‘Rule Britannia in splendid isolation.’ On 30 March 1984, following the failure of the Brussels European Council of 19 and 20 March, Fritz Behrendt, a Dutch cartoonist originally from Berlin, paints an ironic picture of the intransigence of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the question of the British contribution to the European Community budget. Several allegorical and patriotic British symbols are used to emphasise the firm stance of the ‘Iron Lady’. Margaret Thatcher is depicted as ‘Britannia’, the female personification of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, wearing a helmet and armed with a three-pronged fork and a shield, accompanied by a roaring lion and by the defiant figure of John Bull, another allegorical representation of the UK. The phrase on the banner, which refers to a patriotic British song, illustrates Margaret Thatcher’s determination to keep the United Kingdom separate from European affairs.