Wednesday 18 May 2016

Cocytus Brexit

Apologies, this is very derivative. However, it highlights the moribund nature of UK politics.

A cartoon by Steve Bell in The Guardian makes an amusing point about the opposing sides in the UK Brexit debate. The cartoon, based on an image by Gustave Doré, depicts the ever more corpulent and bombastic Boris Johnson, ex-Mayor of London and now Conservative member of parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip on the 'Leave' side, together with David Cameron, UK prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party fronting the 'Stay' campaign. The principal claim to fame of the latter is that he can talk to the Queen in her own accent. Unless you are brought up correctly, you just carnt say 'house' proper, like.

Cocytus is the name of Doré's image, and Wikipedia notes that Cocytus, or Kokytos, means "the river of wailing" or "lamentation" in the underworld of Greek mythology. Cocytus flows into the river Acheron, across which is the mythological abode of the dead.

Many may nevertheless survive the Brexit debate and the UK vote on 23 June, rather than perish. The debate will open up a panoply of misconceptions that offers sustenance to purveyors of all kinds of degenerate imperial nonsense.

Tony Norfield, 18 May 2016


No comments: