Flushed away

I don’t know what it is about cartoons and toilets. There’s a preconception that the two should always go together. Whenever I give someone a cartoon original, the next time I visit I find it hanging in the loo.

It’s the same with topics in the Westmorland Gazette newsroom. Toilet story? Save that one for Colin. And the weird thing is, they’re usually good stories to do - and not for reasons of scatological humour. One of the best in recent years has been the local council’s decision to close public toilets. A stroke of genius for a tourist area, where coach loads of straining bladders arrive on an hourly basis.

Yesterday’s hot toilet topic was a little different, however. United Utilities has announced that Cumbria is one of the worst places in the country for inappropriate items flushed down the toilet. These include such delights as mobile phones, traffic cones, television sets, false teeth, cuddly toys, artificial limbs and goldfish. * 

I did once drop a USB pen down the toilet but it was just a flash in the pan.

Ahem. The water company has started a What Not To Flush campaign. I look forward to the TV adverts and hope they come up with a catchy jingle. A Miller & Armstrong style musical number would be good.

Whilst we’re all sitting around waiting for that, here are my cartoon sketches on the story. As ever, the editor’s choice appears on the front page of today’s Westmorland Gazette and on my website.

* I may have added a couple.