Cumbria Day

It has been a good week for cartoonists, with horse meat turning up in everything and the pope resigning (rumours that Tony Blair is taking on the role is untrue as he considers it a step down).

Some of this appears in this week's Westmorland Gazette. Not the pope, unfortunately, as the Gazette doesn't yet have a Vatican correspondent.

The other three stories were more snow, high levels of gambling and Cumbria Day. The latter was a superb marketing exercise in which the entire population of Cumbria went to Westminster to lobby government ministers to do something or other.

Here are the ideas I pitched to my steamed editor. 

Feel free to vote for the one you think he should have chosen to grace today's front page. 

Then trot along to my website and see if you were right.

Catching Up

These are the cartoon sketches from last week's Westmorland Gazette newspaper cartoon. The stories were an interesting bunch:

An international cartoon festival is being stage in Kendal (see my blog about it here).

A couple were rescued and airlifted by helicopter to local hospital after falling down a railway embankment during an 'amorous encounter'.

More snow forecast to arrive at the weekend (it didn't).

More on the Honister Zipwire.

And finally, the local council makes a mistake on disabled parking charges and is forced to pay it all back.

Edinburgh Science Festival 3 - An afternoon at the Museum

This is the 3rd in a series of blogs from the Edinburgh International Science Festival. Myself and six other bloggers will be writing about the event during the fortnight.

One of the themes of the Edinburgh Science Festival is climate change. From volcanoes and earthquakes to flooding and weird weather … well, we had some of that in the city itself last week.

After a lovely, sunny Monday, Tuesday's weather did a 180 degree turn and provided rain, sleet, hail, sunshine and snow. Usually all within an hour and it continued for most of the day. That's all the excuse I needed to meet up with fellow Science Festival blogger Kate Adamson for a coffee and then head off to spend the afternoon at the National Museum of Scotland with a sketchbook. 

Here are some of the results:

Snowboard

As snow settles on the Lake District, turning it into a winter wonderland (© WaltDisney) the thoughts of residents turns to one thing: Grit. Or the lack of it on the roads.

Elsewhere, geese are being culled, A-boards are being banned and new chairman is being parachuted into a failing NHS Trust. 

Yes, it’s all the news that’s fit to print in this week’s soaraway Westmoreland Gazette and therefore grist to the cartoonist’s light blue Studio 33 Derwent pencil.

Below are the cartoons with which I confronted my editor. Did he choose the right one? Only you can decide - add your comments below and then check out my website after midday to see if you were correct and whether you're the winner of this week’s star prize.*

“That should get round the A-board ban.”

“It’s our allocation of grit from the Council.”

“I came in as a patient but by the time I got to the head of the queue I’d qualified as a doctor.”

“As you’re a member of the NHS Trust, this is my prescription.”

“The new NHS Trust chairman certainly means business.”

* there isn't one