This cartoon by Kipper Williams from The Guardian is a response to the news that, despite celebrating her 50th anniversary this year, Barbie's UK sales slumped by 42%, while old favourites such as Lego and newer franchise the Sylvanian Families were up 20% and 40% respectively.
READ MORE
• Trouble in toy town as Barbie is left on the shelf (The Guardian)
This cartoon by Christian Adams from The Daily Telegraph shows four politicians bearing Christmas gifts. From left to right, they are: US President Barack Obama, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party.
Obama is holding two presents. One labelled 'From Nobel' (the Peace Prize) and another 'To Afghanistan', which is dripping blood (a reference to the ongoing war).
Karzai has a present to himself: a box of ballot papers (a reference to the fraudulent Afghan election).
Gordon Brown is proffering a package in the shape of the word 'TAX' with a label saying 'Open Next Year' (he has announced big tax increases for 2010).
Finally, David Cameron is holding an empty purple box, which just says 'From Dave'. Despite being the hot favourite to win the next election, Cameron doesn't seem to have any new ideas to offer the electorate about how to bring Britain back to prosperity.
The title, "Happy Christmas!", is, of course, ironic.
Great seasonal cartoon by Peter Brookes from The Times. Chinese President Hu Jintao has just set light to a Christmas pudding, which he has liberally doused with brandy (the flaming Christmas pudding is a tradition in the UK). The icing on the pudding is in the shape of the continents, so it is clearly meant to represent the Earth. On top of the pudding is a sprig of holly. UK Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband (note the Union Jack paper hat) looks on in horror. Global warming? More like global incineration!
The cartoon is a metaphor for what is being seen by many commentators as China's irresponsible attitude during the climate change summit in Copenhagen. Ed Miliband himself blamed China yesterday for the poor progress made during the talks and accused it of hijacking the summit, claiming that Beijing "vetoed" moves to give legal force to the accord and blocked an agreement on global reductions in greenhouse emissions. Read more >>
Christmas tree growers are warning of a shortage of trees this year. The BBC's James Cook describes why the Nordmann Fir, the most popular Christmas tree, is in such short supply.
READ MORE
• Christmas tree shortage concern (BBC News)
According to MailOnline, it has taken 3,400 man hours to decorate the White House for Christmas. You can see more pictures of the spectacular results here.
COMMENTThe Sunday Times says parents will be vetted for criminal records if they wish to accompany their children to school Christmas carol services over the festive period. Full story >>
VOCABULARY
If someone is vetted, they are investigated fully before being given a particular job, role, or position, especially one which involves political or military secrets. • The rogue policeman who killed five British soldiers had never been vetted by the Afghan authorities.
I've been putting it off as long as possible, but the Christmas season has officially begun. First up, we have the story of Poole's 'health and safety Christmas tree', which is reported in several of the dailies. The Mail has the best picture.
From a health and safety point of view, it is the perfect Christmas tree.
There are no sharp needles, no unwieldy branches and no chance of it falling over and hurting someone.
But according to residents who have to look at it, there's also no festive spirit in this Christmas tree.
According to Poole's town centre manager (that's a new one on me!) Richard Randall-Jones:
LANGUAGE'People think you can just go into the woods, chop down a tree and put it up in the high street.
'But if it blows over and kills someone then somebody is liable for it. We have to have guy ropes and hoardings to stop it from falling over and hitting somebody.
'Last year the board said they and the public didn't like all the ropes and hoardings around the Christmas tree.
So I was tasked with finding a solution and we came up with the cone tree.' Read full story >>
This cartoon by Christian Adams from The Daily Telegraph shows US president Barack Obama in his kitchen reading a magazine. A Thanksgiving turkey is cooking in the oven. Obama comments: "It'll be ready in three months".
COMMENTARY
The cartoon is a comment on Obama's tendency to procrastinate. He still hasn't decided how many extra troops to send to Afghanistan and has also been accused of dithering over global warming in some quarters. There's also a play on the word turkey. If you describe someone as a turkey, you mean that they are stupid or silly.
MORE THANKSGIVING CARTOONS
Pardoning the turkey (Dave Brown, The Independent)
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the USA. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday and a time for family reunions.
This cartoon by Cal Grondahl shows a family seated around the table. On the table we can see a roast turkey, the traditional food for Thanksgiving. The father is saying grace, a short prayer said before a eating. (In American Christianity the head of the household often ad libs a special grace on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter while the others observe a moment of silence.) In the cartoon the man is giving thanks for TiVo, a popular make of digital video recorder in the US.
THANKSGIVING RESOURCES
• Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index (msnbc)
• US presidents and Thanksgiving turkeys (guardian.co.uk photo gallery)
• The Best Sites To Learn & Teach About Thanksgiving (Larry Ferlazzo)
• Thanksgiving Day in America (guardian.co.uk photo gallery)
• Thanksgiving Day Quiz (guardian.co.uk)
EXPLANATION
November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day (see previous post for background) and Mac's cartoon links this event with the story about MPs' expenses. The plotter's remark is supposed to be ironic—if the plot had succeeded, parliament would have been blown to pieces along with King James I.
HISTORICAL NOTE
I'm not sure any of the conspirators were actually Members of Parliament, but we'll put that down to cartoonist's licence.
