This cartoon by Adams from The Daily Telegraph plays on the title of the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. In the cartoon, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is shown as Bond in a typical Bond movie title sequence. However, he slips/trips and falls on his behind, shooting himself in the foot in the process (which may explain the blood in the final frame!).
EXPLANATION
A pratall is the act of falling down, usually on one's bottom/behind/buttocks, especially when this is funny or embarrassing. However, by extension a pratfall can also be an embarassing accident or mistake, and Cameron's government has had/made plenty of those in the last week. There's been the energy fiasco, the resignation of the Chief Whip, and the George Osborne train incident (aka, The Great Train Snobbery), to name but three.
IDIOM
If you shoot yourself in the foot, you do or say something stupid which causes problems for you. • He shot himself in the foot by suggesting that women politicians were incompetent.
READ MORE
• We need a vision for energy – not this fiasco (The Guardian)
• Government chief whip Andrew Mitchell resigns (The Telegraph)
• Cameron under pressure after bad week (Irish Times)
• Cameron on ropes after "catastrophic" week (Reuters)
• Plebgate: ridiculed and restless, the Tories reel from a terrible week (The Guardian)
