Crichton, Anna, 1957- :[Bill English, economy, prisons and drug legalization]. 31 May 2011

Shows a naked, but for a marijuana leaf, Minister of Finance, Bill English, sitting in a deckchair in a sinking ship called 'HMS New Zealand' looking very relaxed and smoking marijuana. Context - The cartoonist writes that this is a 'caricature of Bill English saying the country was on it's way to economic recovery oh yeah'. The cartoon was drawn to accompany Nick Smith's article 'Pipe dreams not just for potheads' published in NZHerald Business Friday 3 June 2011. Nick Smith writes 'Bill English describe New Zealand's prison system as a fiscal and moral failure'. He continues 'Pot growers should not be in prison, despite their repeated misdemeanours. It's such an egregious example of English's fiscal and moral failure that the Finance Minister really should get on board Norml's bandwagon'. And continues 'English wasn't stoned; at last there appear to be genuine signs of economic recovery... No, the only stoner element in English's environment is his Alice-in-Wonderland dilemma: should he eat the cake labelled "government spending" and grow the economy, or drink the bitter bottle labelled "medicine" and shrink it?' (NZHerald 3 June 2011)

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Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).