Bush-hatred sinks to new low

Artist Jonathan Yeo, son of Conservative MP Tim Yeo, has produced a portrait of George W Bush that is made up of images from pornographic magazines.  Mr Yeo, an opponent of the Iraq war, told Britain's Sun newspaper that he produced his 'porn-trait' for fun and not to offend.  "I'm pleased with it," he said.  He went further to Ben Brogan who broke the story on his blog yesterday:

"Bush is someone who doesn't seem to react to criticism on any kind of intellectual or philosophical level so you find yourself resorting to schoolboy humour to get his attention.  This is not about the Iraq war or about his policies. This is just about him. It's supposed to be amusing rather than offensive, to make people smile rather than change their political views."

Juvenile Bush-hatred is hardly new to Britain.  The fact that the BBC posted a picture of Bush as Hitler on its newsroom wall was highlighted in a BritainAndAmerica video.

Comments

[Ken Stevens]

Looks like "Painting by Numbers" to me.

...But then I always was naïve and unworldly!

[Ken Stevens]

... and was there anything symbolic in the anti-spam letter sequence flashed up when posting the previous?
--gayjut!!

[Donal Blaney]

Is Jonathan Yeo the illegitimate son of Tim Yeo arising from his infidelity during the Major years that side-tracked Major's back to basics campaign?

[banboris]

this is not a new low

Bush is a figure of fun for most of the world, including America. Only Laura and Tim still like him.

[banboris]

Steady Donal - he was born in 1970!

[banboris]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

[Peter]

he was born in 1970!

From a pretentious young artist, this would be par for the course. From someone verging on forty it's pathetic.

[Guido Fawkes]

I think it was Hugo Rifkind who actually broke the story last week.

[Tim Montgomerie]

Thanks for that correction, Guido.

[IRJMilne]

It's stupid and tacky. I'm not sure that it's a "new low" though, because it's not important. People in offices and classrooms across Britain say just as stupid stuff about Bush.

And it is hard not to be anti-Bush, or at least embarassed by him. Britain used to run the world, led by men like William Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Sir Winston Churchill - and now we're run by this uncultured American buffoon. Leftists hate Bush - the politically naive masses, of which Jonathan Yeo is apparently part, merely deride him out of a complicated mixture of ignorance, patriotism, etc.

Incidentally, if this is the sort of thing Jonathan Yeo habitually produces, he is an "artist", in inverted commas, not an artist.

[John Ionides]

Well, I think that it is quite tastefully done given the medium in question and it is a witty response to the artist being snubbed.

[Tony Makara]

It rather looks like a face about to fragment. However I try to look at the picture I can't seem to see the pornographic images. I wonder though whether Mr Yeo's use of bodies engaged in the life-affirming act of sex is a deliberate play on the countless lifeless bodies in the morgues of Iraq?

[james g smith]

There are lots of people who, albeit quietly, like Bush very much.

[Tony Makara]

James, I agree with you, most anti-Bush sentiment stems from Iraq, prior to Iraq George Bush had a lot of goodwill behind him, particularly after 9/11. Bush is now seen as being in a loop and defending an indefensible position.

[atheling]

Hating George Bush is not a political position. It's a tic.

[albion]

As an artist, & I use that term in its loosest sense, the young Mr Yeo is almost as talented as his father.

Still, what is the son of a failed politican to do? Get a job?

The liberal left wing in Great Britain used to be a part of the same political spectrum as the democratic, patriotic right wing.

You could have a beer with them, argue the toss, have a laugh & move on.

Not any more - they seem hellbent on siding with any cause that sports an "anti American / Stop Bush / the West is Evil" teeshirt - & this will be remembered in the times to come.

When push comes to shove, I will be in the same trench as the chaps in cowboy boots & stetsons drinking Budweiser, not in the other camp sporting a beard, a frock & a bad attitude towards women & the 21st century.

I for one believe that President Bush, like President Reagan, will be remembered more fondly when he is gone, & his achievements revisited with fresh perspective.

[peter whittle]

'Bush is someone who doesn't seem to react to criticism on any kind of intellectual or philosophical level...'

ie, doesn't listen to me

[Outraged of Tunbridge Wells]

All so po-faced and thin-skinned. It's ridiculous.

[Denise]

People on the left use Iraq as an excuse to hate Bush but really he was hated in 2000 before the war in Iraq and before 9/11. For one thing, they're just angry that Gore didn't get the White House. Secondly, let's just face it. Anyone who not only mentions God but claims to BELIEVE in God, claims to be a Christian, is against abortion and believes homosexuality is wrong, just isn't popular these days. Especially if that person lives in the Southern US and has a Southern accent. And it doesn't matter how intelligent that person really is or how well he or she speaks. He or she will always be labeled ignorant and uneducated all for not sharing the left's view of things.

And as for the war in Iraq, it's much more popular to let a brutal dictator kill his own people without trying to stop it and not care about THOSE dying people, isn't it? Because when our soldiers and media weren't there, all THAT suffering was out of sight, out of mind, eh?

[Steevo]

"Not any more - they seem hellbent on siding with any cause that sports an "anti American / Stop Bush / the West is Evil" teeshirt - & this will be remembered in the times to come.

"When push comes to shove, I will be in the same trench as the chaps in cowboy boots & stetsons drinking Budweiser, not in the other camp sporting a beard, a frock & a bad attitude towards women & the 21st century."

You'd be welcome in my US home for a nice cup of coffee too albion.

[Steevo]

Denise, you’re really touching on stuff there's a load of denial over. You're the one who doesn't get it. Tony Blair and George W Bush are guilty. Its fact: the power to cast a spell of self-pity, delusion and raw prejudice.

[Frogg, USA]

This is nothing. Personally, I think putting Bush's picture in the bottom of urinals in government buildings (forgot which country did that) was much worse.

The world doesn't hate Bush because he is Bush. They hate him because he is the symbol for America. They also hate a 'strong American leader' more than a 'weak American leader'; but, that's the topic for another thread.

History will give Bush a favorable report.

[mamapajamas]

Steevo, it isn't "denial" to point out that Bush was VERY unpopular in Europe from the start, and I'd like to add to Denise's comment that the UK is becoming more and more "Eurofied".

I REMEMBER arguing with Germans and French posters around the Web that the US Electoral College system was set up to keep the country from being ruled with an iron fist by a dozen or so densely populated cities. Their outrage started THEN, not during the lead-up to the Iraq War. They had wanted Gore to win.

What is so frightening about that is that they never seemed to understand what a complete moron Gore is.

[Steevo]

You miss understood me Mama, I was being facetious with the Euro capacity for denial. Denise goes to deep-seeded prejudices existing in the their mind-set. Every point she makes I agree with.

[Nizhinsky]

I agree with many members that this is hardly 'a new low'. Yeo, as he said, was just having a bit of fun. It's not a political portrait.

I disagree with Steevo however over why people hate Bush. I think many Americans dislike having a simpleton as their head of state, and many individuals both side of the pond dislike him largely because of the administration's foreign policy, which barring the very noble pursuit in Afghanistan has been bloody, disasterous and needless.
I would like to remind everyone that even Francis Fukuyama has jumped the neocon ship due to the spectacular failure of the administration to achieve its ends.

As for Bush on Hitler's body - just says it all about the BBC really. And we pay for that with our taxes!

PX