESTMENT DUTY’.

Compulsory Liquidity

The Treasury is weighing up investment. Water companies are being introduced to the compulsory kind.

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In an imagined defence workshop, a young engineering apprentice demonstrates a joining clamp to David Lammy and two European diplomats. They are cautiously aligning two large shield sections labelled UK and EU. The apprentice looks quietly competent; the suited visitors concentrate intently on the practical lesson.

Joint Training

Defence firms promise new apprenticeships. Joining things up is back on the diplomatic syllabus.

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AI editorial satire: a model South Wales factory making wind-turbine components sits inside an enormous transparent cylinder labelled ‘IMPORTED GAS’. A pound-sign gauge carries a ‘WINTER FORECAST’ tag. Beside the display, a planner holds a green industrial blueprint while an engineer raises an eyebrow at the cylinder.

A Green Future, Bottled

South Wales plans to manufacture the next energy system. The winter price outlook still comes packaged in imported gas.

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In a spotless Newport semiconductor clean room, a government representative offers an engineer an envelope marked “Conditional support”. The engineer holds an iridescent silicon wafer, but both are looking at an enormous elephant folded from an electricity bill, labelled “Winter tariffs — forecast”, which has squeezed through the airlock. The looming cost contrasts with the meticulous protection of the wafer.

The Clean-Room Elephant

Newport’s chips have conditional support. The winter power forecast has let itself in.

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Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly pedal a red tandem marked ‘NI GROWTH’ together up a steep road. The hillside bears a large percentage sign and the label ‘BORROWING COSTS’. Far ahead, the road levels out but remains high.

The Belfast Fast Track

The approvals can be streamlined. The hill is rather less accommodating.

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A pleased institutional planner presents a drawing of a proposed military-logistics Defender beneath the words ‘DEFENDER: NATO TALKS’. Beside him, an unimpressed householder prepares to unlock a supermarket trolley containing the government’s recommended emergency supplies. Its loaded silhouette resembles the vehicle drawing; a checklist reads ‘3-DAY KIT’.

Civilian Specification

The military version is under discussion. The domestic one needs a pound coin.

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A pleased economic analyst projects an upward UK growth arrow onto the closed roller shutter of a Greggs production facility. Beside a notice reading ‘4 closures / 700 job cuts’, two bakery workers leave carrying their belongings. The cheerful forecast illuminates the very surface that shuts them out.

Growth Projections

The outlook is brighter. The closed factory makes an excellent projection screen.

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Seven Aberdeen councillors gather beside an emergency cabinet containing a ballot box labelled “Confidence vote”. The cabinet is secured with legal red tape labelled “Standing orders”. One councillor holds a court application beside the lock. Bottled water, food, a torch and a radio sit ready on a bench below: obtaining access to the vote appears rather less straightforward.

The Extra Essential

Water, food, torch — and, for Aberdeen’s councillors, a court application.

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An anonymous government minister packs emergency supplies into an enormous bag labelled ‘RESILIENCE’, overlooking its unfinished bottom seam. A Welsh uniform machinist supports the loose fabric beside a ready sewing machine, waiting expectantly for the minister’s attention. NHS scrubs and a military tunic hang beside the workbench.

A Stitch at Home

Resilience is not just what goes into the bag. It is also what holds it together.

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A planner and a concerned office worker study an approved architectural model of a future Bradford station. A green train labelled “GROWTH” approaches one platform, while a red train labelled “BANK JOBS” carries empty office chairs away from another. The model juxtaposes regional investment with the wider economy’s uneven fortunes.

Separate Platforms

A welcome new connection for Bradford. Growth and bank jobs, meanwhile, seem to be on different platforms.

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