Theresa May ridiculed by cartoonists across the globe after general election disaster
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Version 0 of 1. Cartoonists around the world have ridiculed Theresa May after an election predicted to be a Tory landslide became a disaster for the party. With Brexit negotiations fast approaching as the Conservatives attempt to reach an agreement with Northern Ireland’s DUP, artists have had no shortage soundbites from which to draw inspiration. From Japan to Ireland and continental Europe, the Ms May and her party were the subject of a range of cutting cartoons - many of which appeared to reference the self-inflicted nature of their problems, given the election was called three years earlier than it needed to be. In the wake of the election on 8 June, several Tory MPs joined the opposition's calls for Ms May to resign and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was forced to announce he had no plans to bid for leadership. By Sunday, Ms May had sacked her two closest advisers, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy. The next day she received a letter from Deputy Labour Leader, Tom Watson, asking her if Rupert Murdoch had instructed her to give Michael Gove a job, a year after she sacked him, in the cabinet reshuffle. One of the first acts of Ms May after the election was to seek a deal with the DUP and take this proposal to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. In the Irish News, cartoonist Ian Knox shows Ms May kneeling at the feet of DUP leader Arlene Foster, portrayed as the Queen, asking for a deal to form a majority in government. The discussions with the DUP have prompted a backlash, including from the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, given the party's opposition to abortion and gay marriage, and scepticism around climate change. In Japan, cartoonist Masaaki Sato depicted Ms May asking Prime Minister Shinzo Abe not to delay an election too long. During the campaign, a Tory advertising bus blew over in the wind on the M6, prompting further mirth about a Government whose slogan was "strong and stable". In The Times, Ms May sat on a street corner, a “gambler ruined”, with an animal bearing the face of Jeremy Corbyn relieving itself on her. In Kenya and South Africa, cartoonists depicted Ms May hanging by a rope, a controversial reference to the hung parliament created by the election. Dutch artist Jos Collignon showed the Prime Minister bashing herself over the head with a mallet as European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker asks, “Are you alright Mrs May?” Another Dutch publication chooses to show Ms May entering the Brexit talks with her severed head on her hand. In a Belgian cartoon, the Prime Minister is depicted bleeding after shooting herself in the foot. In a similar vein, Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung showed Ms May as a boxer, punching herself with her own gloves against the ropes. German newspaper Politik had the Prime Minister beaming under a hot Brexit sun in May, then grimacing under a black storm cloud in June. Brexit Secretary David Davies told Radio 4’s Today Programme that the Government would continue to aim for a hard Brexit, leaving the single market and ending free movement in the EU. Mr Davis said the election outcome was not the one the party had been hoping for, but he insisted it had been right to call the snap election and he was happy the Tories were back in power. Negotiations are set to start next week and will last until 2017, no doubt providing plenty of fodder for political cartoonists in the process. |