As if anyone should care, I rather pompously vowed years ago never to draw a pastiche of The Scream as it had been so overused as everyone’s go-to image for the modern condition of alienation. But hey! What are rules and resolutions for? Yessir, that’s right; stick it in Friday’s post-election results paper, please. After all, it isn’t that often that one of Munch’s original versions is sold…and in a week where the governing party gets decimated in local elections. The people have spoken, mostly to say “nah, I’ll just stay here on the sofa, thanks” but also to deliver the message that the granny and pasty taxes were two steps too far in the march to austerity – “keep in line you poor people at the back!”.
George Osborne was wheeled out today to be seen eating a thin slice of humble pie (with nice full fat rich gravy) on TV with Mr Marr. You know the routine – concerned downward glances, pensive chin rubbing and “take it on the chin…learn from what you are saying” and the like. But then the old mantras bubbled out like a melt-water spring “…no alternative but to carry on… clear up the mess… focus on what matters… get the deficit under control”. That’s ma boy. That’s the Bullingdon Gideon we’ve come to love.
However, may the mood muzak be changing subtly in the background? No mention of being all in it together was heard. And big talk of getting the economy growing again and infrastructure projects moving again. Is this a faint herald of a Keynesian plan B on the horizon? Nah, surely not.