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LONDON DAILY · EDITORIAL ART

Caricature archive

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

A Welsh cottage has become an enormous wheeled suitcase tagged ‘Holiday let’. Eluned Morgan fits a giant, key-shaped wheel clamp while a young couple with a moving box wait beside the front door. The key can immobilise the holiday let, but has yet to open a home.

Wish You Lived Here

The houses have been enjoying short breaks. The locals would prefer a permanent address.

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A giant sewage pipe shaped like a rising graph carries the label ‘PROJECTED BILLS +36% BY 2030’. Its upward-pointing outlet pours dirty water back down into a river. A water-company executive proudly polishes the pipe while a Defra inspector fits monitoring equipment and tightens an enforcement collar. A household customer watches with a bill in hand.

Upward Pressure

An impressive upward trajectory. Pity it’s the bill.

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In a satirical clinic, Liz Kendall listens through a stethoscope to an enormous Treasury briefcase resting on an examination couch. Beside it, a tired-looking person holding return-to-work paperwork waits for her attention.

Fiscal Fitness

An excellent bedside manner. Towards the balance sheet.

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John Swinney unveils a model of Aberdeen’s proposed wind-manufacturing complex. Beside it towers an enormous coin-operated electricity meter labelled ‘ENERGY COSTS’. A hard-hatted engineer compares a small coin with its enormous slot, raising an eyebrow.

The Cost of a Second Wind

A new industry to manufacture power. One awkward detail: it needs electricity to manufacture it.

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Eluned Morgan guides a Treasury purse string into position as an overhead railway wire. An electric train emerges from the enormous open purse towards a Welsh valley, while its other string becomes a rural charging cable. A Treasury official watches with a professionally pained expression.

Putting the Purse Strings to Work

Welsh transport finds a practical use for the Treasury’s purse strings.

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A judge narrows the aperture of an enormous state surveillance telescope aimed at a corporate data cabinet. The government official at its eyepiece looks affronted. Separately, a Metropolitan Police officer discovers confidential papers slipping from an improperly closed briefcase.

Mind Your Own Business

The state is keen to look in. It might also work on what slips out.

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Two generic officials, consulting books labelled ‘UK battery rules’ and ‘EU battery rules’, pull opposite ends of a chain attached to an electric-car battery trolley. A worried factory technician steadies the battery beneath an unfinished car. The chain is taut but unbroken: a visual warning about threatened production disruption.

Pulling Power

The electric-car industry could do with both sides pulling together. Literally.

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In a satirical funding clinic, a Treasury official prepares to draw money from a manufacturing executive to supply an NHS bed. But the executive has arrived wearing a hospital gown over his pinstripe suit, carrying an empty drip bag and an application for tax incentives. The official pauses, realising that the intended donor also expects treatment.

Donor Shortage

The Treasury’s prospective donor has come in asking for a transfusion.

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A giant cloud-headed technology executive shakes hands with a small AI entrepreneur while a CMA inspector examines their grip. Behind the entrepreneur, the handshake casts a cage-like shadow, suggesting the potential loss of independence through an exclusive partnership.

The Welcome Grip

A helping hand. The watchdog is checking the grip.

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AI editorial satire: a regional government official proudly presents an enormous green battery labelled ‘GREEN INVESTMENT’ outside an ageing car factory. A worker holds two oversized cable connectors labelled ‘UK rules’ and ‘EU rules’: a square plug and a round socket. His raised eyebrow punctures the official’s enthusiasm. The mismatch symbolises the threatened disruption from diverging battery rules, not a real electrical specification.

Batteries Included

Industrial revival: batteries included, compatibility not guaranteed.

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Satirical 3D caricature of Chancellor John Healey attaching a small brass weight marked £100, with a council tax tag, to a modest house. An enormous balloon labelled Energy Costs is lifting the house off its foundations. Two residents watch his carefully applied counterweight with polite disbelief.

A Little Downward Pressure

A welcome £100 off council tax. Unfortunately, energy costs are proving rather buoyant.

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In a satirical Budget dining room, Chancellor John Healey lifts an enormous silver cloche to reveal a single pea on a vast plate. A card identifies the serving as the OBR’s 1.2% growth forecast. A household couple contemplate a towering bill marked ‘PRICES’, while Healey offers a £100 council tax discount voucher.

The Budget Tasting Menu

A modest helping of growth. No such restraint on the bill.

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Chancellor John Healey proudly presents an unchanged cash ISA mould marked £20,000 a year. A smaller proposed £12,000 mould lies discarded. Inside the larger mould, an ice sculpture of a pound sign melts beneath a blazing sun labelled Inflation, while a saver watches with weary scepticism.

The Allowance Survives

The £20,000 cash ISA allowance survives. Keeping the pounds in shape is another matter.

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A regulator depicted as an alterations tailor transfers a heavy brass gas-flame weight marked ‘NETWORK COSTS’ between two pockets of a householder’s winter coat. The empty pocket reads ‘STANDING CHARGE’; the receiving pocket reads ‘UNIT RATE’. The householder watches with a distinctly unconvinced expression.

A Change of Pocket

The standing charge is to go. The network costs are merely being fitted elsewhere.

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A satirical Shona Robison adds a large coin to a child’s house-shaped money box, which has a handsome, finished roof. Beside the child and their parent, a full-sized house remains an unfinished shell. A construction board reads ‘Housebuilding: 11-year low’. The contrast welcomes increased child support while questioning Scotland’s housing delivery.

Room to Grow

The child payment is going up. It would be useful if some houses did too.

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In an imaginary institutional corridor, an apologetic Metropolitan Police officer tries to cover a transparent safe containing confidential files with a tiny ‘SORRY’ card. Beside it, a formidable opaque door marked ‘AI TALKS’ keeps an environmental representative outside. The satire contrasts accidental police disclosure with private ministerial technology meetings.

The Wrong Kind of Transparency

The transparency appears to have been fitted to the wrong department.

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In a British car factory, robotic arms lower an enormous folded electricity bill into an unfinished car’s empty engine bay. Nearby component racks stand largely empty. A weary factory manager holds a clipboard marked ‘TAX RELIEF?’ while watching the one delivery that has arrived.

Just-in-Time Billing

Parts are delayed. Tax relief is requested. The electricity bill, naturally, arrives just in time.

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In a satirical Budget treatment room, Chancellor John Healey hands a householder a hot-water bottle marked £100. Beside them, an extravagantly distressed banker reclines on a luxurious chaise longue, clutching a paper marked Bank Tax.

The Delicate Patient

For household energy, £100. For bank taxes, smelling salts.

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AI editorial satire: Chancellor John Healey carefully repairs a narrow strip of a badly damaged painting labelled ‘Fiscal headroom £15bn’. Much of the canvas remains missing. Beside him, a satisfied financial-market observer examines the immaculate gold frame rather than the damaged picture.

A Gilt-Edged Recovery

Fiscal headroom has recovered from £12bn to £15bn. The gilt frame is holding up rather better than the picture.

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An imagined economic-model bakery. An economist uses a magnifying glass to inspect a tiny rising loaf beneath a glass cover labelled “IMF FORECAST — UK GROWTH 1.3%”. Beside him, a bakery worker holds an enormous empty baker’s paddle. Four dark industrial ovens behind them bear a sign identifying Greggs’ manufacturing closure plans. The contrast satirises the distance between modest national growth forecasts and threatened livelihoods.

A Little Rise

The IMF forecasts 1.3% growth; Greggs plans four manufacturing closures and 740 job losses. A little rise does not keep every oven on.

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