I’ve been editing the manifesto and made a few changes to some of the pages, which can be seen in the gallery below In total I only ended up changing 8 pages and most of these were the pictures already included and of where I added the barrel of a gun. With some of the pages I removed the gun entirely and added something else, with others I just adjusted the size of the gun barrel.

Here is a list of the changes that I made:

Page 10: I changed the picture from US dollars to English notes. This seemed to make more sense because obviously the currency in England is the pound sterling and not the dollar. So by using the image of £10 and £20 notes it makes it more relevant to English culture. I decided to keep the theme of money because with the wording “our commitment goes further” produces the message that they will go further for money and this is what motivates the Conservatives.

Page 27: I made the gun smaller and from a different angle. I thought the gun looked too dominant and out of place, so it just needed to be made smaller and it still delvers the same message that someone is forced to look happy and to be working.

Page 37: Again, just a reduction in the size of the gun barrel as before it was too domineering.

Page 45: Same again, the gun barrel was too big and looked odd.

Page 51: Again, I changed the size of the gun barrel but also had the gun on the left hand side instead of the right. The image now looks as if he is staring down the barrel of a gun and that he is holding his child protectively, which is at odds from his happy and smiling face.

Page 67: I changed the mugs over to be mugs of Hitler and I removed the gun barrels. I think that the gun barrels never really worked with this image and so they needed to be changed. I like the subtlety of the mugs being Hitler mugs because it’s not so direct as the gun barrels, but still shows dissent.

Page 69: Again, I removed the gun barrels but added a Nazi swastika to the flag. Again, the guns didn’t really add anything but by adding the Nazi symbol to the flag the young people are wrapped in can be seen as a sinister reminder of the Hitler youth.

Page 74: I changed the picture from a youth sitting on a step, to a child working in a factory as I felt this better reflected the statement. I felt that this was more relevant to the actual statement than having a youth sitting on a step.

Overall, even though some of the changes have been small, I think they have improved the manifesto. The narrative of suppression, power, strength and abuse, which are needed to produce Utopia runs through the document, and even though the statements on their own can be inspirational, they can just as easily be undermined and their definition warped. I appreciate the cynicism that such thinking produces and in many ways the production of this manifesto is steeped in the cynicism of challenging the narrative which is normally forced upon us.

I think this is the underlying theme of this project, my own cynicism towards politicians who promise so much and never deliver. The vision of living in a society where liberty and equality are both equal is attractive, but the vision of Utopia achieves that balance for just the ruling class and is built upon the hard labour of class that is being ruled.

With the gallery below, the old images are on the left and the new images are on the right.