Election cartoons: Don't forget to vote

This looks like being the tightest general election in years, so your vote really counts folks, don't forget to use it.

I live in the South Thanet constituency, where the Ukip leader is running to try to become an MP, so I also offer this less than impartial cartoon. Click the image to enlarge.

That was drawn for a friend who got fed up of seeing all the Ukip banners around town, so he asked me to design one that he could stick on his house!

That was the year: 2014 in topical cartoons

If you can take another "review of the year", it's time for my now traditional look back at the past 12 months of topical cartoons.

This was a year that saw quite a few household names in court ...

One person continued to surprise us ...

Technology dominated the headlines, as ever ...

... which meant new buzz phrases ...

... and more gadgets.

In 2014 we commemorated the centenary of the First World War ...

... which at times was maybe a bit much.

This was the year of the Scottish referendum, and the many promises that went with it ...

And like it or not, Nigel Farage and Ukip was the other big political story of 2014.

There was the Rochester by-election ...

... a depressing lack of a sense of humour in another by-election ...

... and a TV showdown.

Light relief was found at the cinema ...

... and with the return of some old friends.

What were the big trends of 2014? Well, we seemed to reach "Peak Beard" ...

... and there were a lot of selfies ...

... not to mention other narcissistic trends.

But as usual we ended the year basking in the warm glow of advertising sentimentality ...

Have a happy 2015, one and all!

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Why Santa Claus's naughty and nice list is the Christmas gift that just keeps on giving

"He's making a list and checking it twice
He's gonna find out who's naughty and nice"

Santa Claus is Coming to Town
By John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie

"They had their names removed using the right to be forgotten"

I'm very grateful to Messrs Coots and Gillespie, as those famous lines from their perennial Christmas song seem to be an endless source of inspiration for me as a cartoonist.

The gag above is one of the Private Eye Christmas cards this year. When trying to think of a cartoon about the right to be forgotten, which became a big issue this year, Santa's list of naughty children was the first thing that came to mind.

For me, it has long been a useful motif to apply to current events at Christmas time. Here's a Reader's Digest cartoon from last Christmas about the big story of that year, internet snooping by the NSA, as revealed by Edward Snowden ...

"OK fill me in – who has been naughty and who has been nice?"

Here's another from last year, a Private Eye Christmas card about the rise of Ukip ...

"I think UKIP have got to him."

Rewind to 2011 when phone-hacking was big news. What if "Santa" was hauled up before a commons select committee to answer a few questions? Actually, rather than the "naughty or nice" lyric, this one references words that come later in the same song.

"Perhaps you could tell us how you know if we've been bad or good?"

Another big news story of that year was the English riots. But the perpetrators, according to Tony Blair, were not naughty ...

It doesn't just work for topical magazine cartoons, here's one I drew for the Christmas card of a marketing company that builds websites for its clients ...

And a law firm that specialises in forensic accounting ...

Somehow, I feel sure that it's a theme I will return to!

Finally here are a couple of gags residing in the Not Yet Sold files, an oldie from when laddish lists became all the rage and the most recent "naughty or nice" one I've drawn, about the internet successor to those lists ...

"Whatever happened to the old 'Naughty' and 'Nice' lists?"

"I don't check the list twice any more, I just upload it to Buzzfeed."

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Christmas cartoon: Private Eye card 2013

"I think UKIP have got to him."

This was one of the 12 Private Eye Christmas cards this year. Yes, it's another spin on the "naughty and nice" theme!

I could be wearing a look of dismay similar to that elf in 2015 as there's a real possibility that the UKIP leader Nigel Farage could become my local MP! There is also a rumour, however, that he may stand in nearby Canterbury. Here's a cartoon I drew about that earlier this year.

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Political cartoon: The swivel eyes have it

The Kentish Gazette asked Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, if the rumours were true that he is to run in Canterbury at the next election. His response: "There is always so much flying around about what I might or not be doing. My advice is don’t get too excited about it.”

The latter part struck me as a particularly appropriate UKIP election slogan ...

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