Vote for your favourite Davey Cartoon

Posted by Simon Birkett on 30 April 2014

Clean Air in London and Andy Davey, the award winning cartoonist, have published the last in a series of 12 cartoons about air pollution in London

The Green Party wins the “Clean Air Championships” followed closely by Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg as Boris Johnson scraps with Nigel Farage in the foreground

Clean Air in London has launched a Facebook poll to find peoples’ favourite cartoon

Clean Air in London (CAL) commissioned a series of cartoons from award winning cartoonist Andy Davey to highlight particular themes about air pollution in London. A Flickr album with 15 cartoons can be seen at:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjSPbssE

The last in the series titled “Clean Air Championships” was published today as CAL launched a Facebook poll to find people’s favourite cartoon.

https://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/cleanairlondon

The Poll closes at 12 noon on Monday 12 May. Results are expected to be published shortly thereafter.

‘The People v Boris Johnson’ was overwhelmingly voted people’s favourite cartoon. The full album can be seen here https://cleanair.london/davey-cartoons/

Quotes

Andy Davey, award winning cartoonist, said:

“For me, this was a fantastic opportunity to work with the good guys (Clean Air in London) on a very important theme and have the luxury of time and space to elaborate the theme over a coherent series of 12 cartoons.

“We used Boris as a thread throughout the series because the largely invisible subject matter of air pollution needed a visible focus for the humour. What bigger, better focus than the Mayor himself? Boris has deliberately built a clownish jocular persona and, of course, all air pollution ‘roads’ in London lead quickly to him!

“I think this project clearly shows the power of the cartoon to illustrate a serious point, to get people talking and to provide a laugh. Over the years, cartoons have been dropped by several newspapers due to financial constraints but those that remain are still widely enjoyed. Cartoons encapsulate a topic in a snapshot. It takes only a few seconds to read a cartoon but several minutes – or more – to absorb a written article. What’s more, the art form is versatile – serious or funny, subversive or absurd – and the drawn image still retains its power.

“Clean Air in London’s cartoon campaign also shows the emerging power of social media as an alternative to the traditional newspaper form. The cartoons were distributed almost entirely by Simon on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Whatever publicity we realised was achieved through his empathy for those media alone.”

Simon Birkett, Founder and Director of Clean Air in London, said:

“We wanted a new way to communicate complex messages to our existing audience and another to engage new people in the scandal of air pollution. Andy Davey’s cartoons have miraculously done both!

“After the amazing success of the first three cartoons, which killed several birds with each stone and coincided nicely with milestones such as the European Commission launching infraction against the UK and the announcement of Boris’s so-called ‘ultra-low emission zone’, we decided to commission a calendar’s worth of 12 cartoons!

“Each cartoon tackles a different theme around air pollution. As we approached the local and European elections we decided the last theme should be the election itself. We’ve called it the “Clean Air Championships” which the Green Party has won followed closely by Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg as Boris Johnson scrapped with Nigel Farage in the foreground.

“On 8 March we asked the Mayor to endorse the cartoons to stimulate debate about air pollution. Amazingly, Boris’s refusal to do so has done more to promote the cartoons than his endorsement would have done. People may now be laughing as much at Boris’s sense of humour failure as the wonderful cartoons themselves!

“It has been great fun working with Andy Davey on these wonderful cartoons.”

ENDS

Notes

1. Copyright

Accredited media channels are invited to contact Clean Air in London or Andy Davey to request a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to publish the cartoons for single use on a single platform. Other requests will be considered.

2. Andy Davey

Cartoonist Davey’s political cartoons have previously appeared in several UK publications including The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Sun and The Scotsman. His joke cartoons have also graced the pages of Private Eye, Punch (in its death throes), The Spectator, New Statesman, Prospect and (Simon Bond’s short-lived but marvellous) Squib. He has drawn cover illustrations for E! Sharp and profile caricatures for The Sunday Telegraph.

He has wielded his pen in TV-land too, drawing for the animated satirical cartoon series 2DTV and covering occasional political news events on Channel Five TV News and Sky TV News.

Andy’s website http://www.andydavey.com/.

3. Clean Air in London

Clean Air in London’s Mission is to achieve urgently and sustainably full compliance with WHO guidelines for air quality throughout London and elsewhere. It works closely with other campaign groups and a wider network of supporters and volunteers to identify and build understanding of the most important issues and encourage decisive action on them.

Clean Air in London’s immediate priority is to see that air quality laws are enforced rigorously in London in 2014 (and thereafter). Clean Air in London believes that if we comply fully with relevant laws Britain can show the world how to tackle successfully air quality, climate change and sustainability issues.

Clean Air in London is a not-for-profit organisation funded by donations, sponsors and other supporters. It is not a charity in part because a registered charity is not allowed to have political objectives or take part in political lobbying (other than in a generally educational sense). Clean Air in London may wish to participate in such activities.

Clean Air in London’s website https://cleanair.london/

4. The 15 cartoons can be viewed in Clean Air in London’s Flickr album and Clean Air in London and Andy Davey’s websites

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjSPbssE

5. The cartoons, their dates of first publication and relate themes

i. No to EU meddling | 20 February

https://flic.kr/p/kejaFS

https://cleanair.london/legal/europe-at-its-best-takes-legal-action-against-uk-at-its-worst-on-air-pollution/

ii. Nicer bit | 3 March

https://flic.kr/p/kDVv2F

https://www.tflevents.co.uk/tfl/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=50574&eventID=185&eventID=185

https://cleanair.london/hot-topics/stop-hiding-air-pollution-and-ban-diesel-exhaust-in-two-stages-to-2020-as-coal-was-banned-60-years-ago/

iii. “Mind the gas!” | 6 March