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Disraeli and “One Nation” in British cartoons, 1914-2016

Disraeli et le conservatisme One Nation dans les dessins humoristiques, 1914-2016
Philippe Vervaecke

Abstracts

This paper analyzes the cartoons featuring Benjamin Disraeli after his death and the concept of “One Nation”. It shows that Disraeli remained through the 20th century a persona which British cartoonists recurringly made use of, although Churchill, and to some degree Thatcher, were far more popular figures in British cartoons. It contends that “One Nation” was subjected to a parodic treatment which suggests that the Disraeli-related slogan was viewed as an empty catchphrase.

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  • 1 Andrew Roberts, Salisbury. Victorian Titan (London, Phoenix Press), pp. 252-253.
  • 2 For tributes to Disraeli in the field of painting, see Betsy Cogger Rezelman, ‘Frank Bramley’s Prim (...)
  • 3 See the newsreels ‘Primrose Day in London 1916’ (1662.23); ‘Primrose Day 1921’ (232.09); "Primrose (...)
  • 4 Shannon L. Rogers, ‘‘The Past Is a Dream:’ The Neo-Feudalism of Disraeli,’ Victorian Review, 28, 2 (...)

1“It is a long time since any sovereign has lost so devoted a subject”, Lord Salisbury wrote to Queen Victoria on Benjamin Disraeli’s death on April 19, 1881, a judgement reflecting the national mood, as Beaconsfield’s passing away transformed him overnight into a legendary figure.1 The late-Victorian and Edwardian success of the Primrose League, established in 1883, owed much to the way in which that organization successfully harnessed the cult of Disraeli that appeared after his death, notably by choosing a name that was immediately evocative of Disraeli’s memory, as the Queen had sent a wreath of primroses from Osborne for Disraeli’s grave, on which was tied a card bearing the words “His favourite flower”.2 Primrose Day, April 19, was popularized by the Primrose League and remained until the interwar years a much-observed date in Conservative circles. The British Pathé archive has five newsreels entitled “Primrose Day”, showing Primrose Day celebrations in 1916, 1921, 1923, 1924 and 1928, to which such Tory grandees as Austen Chamberlain or William Joynson-Hicks took part. The commemoration often included a collective pilgrimage to Hughenden Manor and Hughenden Parish Church, Disraeli’s residence and final resting-place.3 The medieval trappings with which the Primrose League was associated, with its hierarchy composed of Knights, Dames and Grand Masters, were a highly appropriate means for his late-Victorian devotees to emphasize the continuities with Disraeli’s idealization of the Middle Ages.4

  • 5 For a thorough survey of the vast body of biographical work on Disraeli and of essays studying his (...)
  • 6 Louis-Napoléon Parker, ‘A Stage Disraeli.’ Times, 5 Apr. 1916, p. 11; ‘The Prime Minister.’ Times, (...)
  • 7 Norman St. John-Stevas, ‘The Disraeli centenary,’ The Listener, 105, 2708, 16 Apr. 1981, pp. 494-49 (...)

2The “cult of Disraeli” took many shapes, not least in the numerous biographical essays dedicated to him.5 But it did manifest itself in popular culture too. Disraeli’s life later inspired a play, Disraeli, by Louis-Napoléon Parker (1911), which was subsequently adapted to the screen in 1916, 1921 and 1929. Disraeli’s role was played by John Gielgud in a 1941 film entitled “The Prime Minister”, while later a TV serial entitled Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic was first broadcast in 1978, with Ian McShane in the title role.6 In Conservative circles, this reverence for Disraeli died hard, as a century after Disraeli’s death, Norman St. John-Stevas, one of his latter-day enthusiasts who considered Dizzy “the greatest leader of the Conservative Party, who understood it best and influenced it most”, could claim, rather counter-intuitively at the onset of the Thatcher years, that “Disraelian Toryism awaits its moment to resume its political role’.7

3Given Disraeli’s prominence in the collective memory, and the numerous attempts by various politicians, whether Conservative or not, to present themselves as heir to his political legacy, as suggested by Illustration 1, a 1910 Punch cartoon showing Winston Churchill, then a Liberal, and his friend F. E. Smith, a Conservative M.P., both engrossed in the reading on the newly-published biography of Disraeli suggests, the aim of this article is to analyze Disraeli’s presence in British cartoons after his death and that of the motto to which, more or less apocryphally, he came to be associated, “One Nation” conservatism.

Illustration 1. Leonard Raven-Hill, Punch, 139, 3646, Nov. 2, 1910

Illustration 1. Leonard Raven-Hill, Punch, 139, 3646, Nov. 2, 1910
  • 8 Leonee Ormond, Linley Sambourne. Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist, London, Paul Holberton publishin (...)
  • 9 Frankie Morris, Artist of Wonderland. The Life, Political Cartoons and Illustrations of Tenniel, Ca (...)
  • 10 For studies on Disraeli’s treatment by cartoonists, see Anthony S. Wohl, ‘‘‘Ben JuJu”: Representati (...)
  • 11 Ormond, op. cit., p. 127-128.

4In his lifetime, Disraeli had been a constant target of Victorian cartoonists, with John Tenniel and Linley Sambourne from Punch who represented in turn as an octopus, a camel, a bee, a Sphinx.8 Punch’s liberal leanings and anti-jingoistic positions meant that the satirical weekly was more often than not very critical of him. John Tenniel commented upon the passing of the Titles Act of 1876 that it was yet another trick of the “old Hebrew magician”. He featured Disraeli’s silhouette in chapter 3 of Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there, this rather inexplicable presence being possibly intended “to accord [Disraeli’s] reputation as an enigma” (Illustration 2). Tenniel in turn dubbed Disraeli the “Great Wizard”, an “Asia Mystery”, representing him as a showman, an acrobat, a conjurer, a trickster and a farceur.9 Not surprisingly in a society where anti-Jewish prejudices were far from being marginal, Victorian cartoonists tended to emphasize Disraeli’s Jewish traits and his status as an alien and an outsider from the mainstream of British politics.10 In 1881, John Millais made a portrait of Disraeli which was presented at the Royal Academy, with one of the on-lookers none other than William Gladstone, which prompted Linley Sambourne to produce a cartoon on that striking scene (Illustration 3).11

Illustration 2. John Tenniel, illustration from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, 1871

Illustration 2. John Tenniel, illustration from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, 1871
  • 12 Punch, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Cartoons from Punch 1843-1881, London, Punch Office (...)

5But at the same time, his ubiquity in cartoons meant that with that of his rival Gladstone, his likeness could be easily recognized by Victorian audiences. As a tribute to one of their favorite victims, immediately after his death, Punch published a collection of cartoons tracing back his 40 years of public life, with the earliest cartoon to be found on the British Cartoon Archive, an 1839 piece by John Doyle depicting both Disraeli, recognizable with his curly locks, and his friend from the Whig Party, Edward Bulwer Lytton (Illustration 4).12

  • 13 Roberts, op. cit., p. 598.

6As Lord Salisbury, who shared with Disraeli a similar propensity to make use of sardonic humour, once quipped: “I have known one distinguished statesman who went half-mad whenever he was caricatured in Punch and another who wished to resign from office because he was never caricatured in Punch”.13 This is not something Disraeli, a definite star among cartoonists, could have complained about in his lifetime. But what about his posthumous presence in British cartoons? And what cartoon treatment did the “One Nation” formula receive after his parting?

Illustration 3. Linley Sambourne, W.E. Gladstone Looking at a Portrait of Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, by Sir J.E. Millais, 1881

Illustration 3. Linley Sambourne, W.E. Gladstone Looking at a Portrait of Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, by Sir J.E. Millais, 1881

Illustration 4. John Doyle, “What, in parliamentary phrase, may be termed a pair’, 18 July 1839, British Cartoon Archive, Reference number mudxyl9

Illustration 4. John Doyle, “What, in parliamentary phrase, may be termed a pair’, 18 July 1839, British Cartoon Archive, Reference number mudxyl9

Disraeli in cartoons, 1881-2022: a quantitative approach

  • 14 For the entire list of cartoons, see Annex 1. The Punch Historical Archive has also been consulted (...)

7The British Cartoon Archive (BCA), which holds over 200,000 cartoons from the 19th century to the present by more than 300 artists, has 41 items which either depict Disraeli or make a reference to him in the embedded text.14 The earliest one, by W. K. Haselden, dates back from 1914, while the most recent one is by Dave Brown and was published in 2002. Considering the extraordinary cartoon visibility of Disraeli in his lifetime, one could infer from such a limited number of items that Disraeli became a neglected figure and only an occasional reference for later generation of British cartoonists. The data appearing on Table 1 would tend to establish such a picture of neglect for Disraeli. The BCA data-base was interrogated with the name of most British Prime ministers, from Disraeli to Blair. The period for which their cartoon presence was checked corresponded to the year after they respectively left office, so as to observe who among them remained under the cartoonists’ gaze. Thatcher leads the pack, with 752 appearances from 1991 onwards, followed by David Lloyd George (401), Tony Blair (354), Churchill (343), Clement Attlee (251), Harold Macmillan (199), John Major (136). Gladstone (30) and Disraeli (41), the two Victorian giants, are thus made to look like cartoon dwarves when compared to their successors.

Table 1. The main Prime ministers in British cartoons, from the year after they stepped down as PM to the present

Table 1. The main Prime ministers in British cartoons, from the year after they stepped down as PM to the present

Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive

  • 15 David Low, Low’s Autobiography, London, Michael Joseph, 1956, p. 146.

8Table 2 paints an altogether different picture. It takes into consideration the cartoon after-lives of former British PMs, with the BCA data-base interrogated from the year after their death, so as not to take on board what may have been published immediately around the time when their death was announced. This left out of the equation all the former PMs who are still alive, and it reduced the statistical edge enjoyed by former PMs who remained active in public life for a long time after their resignation from office, as is the case for Thatcher, Heath, Macmillan, Attlee and Lloyd George. That Lloyd George remained prominent in cartoons after his 1922 departure from office should come as no surprise, as he remained a pet subject for the great cartoonist David Low, who confessed his partiality towards Lloyd George in his Autobiography: “I always had the greatest difficulty in making Ll. G. sinister in a cartoon. Every time I drew him, however critical the comment, I had to be careful or he would spring off the drawing-board a lovable cherubic little chap.”15

Table 2. Former British Prime ministers' cartoon afterlives, from one year after their death to the present

Table 2. Former British Prime ministers' cartoon afterlives, from one year after their death to the present

Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive

9The results are thus significantly different from those of Table 1. The cartoon champion becomes Churchill (153 appearances since 1966), followed by Thatcher (57 appearances since 2014), and Lloyd George (52 appearances since 1946). In that long-distance cartoon race, Disraeli comes an honorable 4th, with 41 appearances.

10To some degree, these findings are congruent with another way to assess the posthumous presence of former British PMs in public space (and thus in the collective memory), namely the number of commemorative plates dedicated to them, whether Blue Plaques or otherwise, which are inventoried on the Open Plaques site (Table 3). In the “Blue Plaque” contest, Churchill comes a winner (25), with the Duke of Wellington coming second far behind him (13), Gladstone third with 9, Disraeli fourth with 7, the fifth place, with 5 plates each, being shared by Pitt, Palmerston, Lloyd George and Heath.

Table 3. Former British Prime ministers : Number of commemorative plates

Table 3. Former British Prime ministers : Number of commemorative plates

*Both plates for Johnson are unofficial, spoof ‘Blue Plates’ intended not to celebrate, but to berate Johnson. In Tony Blair’s case, two of the inventoried plates are commemorative, the third one located in Blackpool and bearing the mention “Tony Blair had his eyes tested here’, obviously falls into the parodical category.

Source: Open Plaques, https://opeplaques.org

11This tends to show, to return to Disraeli’s case specifically, that he does remain a recurrent, if sporadic, reference for British cartoonists, that his silhouette continues to be a recognizable character for British audiences and more generally that the issue of his legacy, in Conservative circles and more widely in British politics, has not been obliterated with the passing of time.

12If one now takes a look at the corpus in terms of period of publication (Table 4), one may distinguish three distinct waves. From 1914 to 1945, the number of occurrences is relatively limited, with 12 cartoons, less than once every other year. From 1946 to 1975, this increases to 22 occurrences, with the period coinciding with Macmillan’s tenure as PM (1957-1963) and Heath’s years as Leader of the Conservative Party (1965-1975) appearing saliant, with 4 and 6 occurrences respectively. After 1975 and until 2022, this decreases to 6 occurrences only, which tends to suggest that the advent as party leader of a highly un-Disraelian figure like Thatcher has contributed to relegating Disraeli to the sidelines of cartooning, very much as the rise of neoliberal conservatism supplanted earlier, middle-of-road forms of conservatism. Out of the 41 Disraeli-related items located on the BCA archive, 16 were published while the Conservatives were in the opposition, and 25 while they were in office, which constitutes a fairly even distribution. But given the fact that from 1914 to 2022, the Conservatives were out of office for 34 years only, the relatively high of prevalence of Disraeli’s cartoon appearances in periods of opposition would tend to suggest that he is proportionately of more relevance in periods of political ebb for the Tories.

Table 4. Disraeli in cartoons, 1914-2022 : occurrences in time

Table 4. Disraeli in cartoons, 1914-2022 : occurrences in time

Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive

13In what shape then is Disraeli’s ghost summoned? As Table 5 shows, he is likely to appear either as a ghost, a statue or a portrait hanging on a wall on 15 occasions, over a third of the whole sample. But he is far more likely to appear not so much physically than textually, as the most numerous types of occurrences is in the shape of embedded text (30 out of 41 cases). One typical form of presence is within allusions to both him and Gladstone (11 occurrences, nearly a quarter of the sample), without the likeness of any of them appearing on the cartoons. In 20th century cartoons, the two Victorian rivals were thus often twinned in references to long-gone days.

Table 5. Disraeli in cartoons : type of appearances in the 41 cartoons of the corpus

Table 5. Disraeli in cartoons : type of appearances in the 41 cartoons of the corpus

Note that as there is some overlap between the categories, the total (77) exceeds the number of items in the corpus (41).

Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive

14In terms of authorship, the sample is also evenly distributed between cartoonists known for Conservative sympathies (W. K. Haselden, Michael Cummings, with 15 items for the two of them, 7 for Haselden and 8 for Cummings) and their more left-leaning counterparts: David Low (4 items), Leslie Illingworth (1 item), Vicky (7 items), Carl Giles (2), Nicholas Garland (3), Steve Bell (1). It is quite suitable that Michael Cummings, a staunch Conservative, should be the one having most frequently made references to Disraeli, with another “true-blue” cartoonist like Haselden coming second, but this may be toned down by the fact that this second place is shared with Vicky, a man with firm pro-Labour political convictions.

Disraeli in cartoons, 1914-2016: some highlights from the sample

15As stated earlier, one recurring way in which Disraeli is referred to in the sample is through allusions in the embedded text, as Illustration 5 shows. The other reason why this piece by Haselden is chosen among the highlights is because Disraeli’s name appears shortly after that of Gladstone is pronounced by the person heckling the flapper who attempts to gain a seat in Parliament. The very fact that the young lady’s competence is challenged by the heckler through the use of preposterous questions on statements made by Gladstone and Disraeli a few decades before is probably intended as comment upon the ungentlemanly way in which the flapper is treated in the scene. Still, coming from a cartoonist known for his anti-feminist and anti-suffragist stance, one cannot refrain from seeing it as an uncharitable innuendo suggesting that the young lady is not quite a fit and proper person to be entrusted with a seat in Parliament.

16The piece by Strube (illustration 6), the only by this prolific cartoonist featuring Disraeli, shows to what degree Disraeli’s name remained closely associated with the British Empire. Published on Empire Day (May 24), it shows Strube’s archetypal “Little Man’ standing on a platform, with the usual representation of Empire, the Lion, on his side, while a parade, possibly a pageant of imperial ghosts, is unfolding. In the procession, Disraeli marches alongside Cecil Rhodes, the imperial pro-consul, and behind such imperial heroes as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Horatio Nelson and James Cook. The Little Man, awed by the procession, stands to attention at the foot of a mast from flies the Union Jack.

  • 16 Ibid., pp. 161-162.

17On a far more caustic note, David Low’s cartoon entitled “Tonight’s Recital at the Albert Hall” (Illustration 7) is an attack against the then leader of the Conservative Party, Stanley Baldwin. Low was no friend to the Tories and no admirer of Baldwin. “An unknown personality to the public” when he became PM, he came to be seen as “Farmer John Bull in person” once the “Tory managers”, wrote Low in his Autobiography, rebranded him as the epitome of ordinariness. Low, unimpressed by the trick, made it clear that it was lost upon him: “all those within range knew well enough that the pipe-and-pig-loving Farmer Baldwin was a businessman in the steel industry who probably couldn’t tell one pig from another, and by the brown tint on his right forefinger probably smoked cigarettes in private”.16 The cartoon below is very much in line with Low’s willingness to debunk the public persona fashioned for Baldwin. The organ and the monkey on top of it, on which one reads the words “class war”, make it clear that Disraeli’s image is manipulatively put forwards by Baldwin to project a consensual image and to pretend that he took Disraeli’s mantle when it comes to implementing social reforms for the welfare of the working classes. The fact that the scene takes place at the Albert Hall, with Baldwin addressing an audience composed of well-to-do ladies and Tory dignitaries (among whom one recognizes Churchill sitting in the front row) adds to the irony of the cartoon, as the venue was known for hosting the annual meeting of the Primrose League.

  • 17 Russell Davies and Liz Ottoway, Vicky, London, Secker and Warburg, 1987, p. 140.

18One last item that deserves to be highlighted is a piece by Vicky, in which the German-born cartoonist makes fun of Harold Macmillan’s Disraelian posture (Illustration 8) and gestures towards “One-Nation” conservatism at a time when unemployment is on the rise. As the cartoon is undated, one may conjecture that it was drawn either around February 1958 or February 1963, when unemployment went through a sharp increase at around 4% of the working population. The cartoon is furthermore very much in the style of Vicky, who repeatedly and inventively lampooned Macmillan, notoriously as the bathetic superhero “SuperMac’. Under the pen of Vicky, MacMillan became “Mr Macawber, MacGladstone, MacLaocoon, MacGas, Machamaleon, Cinderella, the Statue of Liberty, a dowager, a scolding mother, a Victorian wallflower in a ball gown under the mistletoe, a Miss World contestant, a striptease artiste, a lady in a kilt, Cleopatra, Oliver Twist, King Lear, Prince Monolulu, the racing tipster, Sir Francis Drake, King Harold and the prodigal son”. In the animal world, Vicky in turn transformed MacMillan into a sea lion, a walrus, a bull, a lamb, a lion, a unicorn, a duck, a dog, a monkey or a White Rabbit.17

  • 18 David Low, ‘Stanley’s Exacting Role’, The Star, 3 February 1925, LSE7226.
  • 19 Michael Cummings, ‘Anyway, you've got to admit I'm not a one-man band!’, Daily Express, 19 November (...)
  • 20 Michael Cummings, ‘Mr. Morrison considers ways and means of winning voters to the Government’, Dail (...)
  • 21 Michael Cummings, ‘Perchance to dream’, Daily Express, 21 October 1949, CU0037.
  • 22 Michael Cummings, ‘I would like you to get in touch with these two gentlemen, please!’, Daily Expre (...)
  • 23 Nicholas Garland, [no caption or title], Sunday Telegraph, 12 July 1992, NG4998.
  • 24 Thatcher’s statue in the Members’ Lobby in the House of Commons was to be unveiled, unusually enoug (...)

19Many cartoons in the sample apply sarcasm and humour at the expense of the numerous would-be heirs to Disraeli’s legacy. The sincerity of their Disraelian filiation is questioned by the fact that they are made to claim other, incompatible legacies at the same time as they pay homage to the Victorian Prime minister. Apart from the item discussed above, Low jeers at Baldwin in another piece entitled “Stanley’s Exacting Role’, in which Baldwin is derided for pretending to be Disraeli, Gladstone and Ramsay MacDonald rolled into one.18 Cummings attacks Harold Wilson in a similar vein, exposing his attempt to be all things to all men as he is shown espousing such personas as Abraham Wilson, Harold Disraeli, Mr. MacHarold, Mr. Harold Kennedy, and Gen. de Wilson.19 Cummings had previously poked fun at Herbert Morrison whom he represented reading a book entitled “The Economics of private enterpris”, thus literally taking a leaf from the opposite party, seated with a row of bust, those of Neville Chamberlain, Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill, behind him.20 Nye Bevan was subjected to the same sort of treatment in a cartoon the caption of which was “Perchance to dream”, which showed a blissful Bevan napping and dreaming that he has become Nye Pitt, Aneurin Gladstone, Bevan Disraeli PM, Nye Lloyd-George PM and Winston Bevan PM.21 But for all his sympathies for the Conservative cause, Cummings also took aim at Thatcher. In one cartoon from 1975, Cummings shows Thatcher in the parlour of a fortune teller with the portrait of Peel and Disraeli, two former Conservative PM who went into collision course in the 1840s, asking her to “get in touch with these two gentlemen”.22 Behind her, one spots, reclining in a twin wheelchair and looking effete, Peter Thorneycroft and Reginald Maudling, with a tap above Maudling’s head on which one sees a label reading “Turn tap to draw on vast reservoir of experience’’. At a time when Thatcher had just become leader of the party, this suggests that Cummings felt that her attempt at uniting competing factions within the party undermined both her sincerity and consistency. After her departure from office, Thatcher was sneered at by Nicholas Garland who pictured her holding a bust of herself under the frowning gaze of the busts of Gladstone and Disraeli.23 This was Garland’s humorous comment upon Thatcher’s elevation to the House of Lords at the beginning of July 1992, possibly conflated with the fact that in the same month, Thatcher unveiled the Yomper statue in Portsmouth to commemorate the Royal Marines who had served in the Falklands War.24

  • 25 Michael Cummings, ‘Gentlemen! As I've inherited umpteen years of your misrule, you must help me! Wh (...)
  • 26 Carl Giles, ‘It's no use Mr. Callaghan - you've got to get up and face it sometime.’, Daily Express(...)

20One last trope present in the corpus may be exemplified by Cummings once again. In a 1975 piece, Cummings shows Harold Wilson in a room hung with the portraits of a string of former British PMs, including Disraeli, Macmillan, Attlee, Churchill, Lloyd George, Gladstone and Pitt.25 A forlorn Wilson exclaims: “Gentlemen! As I've inherited umpteen years of your misrule, you must help me! What on earth shall I do next?” A dog in the foreground has a moneybox tied around his neck on which one reads: “Spare a penny for Wilsonfam”. Carl Giles resorted to a similar device when, on the very day Callaghan became PM, he derided the new PM, whom he represented hiding in bed under his sheets in 10 Downing Street, with the bedhead bearing, in graffiti-style, the name of former PMs, while a charlady, poking a stick at him, enjoins him to get out of bed.26

Illustration 5. W. K. Haselden, “The Flapper Stands for Parliament. 9’, Daily Mirror, 28 November 1923, WH1792

Illustration 5. W. K. Haselden, “The Flapper Stands for Parliament. 9’, Daily Mirror, 28 November 1923, WH1792

Illustration 6. Sidney Strube, “To-day's march past’, Daily Express, 24 May 1933, GS0253

Illustration 6. Sidney Strube, “To-day's march past’, Daily Express, 24 May 1933, GS0253

Illustration 7. David Low, “Tonight’s Recital at the Albert Hall’, The Star, 6 May 1927, LSE7523

Illustration 7. David Low, “Tonight’s Recital at the Albert Hall’, The Star, 6 May 1927, LSE7523

Illustration 8. Vicky [Victor Weisz], Untitled, unpublished (?), undated, Embedded text: “814,632 Unemployed/One Nation”, VY3281

Illustration 8. Vicky [Victor Weisz], Untitled, unpublished (?), undated, Embedded text: “814,632 Unemployed/One Nation”, VY3281

“One Nation”: the iconographic fortunes of a catchword

21The sample retrieved from the BCA is perfectly balanced politically, with half of the items published in left-wing/center-left outlets (New Statesman, Guardian, Daily Mirror), and half from right-wing papers (Daily Express, Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail). This tends to show that independently from newspapers’ or cartoonists’ political leanings, the avatars of “One Nation” have a trans-partisan potential for snide comments.

22One may distinguish three periods for the appearance of “One Nation” in cartoons. One finds 7 occurrences for the period going from 1962 to 1974, which roughly corresponds to the Heath period, then one sees a lull from 1975 to 2011, a quarter of a century during which one finds only 5 occurrences. Then, between 2012 and 2016, the motto enjoys renewed popularity, with 15 occurrences. But this new lease of life is not to be attributed to Conservative circles, but to the hijacking of the slogan by Ed Miliband at the 2012 Labour Party Conference. This was not the first instance of such Labour poaching in Tory symbolic territory, since the 1997 Labour Election Manifesto had already trodden that path: “I want a Britain that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege, run for the many not the few, strong and sure of itself at home and abroad”.27

Table 6. “One Nation” in British cartoons, 1962- 2016

Table 6. “One Nation” in British cartoons, 1962- 2016

Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive

  • 28 Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘’This election has shown that the class war is obsolete.’ - Mr. Macmillan, O (...)
  • 29 Trog [Wally Fawkes], ‘...And a Happy New Year’, Observer, 23 December 1973, 25519.
  • 30 David Langdon, ‘Mind you, I never did feel comfortable with all that One Nation lark...’, Sunday Mi (...)
  • 31 Leslie Gibbard, ‘Tell me the one about ‘one nation’ again, Ted’, The Guardian, 16 December 1970, 19 (...)
  • 32 Arthur Horner, ‘The Choirmaster’, New Statesman, 18 December 1970, AH0309.

23The earliest item is by Vicky, lampooning in 1962 his favourite victim, Macmillan, who is seen holding in his left hand a sheet of paper on which “One Nation” is written, while the caption reads: “this election has shown that the class war is obsolete”. On the left, in the shadow, stands a cloth-capped working man, both hands in his pockets, obviously out of work.28 But it is the only instance in which Macmillan is associated with the famous Tory dictum. All the other items in the sample that runs until 1975 are related to Ted Heath. Among them, a piece by Trog, dated from December 23, 1973, features Heath in the shape of Santa Claus, driving a sleigh from which are falling, as from a cornucopia, Christmas presents bearing the labels “Industrial harmony”, “One nation”, “Economic prosperity”, “E.E.C benefits”.29 One cartoon by David Langdon wonderfully catches the mood of skepticism towards the slogan. Two well-to-do, elderly gentlemen are seated at the back of a Rolls Royce driven by a chauffeur. The car zooms past what looks like tall City buildings and the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral. One of the two back-seat passengers, who is smoking the cigar, is made to remark: “Mind you, I never did feel comfortable with all that One Nation lark...”.30 Another piece by Leslie Gibbard conveys very much the same message. On it, a Richard Nixon bursting into laughter asks a giggling Heath to “tell [him] the one about ‘one nation” again, Ted’.31 In other words, “One Nation” is nothing more than a joke, or at best an empty buzzword. A New Statesman piece by Arthur Horner puts Heath in the impossible situation of a choirmaster with a “One Nation” score on his lectern having to direct not one, but two choirs, the one on the left, composed of well-dressed, middle-aged singers, intoning “Land of Hope and Glory”, while the one on the right, composed of miners, bobbies, nurses, workingmen and teachers, sings “We’ll keep the red flag flying”.32

24Perhaps the most striking cartoon in that first period is one, entitled “Cold Warriors”, by Nicholas Garland (Illustration 9). Set in the last stages of Mao’s rule over China and three years after Nixon’s famous visit to Beijing, it dramatically captures the transition between Heath’s long tenure as leader of the party and the early months of Thatcher’s seizure of control over the party. Thatcher the cow-girl, wielding a shotgun on which one reads “Equality is a mirage” and wearing a belt on which “End state control” is written, is ready to disrupt a placid Red Guard, Heath, with a “One Nation” cap adorned with a red star. This fittingly encapsulates the way Thatcherism was in the fifteen subsequent years was to sideline the moderate Conservatism of her predecessor, who, very much like Macmillan before him, viewed his party as committed to limit at the same time the excesses of statism and those of unfettered individualism.

Illustration 9. Nicholas Garland, “Cold Warriors’, New Statesman, 26 September 1975

Illustration 9. Nicholas Garland, “Cold Warriors’, New Statesman, 26 September 1975

NG1384 @Nicholas Garland, whom the author warmly thanks for his kind authorization

  • 33 Martyn Turner, ‘The future look of Europe/The future look of the Conservative Party’, Daily Express(...)

25The most eloquent cartoon from the 1975-2011 period may well be one by Martyn Turner, entitled “The future look of Europe/The future look of the Conservative Party”.33 It contrasts two maps. One, on the left-hand side, is that of a borderless Europe, looking smooth and simple, with the UK included in it and thus coloured with the same, uniform hue. In the guise of an ungainly, very plain character looking at a loss, the other “map”, composed of six unequal, separate fragments, represents the extent of factionalism within the Conservative Party. The various body parts of this Frankenstein-like figure indeed bear the following inscriptions: “Monday Club”, “Wait and seeists”, “Pro-Europe”, “1922” and “Little England”.

  • 34 Paul Thomas, ‘Say what you like about Gordon Brown - at least he had a pulse...’, Daily Express, 24 (...)
  • 35 Christian Adams, ‘Speech Balloons’, Daily Telegraph, 09 April 2014, 101051.
  • 36 Christian Adams, ‘Householders' rights ...’, Sunday Telegraph, 07 October 2012, 97463.
  • 37 David Haldane, ‘It's made up of them and us’, The Times, 03 October 2012, 97755.

26From 2012 onwards, most of the sample is a festival of lampoon at the expense of Miliband and his “One Nation” idea. Cartoonists have been rather ferocious towards Miliband, notably accused of an utter lack of charisma, as in a 2013 piece by Paul Thomas.34 His “One Nation” mantra is thus reduced to the status of an empty “speech ballon’ by Christian Adams in the Daily Telegraph.35 Another item by Chris Adams emphasizes this attemps by the Labour leader at expropriating the Tories from one of their traditional maxim as he depicts a Dave Cameron, with his pyjamas and night-cap on, chasing after Miliband in the role of a burglar.36 David Haldane, from the Times, produced a marvel of concision on the subject. It shows two middle-aged men in casual suits chatting over a cup of coffee. One of them holds a paper in his hands on which one reads “One Nation”. The pithy caption reads: “It’s made up of them and us”.37

27Pride of place in this part of the sample is owed to a wonderful cartoon by Martin Rowson (Illustration 10). Entitled “One Nation”, it shows a gigantic, Brobdingnagian Theresa May bestowing the bounties of public money to the fracking industry and to grammar schools. The “St. Theresa’s Grammar School” in the foreground looks like a very posh, elitist place, which is a sardonic comment upon the cynicism of the Conservatives’ educational measures, which had by and large consisted since their return to power in 2010 in depriving schools in poorer areas from cash, while they were considering plans to increase funding for selective, grammar-school-like free schools.38

Illustration 10. Martin Rowson, “One Nation”, The Guardian, 08 August 2016

Illustration 10. Martin Rowson, “One Nation”, The Guardian, 08 August 2016

MRD0866 @Martin Rowson, whom the author warmly thanks for his kind authorization

28For many cartoonists, “One Nation” is thus throughout the period nothing more than a slogan designed for Labour and Tories alike to try to capture the center-ground in politics and the outcome of rhetorical moves that are exposed as insincere at best, cynical at worst. The purchase of the motto, to judge from the sample, was damaged right from the start in the Macmillan era, and the Miliband trove turned out to be, unsurprisingly, lambasted.

Conclusion

  • 39 ‘Election results 2019: Boris Johnson’s victory speech in full’, BBC News, 13 December 2019, https: (...)

29This paper has shown the persistence of Disraeli in 20th century cartoons and the various ways in which references to the Victorian statesman and to the “One Nation” catchphrase allow cartoonists to debunk, deride and disparage, as they are wont to do as a profession. In comparing the cartoon afterlife of Disraeli with other former PMs, it claims that, if one sets aside the towering figure of Churchill, whose posthumous cartoon life is probably to prove long-lasting, Disraeli has remained a favoured persona for contemporary cartoonists. This enduring presence may be assigned to the way the legacy of Disraeli has proved attractive and sufficiently malleable for his successors to attempt to seize it for the advancement of their own ideas. It is against this backdrop of continued, if waning, reverence for Disraeli, that one may set Boris Johnson’s victory speech on December 13, 2019, in which he notoriously paid lip-service to “One-Nation” principles. Although the name of Disraeli was not pronounced on that occasion, “One Nation” appeared no less than three times in that short speech. But, “from Woking to Workington; from Kensington, (…) to Clwyd South; from Surrey Heath to Sedgefield; from Wimbledon to Wolverhampton”, it was clear to many viewers and listeners that Johnson had symbolically taken up the mantle of Disraeli on that morning.39

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Bibliography

Primary sources

Low, David, British Cartoonists: Caricaturists and Comic Artists (London, William Collins, 1942).

Low, David, Low’s Autobiography (London, Michael Joseph, 1956).

Punch, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Cartoons from Punch 1843-1881 (London, Punch Office, 1881).

Punch, Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield K. G.: in upwards of 100 cartoons from the collection of "Mr. Punch" (London, Punch Office, 1878).

Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992. Gale Primary Sources.

Punch, The Rt. Hon. W.E. Gladstone M.P. Cartoons from the collection of ‘Mr. Punch’ (London, Punch Office, 1878).

Stead, William Thomas, Gladstone in Contemporary Caricature: Being a Collection of Cartoons (London, Review of Reviews Office, 1898).

The British Cartoon Archive. https://www.kent.ac.uk/library-it/special-collections/british-cartoon-archive

Urquhart, Fred (ed.), W. S. C.: A Cartoon Biography (London, Cassell, 1955).

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Blake, Robert, The Conservative Party from Peel to Major, (London, Faber and Faber, 2012).

Bryant, Mark, ‘Drawing the Line: Fine Art, Caricature and Cartoons in Britain, from Gillray to Scarfe’, The British Art Journal, 20, 2 (2019), pp. 42-52. 

Caraco, Benjamin. « Postérité et usages de Benjamin Disraeli ». MA dissertation under the supervision of Christophe Charle, ENS Cachan/Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, 2009, 91 pages.

Chrétien, Maurice (ed.), Penseurs conservateurs au Royaume-Uni. De Burke au thatchérisme (Lyon, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2008).

Davies, Russell and Liz Ottoway, Vicky (London, Secker and Warburg, 1987).

Evans, Stephen, ‘The not so odd couple: Margaret Thatcher and One Nation Conservatism’, Contemporary British History, 23 (2009), pp. 101-21.

Freeman, James, ‘Neoliberalism and Conservatism in Britain’ in Aled Davies et al. (eds.), The Neoliberal Age? Britain since the 1970s (London, UCL Press, 2021), pp. 254-76. 

Green, E. H. H, The Crisis of Conservatism. The politics, economics and ideology of the British Conservative party, 1880-1914 (London, Routledge, 1995).

Green, E. H. H, Ideologies of conservatism. Conservative Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002).

Haigron, David, ‘Caring’ John Major: portrait of a Thatcherite as a One-Nation Tory’, Observatoire de La Société Britannique, 7 (2009), pp. 177-196.

John-Stevas, Norman St, ‘The Disraeli centenary’, The Listener, 105, 2708 (16 Apr. 1981), pp. 494-497.

Mayer, Sandra, ‘Portraits of the Artist as Politician, the Politician as Artist: Commemorating the Disraeli Phenomenon’, Journal of Victorian Culture, 21, 3 (2016), pp. 281-300.

Meisel, Joseph S, ‘The Importance of Being Serious: The Unexplored Connection between Gladstone and Humour’, History, 84, 274 (1999), pp. 278-300. 

Millat, Gilbert, Le Déclin de la Grande-Bretagne au XXe siècle dans le dessin de presse (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2008).

Millat, Gilbert, ‘L’Histoire en représentation dans le dessin de presse britannique d’après 1945.’ Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, 15, 4 (2010), DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.6137

Morris, Frankie, Artist of Wonderland. The Life, Political Cartoons and Illustrations of Tenniel (Cambridge, The Lutterworth Press, 2005).

Ormond, Leonee, Linley Sambourne. Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist (London, Paul Holberton publishing, 2010).

Rezelman, Betsy Cogger, ‘Frank Bramley’s Primrose Day: A Disraeli Tribute and Artistic Gamble’, Victorian Review, 17, 1 (1991).

Toye, Richard, ‘From ‘Consensus’ to ‘Common Ground’: The Rhetoric of the Postwar Settlement and Its Collapse’, Journal of Contemporary History, 48, 1 (2013), pp. 3-23. 

Vail, Mark I, ‘Between One-Nation Toryism and Neoliberalism: The Dilemmas of British Conservatism and Britain’s Evolving Place in Europe’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 53, 1 (2015), pp. 106-122.

Williamson, Philip, Stanley Baldwin: Conservative Leadership and National Values (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Williamson, Philip, ‘Baldwin’s Reputation: Politics and History, 1937-1967.’ The Historical Journal, 47, 1 (2004), pp. 127-68. 

Wohl, Anthony S, ‘‘Ben JuJu”: Representations of Disraeli’s Jewishness in the Victorian Political Cartoon’, Jewish History, 10, 2 (1996), pp. 89-134. 

Wohl, Anthony S, ‘‘Dizzi-Ben-Dizzi”: Disraeli as Alien’, Journal of British Studies, 34, 3 (1995), pp. 375-411. 

Yates, Louisa and Gary Butler, ‘Representations of Gladstone in the Punch Historical Archive’, (Punch Historical Archive 1841-1992, Cengage Learning, 2014).

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Appendix

Corpus retrieved from the British Cartoon Archive

Annex 1. On Disraeli

W.K. Haselden, ‘People who dine with us for the 1st and last time. No. 14.’, Daily Mirror, 09 May 1914, WH3515.

W. K. Haselden, ‘My memoirs: By the young reminiscencer.’, Daily Mirror, 02 August 1920, WH5479.

W. K. Haselden, ‘The Flapper Stands for Parliament. 9’, Daily Mirror, 28 November 1923, WH1792.

David Low, ‘Stanley’s Exacting Role’, The Star, 3 February 1925, LSE7226.

David Low, ‘Tonight’s Recital at the Albert Hall’, The Star, 6 May 1927, LSE7523.

W. K. Haselden, ‘How like you are to -’, Daily Mirror, 26 January 1928, WH4003.

David Low, ‘Low’s Budget Forecast’, Evening Standard, 19 April 1928, LSE0388.

W. K. Haselden, ‘’Dizzy’ (Westminster)’, Punch, 12 October 1932, WH6886.

Sidney Strube, ‘To-day's march past’, Daily Express, 24 May 1933, GS0253.

W.K. Haselden, ‘Young Mr. Disraeli (Kingsway)’, Punch, 21 November 1934, WH6981.

W.K. Haselden, ‘Young Mr. Disraeli (Kingsway)’, Punch, 21 November 1934, WH6692.

David Low, ‘Low’s Topical Budget’, Evening Standard, 18 April 1936, DL1087.

Leslie Illingworth, ‘Scorn in Egypt’, Daily Mail, 9 May 1946, ILW1086.

Michael Cummings, ‘Perchance to dream’, Daily Express, 21 October 1949, CU0037.

Michael Cummings, ‘Mr. Morrison considers ways and means of winning voters to the Government’, Daily Express, 25 May 1950, CU0418.

Michael Cummings, ‘The Wicked Lord Festival / The Immaculate Foreign Secretary’, Daily Express, 13 July 1951, CU0202.

Joseph Lee, ‘London Laughs: Conservative Riposes. ‘It's most distasteful for him, but he Must read the stuff to think up some snappy back-answers to give 'em at His Party Conference next week.’’, Evening News, 1 October 1953, JL5160.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘’Trust the people’ - MR. L.D. Gammans, Assistant Postmaster-General April 26 1954’, Daily Mirror, 17 May 1954, VY0081.

Michael Cummings, ‘Sacked for calling Bulganin a 'hypocrite'… here's a quick guide on how to describe public figures safely...’, Daily Express, 30 November 1955, MC0165A.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘Sure we've come to the right address, mate?’, Daily Mirror, 24 August 1956, VY0692.

Carl Giles, ‘I beg to dispute your inexhaustible knowledge of world affairs, but Disraeli was not a famous Australian cricketer in 1864.’, Sunday Express, 26 August 1956, GAA101296.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘After all, Sir Anthony, the editor of 'Pravda' became Foreign Secretary ...’, New Statesman, 08 September 1956, VY0711.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘Begging your pardon, Sir, but if this place becomes really unsafe you could always go to the country ...’, Daily Mirror, 23 June 1958, VY1220.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘Marvellous how our Harold has suddenly become the best Prime Minister we've ever had, isn't it?’, Daily Mirror, 5 August 1958, VY1240.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘Oh, jolly good idea to borrow Keir Hardie's cloth cap for this trip’, Daily Mirror, 09 September 1958, VY1273.

Joseph Lee, ‘Bring your boy friend home and introduce him to father, that's what you said! And what happens... all evening nattering POLITICS!’, Evening News, 08 August 1963, 04081.

Michael Cummings, ‘Anyway, you've got to admit I'm not a one-man band!’, Daily Express, 19 November 1965, 42093.

Dick Millington, ‘‘There'll be worse things than 'avin' yer tyres let down when they put you among all them gangs in Lunnon, Clem!’’, Evening Standard, 28 March 1966, 08700.

Nicholas Garland, ‘No Government can be long secure without a formidable opposition (Disraeli)’, Daily Telegraph, 12 July 1966, NG0060.

Nicholas Garland, ‘How can I govern 55,000,000 Tired Tims with 600 Moaning Minnies?’, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 1967, NG0301.

Norman Mansbridge, ‘This is the only way I can understand financial plots or diplomatic ones. How I wish I had a first class mind.’, Punch, 1973, NM0061.

Michael Cummings, ‘Of course I'm taking precautions! The Establishment hated me when they thought I was wrong, but they'll want to massacre me now I've been proved right!’, Daily Express, 28 September 1973, 25152.

Michael Cummings, ‘I would like you to get in touch with these two gentlemen, please!’, Daily Express, 27 February 1975, 27577.

Michael Cummings, ‘Gentlemen! As I've inherited umpteen years of your misrule, you must help me! What on earth shall I do next?’, Daily Express, 25 October 1975, 28633.

Keith Waite, ‘'If you cannot govern, for God's sake go' - Benjamin Disraeli’, Daily Mirror, 07 January 1976, 28913.

Carl Giles, ‘It's no use Mr. Callaghan - you've got to get up and face it sometime.’, Daily Express, 06 April 1976, GA3563.

Steve Bell, ‘If... Wets went around in gangs’, The Guardian, 06 November 1981, SB0005.

Nicholas Garland, [no caption or title], Sunday Telegraph, 12 July 1992, NG4998.

Peter Brookes, [no caption or title], Embedded text: ‘Great Tory Leaders’, The Times, 26 July 2001, 58405.

Dave Brown, [no caption or title], Embedded text: ‘Parliament is recalled to address the vital question of the day...’, The Independent, 3 April 2002, 61277.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], Untitled, unpublished (?), undated, Embedded text: ‘814,632 Unemployed/One Nation’, VY3281.

Annex 2. On ‘One Nation’

Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘’This election has shown that the class war is obsolete.’ - Mr. Macmillan, October, 1959’, Evening Standard, 04 December 1962, 02246.

Stanley Franklin, ‘Harold, I'm the one who gives the organ recitals ...’, Daily Mirror, 05 October 1966, 09748.

Leslie Gibbard, ‘Tell me the one about ‘one nation’ again, Ted’, The Guardian, 16 December 1970, 19228.

Arthur Horner, ‘The Choirmaster’, New Statesman, 18 December 1970, AH0309.

Arthur Horner, ‘One Nation’, New Statesman, 15 January 1971, AH0313.

David Langdon, ‘Mind you, I never did feel comfortable with all that One Nation lark...’, Sunday Mirror, 01 April 1971, LA0133B.

Trog [Wally Fawkes], ‘...And a Happy New Year’, Observer, 23 December 1973, 25519.

Nicholas Garland, ‘Cold Warriors’, New Statesman, 26 September 1975, NG1384.

Steve Bell, ‘If... Wets went around in gangs’, The Guardian, 06 November 1981, SB0005.

Richard Willson, ‘One Nation’, The Times, 02 October 1996, PC0419.

Martyn Turner, ‘The future look of Europe/The future look of the Conservative Party’, Daily Express, 08 December 1996, 50383.

Peter Brookes, [no title or caption], Embedded text: ‘But we Toreens are now a united one-nation force and I will soon be in the ascendant!’, The Times, 04 April 1998, PC3485.

David Haldane, ‘It's made up of them and us’, The Times, 03 October 2012, 97755.

Peter Brookes, ‘One nation ....’, The Times, 03 October 2012, 97751.

Jonathan Pugh, ‘’Good try, Hamza. But soon hopefully that won't include you.'‘, Daily Mail, 04 October 2012, 97330.

Christian Adams, ‘Householders' rights ...’, Sunday Telegraph, 07 October 2012, 97463.

Gerald Scarfe, ‘Two rich posh boys arrive carrying lots of baggage’, Sunday Times, 07 October 2012, 97761.

Gerald Scarfe, ‘Exciting! I should say so ... Can't wait.’, Sunday Times, 17 February 2013, 989362.

Scott [Clissold; Scott], ‘Miliband & Balls. Butchers’, Sunday Express, 17 February 2013, 98320.

Gerald Scarfe, ‘Labour's Spring message’, Sunday Times, 24 March 2013, 98486.

Paul Thomas, ‘Say what you like about Gordon Brown - at least he had a pulse...’, Daily Express, 24 September 2013, PTD0202.

Martin Rowson, ‘Rachel Reeves, boring ...’, The Guardian, 15 October 2013, MRD0347.

Christian Adams, ‘Speech Balloons’, Daily Telegraph, 09 April 2014, 101051.

Morten Morland, ‘Election Platforms’, The Times, 07 June 2014, 101123.

Chris Riddell, ‘Shall I find a hoodie to hug?’, Observer, 07 June 2015, 102635.

Steve Bell, ‘My Right Honourable shit can be rightly proud of his enormous contribution to the modern, compassionate, one nation Conservative government...’, The Guardian, 22 March 2016, SBD1649.

Martin Rowson, ‘One Nation’, The Guardian, 08 August 2016, MRD0866.

Vicky [Victor Weisz], Untitled, unpublished (?), undated, Embedded text: ‘814,632 Unemployed/One Nation’, VY3281.

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Notes

1 Andrew Roberts, Salisbury. Victorian Titan (London, Phoenix Press), pp. 252-253.

2 For tributes to Disraeli in the field of painting, see Betsy Cogger Rezelman, ‘Frank Bramley’s Primrose Day: A Disraeli Tribute and Artistic Gamble.’ Victorian Review, 17, 1, 1991.

3 See the newsreels ‘Primrose Day in London 1916’ (1662.23); ‘Primrose Day 1921’ (232.09); "Primrose Day. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks, New Postmaster General, at Annual Tribute to Lord Beaconsfield" (2430.33); "Primrose Day 1926. Liverpool's tribute to great Statesman" (488.26); ‘Primrose Day 1928’ (724.21), https://www.britishpathe.com/ consulted 18 December 2022. Hughenden Manor, the Disraelian ‘site of memory’ par excellence, was first opened to the public by the Disraelian Society in 1937 and was entrusted to the care of the National Trust from 1947 onwards.

4 Shannon L. Rogers, ‘‘The Past Is a Dream:’ The Neo-Feudalism of Disraeli,’ Victorian Review, 28, 2 (2002), pp. 65-95. 

5 For a thorough survey of the vast body of biographical work on Disraeli and of essays studying his peculiar brand of Toryism assessing its relevance to subsequent historical contexts, see Benjamin Caraco, « Postérité et usages de Benjamin Disraeli ». MA dissertation under the supervision of Christophe Charle, ENS Cachan/Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, 2009, 91 pages.

6 Louis-Napoléon Parker, ‘A Stage Disraeli.’ Times, 5 Apr. 1916, p. 11; ‘The Prime Minister.’ Times, 5 Mar. 1941, p. 6, The Times Digital Archive, Consulted 18 Dec 2022.

7 Norman St. John-Stevas, ‘The Disraeli centenary,’ The Listener, 105, 2708, 16 Apr. 1981, pp. 494-497.

8 Leonee Ormond, Linley Sambourne. Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist, London, Paul Holberton publishing, 2010, p. 33.

9 Frankie Morris, Artist of Wonderland. The Life, Political Cartoons and Illustrations of Tenniel, Cambridge, The Lutterworth Press, 2005, p. 206, p. 255.

10 For studies on Disraeli’s treatment by cartoonists, see Anthony S. Wohl, ‘‘‘Ben JuJu”: Representations of Disraeli’s Jewishness in the Victorian Political Cartoon,’ Jewish History, 10, 2, 1996, pp. 89-134; Anthony S. Wohl, “‘Dizzi-Ben-Dizzi’: Disraeli as Alien,” Journal of British Studies, 34, 3, 1995, pp. 375-411. In a cogent contradiction of Disraeli’s alleged status as culturally and politically alien, Jonathan Parry has shown how much Disraeli was motivated by the preservation of Englishness against ‘Manchesterism’ and its cosmopolitan, utilitarian tendencies. See Jonathan Parry, ‘Disraeli and England,’ The Historical Journal, 43, 3, 2000, pp. 699-728.

11 Ormond, op. cit., p. 127-128.

12 Punch, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Cartoons from Punch 1843-1881, London, Punch Office, 1881. The earliest cartoon representation of Disraeli to be found on the Punch Historical Archive is from 1846, which seems belated, considering that Disraeli’s maiden speech in Parliament was pronounced in 1837. [Gilbert a'Beckett], ‘The Protectionist Don Quixote,’ Punch, 11, 273, 3 Oct. 1846, p. 138, Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992, consulted 19 December 2022.

13 Roberts, op. cit., p. 598.

14 For the entire list of cartoons, see Annex 1. The Punch Historical Archive has also been consulted for the post-1881 period. Only 12 cartoons either mentioning or alluding to Disraeli were identified for that period, and most happened to be reprints from the times when Disraeli was alive. They have not been included in the corpus under study.

15 David Low, Low’s Autobiography, London, Michael Joseph, 1956, p. 146.

16 Ibid., pp. 161-162.

17 Russell Davies and Liz Ottoway, Vicky, London, Secker and Warburg, 1987, p. 140.

18 David Low, ‘Stanley’s Exacting Role’, The Star, 3 February 1925, LSE7226.

19 Michael Cummings, ‘Anyway, you've got to admit I'm not a one-man band!’, Daily Express, 19 November 1965, 42093.

20 Michael Cummings, ‘Mr. Morrison considers ways and means of winning voters to the Government’, Daily Express, 25 May 1950, CU0418.

21 Michael Cummings, ‘Perchance to dream’, Daily Express, 21 October 1949, CU0037.

22 Michael Cummings, ‘I would like you to get in touch with these two gentlemen, please!’, Daily Express, 27 February 1975, 27577.

23 Nicholas Garland, [no caption or title], Sunday Telegraph, 12 July 1992, NG4998.

24 Thatcher’s statue in the Members’ Lobby in the House of Commons was to be unveiled, unusually enough, in her lifetime, after a good deal of debate over whether rules should be bent. Tom Baldwin, Dalya, ‘Iron Lady is turned to stone in Commons,’ Times, 17 Feb. 2001, p. 1. But the statue was decapitated while it was on display in Guildhall, which prompted William Hague to comment that ‘it turned out to be not as resilient as the real thing’. Lewis Smith, Dalya Alberge, ‘How Thatcher lost her head for crimes of state,’ Times, 5 July 2002, p. 9.

25 Michael Cummings, ‘Gentlemen! As I've inherited umpteen years of your misrule, you must help me! What on earth shall I do next?’, Daily Express, 25 October 1975, 28633.

26 Carl Giles, ‘It's no use Mr. Callaghan - you've got to get up and face it sometime.’, Daily Express, 06 April 1976, GA3563.

27 http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml, Consulted Dec 19, 2022. This Labour confiscation was noted in a 1996 cartoon by Richard Willson, showing a triumphant Blair, holding aloft a Union Jack and standing defiantly upon a plinth bearing the ‘One Nation’ inscription. Richard Willson, ‘One Nation’, The Times, 02 October 1996, PC0419.

28 Vicky [Victor Weisz], ‘’This election has shown that the class war is obsolete.’ - Mr. Macmillan, October, 1959’, Evening Standard, 04 December 1962, 02246.

29 Trog [Wally Fawkes], ‘...And a Happy New Year’, Observer, 23 December 1973, 25519.

30 David Langdon, ‘Mind you, I never did feel comfortable with all that One Nation lark...’, Sunday Mirror, 01 April 1971, LA0133B.

31 Leslie Gibbard, ‘Tell me the one about ‘one nation’ again, Ted’, The Guardian, 16 December 1970, 19228.

32 Arthur Horner, ‘The Choirmaster’, New Statesman, 18 December 1970, AH0309.

33 Martyn Turner, ‘The future look of Europe/The future look of the Conservative Party’, Daily Express, 08 December 1996, 50383.

34 Paul Thomas, ‘Say what you like about Gordon Brown - at least he had a pulse...’, Daily Express, 24 September 2013, PTD0202.

35 Christian Adams, ‘Speech Balloons’, Daily Telegraph, 09 April 2014, 101051.

36 Christian Adams, ‘Householders' rights ...’, Sunday Telegraph, 07 October 2012, 97463.

37 David Haldane, ‘It's made up of them and us’, The Times, 03 October 2012, 97755.

38 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/06/theresa-may-paves-way-for-new-generation-of-grammar-schools consulted 19 December 2022.

39 ‘Election results 2019: Boris Johnson’s victory speech in full’, BBC News, 13 December 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50777071 consulted 19 December 2020.

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List of illustrations

Title Illustration 1. Leonard Raven-Hill, Punch, 139, 3646, Nov. 2, 1910
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 668k
Title Illustration 2. John Tenniel, illustration from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, 1871
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-2.jpg
File image/jpeg, 84k
Title Illustration 3. Linley Sambourne, W.E. Gladstone Looking at a Portrait of Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, by Sir J.E. Millais, 1881
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-3.jpg
File image/jpeg, 160k
Title Illustration 4. John Doyle, “What, in parliamentary phrase, may be termed a pair’, 18 July 1839, British Cartoon Archive, Reference number mudxyl9
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-4.jpg
File image/jpeg, 44k
Title Table 1. The main Prime ministers in British cartoons, from the year after they stepped down as PM to the present
Credits Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-5.jpg
File image/jpeg, 196k
Title Table 2. Former British Prime ministers' cartoon afterlives, from one year after their death to the present
Credits Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-6.jpg
File image/jpeg, 204k
Title Table 3. Former British Prime ministers : Number of commemorative plates
Caption *Both plates for Johnson are unofficial, spoof ‘Blue Plates’ intended not to celebrate, but to berate Johnson. In Tony Blair’s case, two of the inventoried plates are commemorative, the third one located in Blackpool and bearing the mention “Tony Blair had his eyes tested here’, obviously falls into the parodical category.
Credits Source: Open Plaques, https://opeplaques.org
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-7.jpg
File image/jpeg, 192k
Title Table 4. Disraeli in cartoons, 1914-2022 : occurrences in time
Credits Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-8.png
File image/png, 8.6k
Title Table 5. Disraeli in cartoons : type of appearances in the 41 cartoons of the corpus
Caption Note that as there is some overlap between the categories, the total (77) exceeds the number of items in the corpus (41).
Credits Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-9.png
File image/png, 14k
Title Illustration 5. W. K. Haselden, “The Flapper Stands for Parliament. 9’, Daily Mirror, 28 November 1923, WH1792
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-10.jpg
File image/jpeg, 104k
Title Illustration 6. Sidney Strube, “To-day's march past’, Daily Express, 24 May 1933, GS0253
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-11.jpg
File image/jpeg, 100k
Title Illustration 7. David Low, “Tonight’s Recital at the Albert Hall’, The Star, 6 May 1927, LSE7523
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-12.jpg
File image/jpeg, 44k
Title Illustration 8. Vicky [Victor Weisz], Untitled, unpublished (?), undated, Embedded text: “814,632 Unemployed/One Nation”, VY3281
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-13.jpg
File image/jpeg, 96k
Title Table 6. “One Nation” in British cartoons, 1962- 2016
Credits Source: The British Cartoon Archive, https://www.kent.ac.uk/​library-it/​special-collections/​british-cartoon-archive
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-14.png
File image/png, 6.5k
Title Illustration 9. Nicholas Garland, “Cold Warriors’, New Statesman, 26 September 1975
Credits NG1384 @Nicholas Garland, whom the author warmly thanks for his kind authorization
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-15.jpg
File image/jpeg, 96k
Title Illustration 10. Martin Rowson, “One Nation”, The Guardian, 08 August 2016
Credits MRD0866 @Martin Rowson, whom the author warmly thanks for his kind authorization
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/docannexe/image/10218/img-16.jpg
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References

Electronic reference

Philippe Vervaecke, Disraeli and “One Nation” in British cartoons, 1914-2016Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique [Online], XXVIII-1 | 2023, Online since 03 February 2023, connection on 11 June 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/10218; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.10218

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About the author

Philippe Vervaecke

Philippe Vervaecke is Professor in British Studies at the University of Lille. He has edited and co-edited a number of volumes on British political history. He works on political culture in the UK from the late Victorian period to the present and on the history of the cartoon in Britain. His latest chapter, entitled ‘’Low’s Zoo’. L’année 1922 vue par le dessinateur de presse David Low’ was published in Élise Brault-Dreux’s L’air du temps de 1922 (Paris, Sorbonne Université Presses, 2022).

Philippe Vervaecke est Professeur des Universités en Civilisation Britannique à l’Université de Lille. Il a dirigé ou co-dirigé un certain nombre d’ouvrages en histoire britannique. Ses recherches portent sur la culture politique en Grande-Bretagne, de la fin de l’ère victorienne à la période contemporaine et sur l’histoire du dessin de presse au Royaume-Uni. Son chapitre le plus récent, « ‘Low’s Zoo’. L’année 1922 vue par le dessinateur de presse David Low » est paru en 2022 dans l’ouvrage dirigé par Élise Brault-Dreux, L’air du temps de 1922 (Paris, Sorbonne Université Presses).

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Copyright

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