This map was created by Patrick Barlow as part of the book Spitting Image, edited by Fluck Law and Roger Law in 1985. The book followed the huge success of the British television programme of the same name, which poked fun at current affairs in the United States using puppets.

The map, with its strong satirical undertones, aims to show the more nationalistic view of the British Conservative Party, the Tories, during Margaret Thatcher's government. The legend is the first point where this becomes evident:

• Rosa: All territories considered British.
• Dark pink: All territories under the administration British.
• Purple: All territories that once were British.
• Light yellow: All territories that should to be British.

All this is accompanied by a multitude of politically incorrect details, very much in line with the programme “Spitting Image”:

• The United Kingdom appears oversized, with a marked separation between Scotland and England.
• Instead of London, the capital is in Chelsea, the wealthiest neighbourhood in London.
• The Falkland Islands appear oversized on the map, just three years after the war with Argentina.
• The entire Iberian Peninsula is marked as Gibraltar (and part of the United Kingdom).
• The north of South America is labelled as British Honduras.
• The Soviet Union is marked as a territory that should be under the sea, as is Malta (labelled as a communist island).
• All of Central Africa appears with pejorative names, many of them alluding to the colonial era and even slavery.
• All former Portuguese colonies are labelled as Portugal and marked as territories that were once British.

This map left no one indifferent.

Sources

• The Tory Atlas of the World – The World: Political
• Spitting Images