Panda Eyes – Meet Condom Head

The Murdoch faithful at the Sun really believe they are on to a winner depicting Mil The Younger as a panda, and that this is some wonderful new gimmick they have picked up on, despite Steve Bell of the deeply subversive Guardian having used the caricature for years. But what Rupe’s downmarket troops have not understood is that this is one of those two-way streets.

So when they snigger “It’s Panda Moan-Ium ... Straw mocks Ed after poll shock” [no poll shock happened, of course], for some reason the rest of the remark by former Home Secretary Jack Straw got left out. What he also said was “I could make the same remarks in different ways for Cameron or Clegg”. And if we take the same example, that of Steve Bell, the Tories don’t come out at all well.

All cartoons in this post (c) Steve Bell

Where Bell caricatured Mrs T with the staring eye – something he also gave Tone – he showed “Shagger” Major with his underpants over his trousers, and Young Dave with a condom over his head. With Cameron, it was the unnaturally smooth skin. This has given endless possibilities, none of which will enthuse Tories – or their fans in the right-leaning press.

How about an updated version of the Major “cones hotline” cartoon? In Cameron’s case, the cone up the arse is replaced by a pine tree.

A close-up of the “condom-head” can be seen in the pre-election “Big Society versus Total Bollocks” study.

Or how about this later variation of the “We can’t go on like this” poster campaign, with the condom, er, bust?

There’s always the more explicit bursting of the condom, in this cartoon as the Cameron character talks very urgently about outcomes.

What Bell – and, whisper it quietly, many of like mind – think of the Tories’ real attitude to the NHS is captured in this study of a giant Cameron condom rabbit literally screwing it.

And no Cameron round-up would be complete without reference to our allegedly all being in this together (except for those who have secured More And Bigger Personal Fortunes For The Benefit Of Themselves Personally Now).

So, Sun clowns, bring on your panda taunts. The bloke you’re backing is already well established as a condom head. Dave complained personally to Steve Bell about this once: the problem was that Simon Hoggart was there too, to record the unfortunate turn of phrase by the Prime Minister. “You can only push the condom so far” he told Bell. Finbarr Saunders was unavailable for comment.