This cartoon by Paul Thomas from The Daily Express relates to the phone hacking scandal which is dominating the news in the UK at the moment.
To understand the cartoon, you have to know the idiom to sweep something under the carpet. In literal terms, it means that rather than cleaning the dirt up, you hide it under the carpet or rug, but the expression is generally used figuratively for situations where you want to try to prevent people hearing about something bad or wrong. • FIFA has given every impression of wishing to sweep all allegations of misconduct under the carpet.
BACKGROUND
London's Metropolitan Police has come under fire for failing to follow up inquiries into phone hacking by The News of the World after the Sunday tabloid's royalty correspondent was jailed in 2007 for conspiring with a private investigator to listen in to the voicemails of figures in the royal household. John Yates, an assistant commissioner at the Met, has also been criticized for concluding in 2009 there was not enough evidence to reopen the original investigation into phone hacking at The News of the World after claims the original probe had not gone far enough. Read more >>
VOCABULARY
To sweep the floor, you can either use a broom, or a dustpan and brush, all of which appear in the cartoon.
MORE CARTOONS
The Bloghorn has a good round-up of phone hacking cartoons, as does Cagle.com.
