{"id":6501,"date":"2022-09-06T10:45:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T10:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6501"},"modified":"2024-02-08T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T10:02:37","slug":"politics-art-steve-bell-priti-patel-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6501","title":{"rendered":"ART\/POLiTiCS: Steve Bell, Priti Patel\u2026 what the hell?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Is this what did for Steve Bell at the Grauniad?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This may be a bit behind the times, butt\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, I love Steve Bell. I think his art is superb, and I think his political satire is and has long been very prescient. Both funny and cuttingly near the bone. Might it cause offence? Of course. And so it should. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this image – cropped above, in full below – the same as Nazi imagery of Jews? Personally I really don\u2019t think so. Is the core point of it to demonise Patel on ethnic\/racial grounds? Of course not! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will admit that it\u2019s a long way from surprising, re the stink it kicked up. And it\u2019s no surprise to hear that it\u2019s those on the right, including religious folk, invoking \u2018hate crime\u2019 censorship of a left wing view they dislike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Broader context: Patel and<\/em> Johnson are \u2018bullish\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Indoctrinated hordes of right wingers, of all ethnicities, might believe Jeremy Corbyn is a 50\/50 blend of Stalin and Hitler. And that\u2019s<\/em> the kind of ludicrous fantasy propaganda modern satire ought<\/em> to be able to help fight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019ll mostly be people willing to believe in that weaponising of \u2018anti-semitism\u2019, in what very clearly was a character assassination witch-hunt, which aimed at – and succeeded in – smearing a very anti-racist man* as the very thing he so frequently campaigned against, who are getting so upset by Bell\u2019s cartoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gillray\u2019s fabulous talent served the British establishment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And was used to mock the French Revolution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But, rather ironically, one of the greatest of all English print cartoon satirists, Gillray, was actually – for the most part – paid to produce satire that served the ruling Tory elite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bell\u2019s homage to Gillray\u2019s \u2018Plum Pudding in Danger\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
And his risqu\u00e9 reworking of Gillray\u2019s \u2018Fashionable Contrasts\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bell has tipped his metaphorical tile to his antecedent and occasional inspiration, Gillray, sometimes reworking his imagery. I won\u2019t say reworking \u2018his ideas\u2019, as usually Gillray, unlike Bell – the roles of artists have evolved! – was for the most part drawing to order, for his Tory patrons. And, just like modern Tories, Gillray\u2019s paymasters abandoned him, after his years of sterling service, to poverty and insanity in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
One big C and one little C.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Bell lampoons the downfall of two Cs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It seems, in a way that has echoes of Clarkson getting sacked by the BBC – not remotely similar in many ways, and yet\u2026 – that the Guardian, like the BBC, is willing to lose a \u2018long-term asset\u2019 in order to \u2018move with the times\u2019. Whether either decision was primarily based on ethical concerns or not\u2026 who knows? But in our venal times one tends to be sceptical!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Who is really<\/em> playing the populist racist card, Patel or Bell?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the above \u2018Female Enoch\u2019 cartoon, Bell nicely captures a far more odious, real and deep rooted form of racism, as practiced by a woman \u2018of colour\u2019 in power. Just because she\u2019s female, and of non-white ethnicity, doesn\u2019t absolve her from the possibilities of racism, or even sexism, or indeed any -ism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, as Spitting Image lampoon, in one (or more) of their recent satirical episodes, having members of \u2018out groups\u2019 or traditionally discriminated against \u2018minority groups\u2019 in positions of power, can help the ruling elite camouflage their oppression of the groups these favoured individuals appear to belong to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thatcher did precious little for women\u2019s rights, aside from the mere fact of being a woman in a traditionally male role. And to take the idea further, into the kind of fascist mud-slinging some on the right have the temerity to invoke, the Nazi\u2019s loved to use favoured individuals from their victimised out-groups\u2019 to lord it over the oppressed masses, infamously using fellow Jews as concentration camp Kapos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fear Patel and her Tory ilk, not for her ethnicity, but for the self-serving moral vacuum that\u2019s where a human heart or conscience ought to be, far more than Steve Bell, who I don\u2019t believe to be racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would those attacking Bell\u2019s satire approve of his being gunned down by an offended Hindu fundamentalist? And say he deserved such a fate? I don\u2019t think such a thing is as likely as an equivalent scenario involving an enraged Muslim, in response to an image such as that below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m with art critic Waldemar Januszczak, who tweeted thus in response to news of the Guardian not renewing Bell\u2019s contract: \u2018I worked with Steve Bell when I was at The Guardian. He was and is an evil genius. Anyone who thinks it\u2019s a good idea to get rid of Steve Bell is a pitiful thinker. Pitiful.\u2019 Amen to that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell himself has said that his non-renewal at The Grauniad is, as far as he\u2019s aware\/concerned, due to economics, not \u2018effin\u2019 Patel\u2019\u2026 or words to that effect! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* I\u2019m no Corbynista, and I don\u2019t claim he\u2019s a paragon of perfection. l<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may be a bit behind the times, butt\u2026 Ok, I love Steve Bell. I think his art is superb, and I think his political satire is and has long been very prescient. Both funny and cuttingly near the bone. Might it cause offence? Of course. And so it should. Is this image – cropped … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ART\/POLiTiCS: Steve Bell, Priti Patel\u2026 what the hell?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1GR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6501"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11586,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501\/revisions\/11586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}