Two letters sum up this year’s Woppened — U.S. — said long time Royal Gazette political cartoonist Peter Woolcock, ‘Undue Sensitivity’.

‘Woppened 18 - The Year in Review 2005-2006’, is an annual collection of Mr. Woolcock’s Royal Gazette>political cartoons.

“Some Woppeneds in the past can have been summarised by a capital letter, the big I for Independence, the R for Recession or Referendum,” Mr. Woolcock said. “This year nearly became summarised by the letters U.S.”

Mr. Woolcock was recently criticised by a member of the House of Assembly for depicting Premier Ewart Brown as fairytale character Aladdin. The cartoon was a comment on then Premier Alex Scott’s take-note motion on Public Access to Information (PATI). Mr. Brown was shown in front of a door marked PATI shouting ‘Open Sesame’.

“If I had drawn the Premier as some nefarious historical character, or some crooked fictional person I could have understood the criticism,” said Mr. Woolcock. “In my book Aladdin was a young man who ended up married to a Princess, inherited all the money, and had a magic carpet and a genie who fulfilled his every desire. I wish I had been Aladdin.

“It makes me wonder what planet some of these people have arrived from that they haven’t seen the way that leaders of much greater countries than Bermuda (in size, if not importance) are dealt with. I have yet to hear any member of Congress or the House of Commons stand up and say, ‘Mr. Speaker today’s cartoon in the newspaper was absolutely disgraceful’. But it happens here.”

In ‘Woppened 18’, Mr. Woolcock manages to bring a fresh laugh to some very old issues. If you get a strong sense of deja vu, you’re not crazy. In one cartoon in the book, Mr. Woolcock actually traced an old one from 1995, and simply added different heads.

We’ll leave it to the true Woolcock fans to figure out which one it was.

“The same topics come around and around,” he said. “The latest thing is the level of the debate in the House. Every so often someone will stand up and say ‘Mr. Speaker I deplore the level of debate in this house. We have sunk to new depths’. Months will pass, and again someone else will stand up and say ‘Mr. Speaker we have plumbed the depths’. Everyone will say, ‘oh, very good.’”

Mr. Woolcock has often been horrified by some very obvious errors of vocabulary in the House of Assembly. In late November, Progressive Labour Party (PLP) backbencher Glenn Blakeney told the House of Assembly the level of debate was getting lower and lower.

“It is an impuni$> on not just the Government but every single member of this chamber when we convey all of this rhetorical hearsay and alike,” said Mr. Blakeney.

“I think what he meant to say was ‘indictment’,” said Mr. Woolcock. “‘Impunity’ means freedom from punishment. If that doesn’t tell you something about the level of debate in the House nothing will.”

While one Member of Parliament might not like Mr. Woolcock’s cartoons, there are still plenty of other people in Bermuda who do.

“It sounds big-headed, but I still get an awful lot of positive feedback from people,” he said. “A lot of people seemed to like the one where the Queen accidentally poured tea on Tony Blair. I am always tickled to get feedback from people.”

When the House is not in session, things can run a little slow for Mr. Woolcock, which is why events like the non-existent Tsunami on Saturday make perfect cartoon fodder.

“This non-Tsunami was a gift, but it happened on Saturday,” he said. “Sometimes something happens and you wonder if it will still be fresh on Friday, after a whole week has passed.”

Sometimes ideas for cartoons come from unlikely places.

Lady Vereker, for example, gave Mr. Woolcock the idea for a cruise ship running aground on David Saul’s coffin. Dr. Saul is well known for plans for his coffin to become a reef after his death.

‘Woppened 18’ is in stores now, just in time to stuff dad’s stocking. The front cover has the inscription taken from one newspaper editor, “If you find an error please note that it was put there on purpose. We try to publish something for everyone and we know how some people are always looking for something to criticise.”