© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

The ‘swivel-eyed lunatics’ of popular political conversation appear to have taken over in the Conservative party and the Prime Minister appears too weak to face them down while they fret in public about the ‘electoral threat’ of Nigel Farage’s UKIP.

The two greatest sources of discontent are Europe and ‘moral’ debate over the legalisation of same sex marriage but, seen from here, the real problem remains the PM’s failure to win the last election outright.

To add to this happy situation, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson (and another would-be Conservative Prime Minister) has lost his long legal fight to cover up the existence of a child born from an extra marital affair. It all reminds of the Cecil Parkinson-Sarah Keays affair from the recent political past.

To Johnson’s credit he has never (wisely) been one to preach morals for political advantage. However, he may have been depending on some of the loons and the accompanying moral minority to vote for him come the next Conservative party leadership contest.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for http://hampshirechronicle.co.uk

A modest proposal to alleviate dispute between the developers of a wind farm and the Ministry of Defence near my home town of Winchester.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

A political mouldy-oldie has popped up again – the Tories and Europe. You might think in the middle of the longest economic recession since the 1930s there might be more important things our leaders could be doing for the country. But, clearly prancing about arguing over philosophical hypotheticals and attempting to undress one another is the collective priority.

The reference for those bemused is to a Eurovision winning song of yesteryear – Making your mind up – by a band called Buck’s Fizz.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

The Secretary of State of Education, Michael Gove, and his colleague at the department of Defence, Philip Hammond, have indicated their enthusiasm for the job as the next leader of the Conservative party. Their opportunity provided by the traditional and interminable niggling Tory debates about Europe.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

A nice, messy afternoon at the paints.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartons for Hampshire Chronicle

A drawing about a big change to The Hampshire Chronicle which is changing format from broadsheet to tabloid. They like to do things at a gentle pace around here.

© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for http://tribunecartoons.com

Watching: Video cartoon of Amy Winehouse.

Some detail of people enjoying (no, really) my Big Board at the 2013 edition of the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival. There’s quick snap below but regular viewers may recognise this from earlier in the year. It made, with a few tweaks, a happy coincidence with the festival theme of TIME.

There’s a decent slideshow over at Procartoonists if you would like to enjoy a really big show of what UK Professional Cartoonists can do on the grand canvas.

And if that isn’t enough drawing related excitement, there’s an excellent little video of day one of the event by County Channel TV, although I should caution it does feature me again.

On the way to the tenth anniversary of the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival. There will be reporting of the event at http://procartoonists.org and on twitter @procartoonists.