
Published 12 January
This cartoon marked a turning point, in that I’d been trying out various ways of doing Cameron, from man boobs through to jellyfish, and this seemed a natural development. It said a great deal about his smoothness, but opened up a lot of new, symbolic and rubbery possibilities. By way of a bonus, Cameron does not favour the depiction. He came up to me at a Spectator party at the Tory conference in October, and asked me how long I was going to carrry on with it, before advising me: “You can only push a condom so far”.
© Steve Bell 2010/Guardian

Published 23 February
Gordon Brown had another dismal year, but the absurdity of the attack on him for alleged bullying was hard to beat.
© Steve Bell 2010/Guardian

Published 13 May
The coming of the coalition. During the campaign, just down the road from where I live, I spotted a splendid addition someone had made to a billboard poster of Cameron speaking to the people: “You’re my butler now!”, a reference to the sinister, surreal and wonderful madness of the League of Gentlemen. I felt obliged to respond in some way.
© Steve Bell 2010/Guardian

Published 10 June
After Brown disappeared and the coalition began to run riot, the Labour party began an intensive period of navel-gazing, in the form of a very long and drawn out leadership contest. It’s always nice to have fresh, meaty characters to draw, but I was clearly having problems drawing the older Miliband, so it’s just as well the younger one won.
© Steve Bell 2010/Guardian