Where It All Began!

Our very first cartoon, published on January 21st 2015 in the wake of the tragic events in Paris that left us all shocked. The attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices left its mark on all of us. It taught us the power of political illustration, and left us with a resolve to never be cowed into submission by the forces of evil.

The cartoon, by Chris Malapatin, appeared alongside an article entitled "Have Al-Qaeda handed Marine Le Pen the French Presidency?" is based on “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix (1830).

The far-right has been capitalizing on anti-Muslim sentiment that it has itself often helped to stoke up. Marine Le Pen's Front Nationale won the European elections in France, as did the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Britain. Both campaigned mainly on issues surrounding immigration, and Islam in particular.

The cartoon displays a little more modesty in that Mme Le Pen's breasts are not depicted bared as in the original - we felt that this might be construed as unnecessarily offensive. The little man to her right is obviously Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, who currently attracts a great deal of media attention in the British press, with his party membership constantly facing allegations, individually and collectively, of racism.