Back To The Future

Why launch a manifesto in the remains of a power station that hasn’t generated electricity for decades? It was a strange setting for Young Dave and his array of jolly good chaps to pitch the Tories’ so-called “Invitation To Join The Government Of Britain”, a blue hardback (so also “reassuringly expensive”) volume which has seen the usual sycophantic praise, but hasn’t convinced many doubters.

The Guardian’s Simon Hoggart said the manifesto “looked like a tombstone”. But it was his colleague, cartoonist Steve Bell, who nailed the moment: Battersea Power Station, the Tories’ chosen venue, was memorably used back in the 1970s for the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals. The Floyd’s eighth album rails against the excesses of capitalism.

Animals also featured an inflatable pig on that cover, which has provided Bell with his inspiration.