Battle for Britain (Private Eye)
Battle for Britain was a comic strip cartoon published in the fortnightly satirical magazine Private Eye in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. It depicted Margaret Thatcher's second term of office as prime minister, but with the politicians shown as British soldiers or Nazi officials, as in a comic of the Second World War. The strip was attributed to Monty Stubble, which was a nom de plume of editor Ian Hislop, and to his artistic collaborator Nick Newman.
Publication history
The name "Monty Stubble" is a play on the film-title I Was Monty's Double; the film being based upon the career of M. E. Clifton James, an actor who was employed during the Second World War to impersonate General Montgomery for the purposes of espionage and to confuse the enemy.Battle For Britain appeared in Private Eye between 1983 and 1987. The series ended after the 1987 general election; this was explained by Private Eye as happening because Stubble "was tragically lost in action in the last week of the war, believed to have been hit by a stray pencil sharpener".
The collected strips were then published in book form by André Deutsch.
Synopsis
The strip is considered to rank alongside the best to appear in the magazine. It was a satirical presentation of the struggles of the Labour Party opposition led by Neil Kinnock against the Conservative government led by Mrs Thatcher. The style borrowed liberally from Fleetway's War Picture Library comic series, and also D. C. Thomson & Co.'s Commando. In such comics the Germans were typically portrayed as one-dimensional stereotypes, uttering phrases such as "Dummkopf", "Der Teufel", "Donner und Blitzen", "Gott in Himmel", "Schweinhund", etc. seemingly spoken in the accents used by Nazi villains in British war films. This was reflected in Battle for Britain.The background
There were three groups of protagonists.- The Conservative government is shown as a Fascist regime ruling the "Fatherland". Margaret Thatcher is depicted as the führer, "Herr Thatchler", a paranoid megalomaniac, served by her grovelling henchmen who include von Gummer, von Tebbit, Helmut Lawson, von Porkinson, Rudolph Hesseltine and Lord Howe-Howe.
- The Labour Party opposition is portrayed as a platoon of British soldiers referred to as "the Marauders", battling against superior forces and always being defeated. They are led by the inexperienced Corporal "Taffy" Kinnock and the turban-wearing "Darky" Chatterjee. The platoon is usually depicted as backbiting, inept, insubordinate and uncooperative, which is the main reason for its constant defeats. Much of Taffy's woe originates among his own followers, especially from left-wingers such as "Barmy" Benn and "Fatty" Heffer, whose "cruel cockney humour" often has the last word, lowering morale on his own side, and is a feature in almost every instalment.
- The SDP-Liberal Alliance is referred to as "the Allies", led by Doc "Killer" Owen of the paramedics and "Wee" Jock Steel, the Tartan Terror. As in many satirical presentations, Steel is shown as a weakling overshadowed by the dominant Owen. After failing to impress in the 1987 general election, the two parties merged to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988; the "jokey" image of the Alliance put across by satirists was a major factor in what was seen as a search for more "gravitas".
The humour
The humour in the strip relied heavily on puns and put-downs, with characters often making cynical and unpleasant remarks at others on their own side. "Taffy" Kinnock in particular is always mocked by "Fatty" Heffer's cruel cockney humour. Meanwhile, von Gummer and later Jeffroech Archer are referred to by Thatchler's other henchmen as "Gumkopf" and "Archcreep schwein". Hislop and Newman skilfully portrayed events in contemporary political life in terms of the fictional battle stories as depicted in the comic-books:- By-election campaigns were shown as the liberation of French towns; Chesterfield became "Chester-le-Field" and Greenwich became "Greneviche".
- When government ministers were dismissed from office, Thatchler is shown ordering them to be taken out and shot.
- The UK miners' strike (1984–1985) is shown as "Sapper" Scargill leading Taffy's Marauders through some treacherous minefields.
- The campaign to abolish the Greater London Council was fronted by Environment Secretary Patrick Jenkin. Monty Stubble depicted this as The Blitz—a raid on London led by bomber commander "Patroech Junkers", opposed from RAF South Bank by Spitfire ace "Red" Ken.
Example
This particular example of the strip was published in Private Eye in July 1986, at about the time when Parliament was about to go into recess.- Labour had just won the Newcastle-under-Lyme by-election. Kinnock was in the middle of a struggle to assert his authority as party leader in the face of an attempted takeover by the entryist Militant group, and had recently managed to expel leading Militant activist Derek Hatton from the party. Hatton is shown with fellow left-wingers Tony Benn and Eric Heffer.
- The Alliance had failed to gain the seat by about 800 votes. They had complained that the media were not giving them as much coverage as they felt their campaign deserved, which they alleged cost them a famous win.
- Thatcher was being heavily criticised by other Commonwealth leaders for her mildly lukewarm support for sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa led by President P.W. Botha.
- As a result, half the eligible participant countries boycotted the 1986 Commonwealth Games being held in Edinburgh.
- The Conservative Party was worried about its standing in the opinion polls, especially as speculation was starting to grow that a general election was likely to be held the following year.