U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s election slogan, “Forward Not Back,” was first used by a cartoon alien in a 1997 episode of The Simpsons television show. The slogan was announced Feb. 3 by Labour Party election coordinator Alan Milburn. It appeared as a campaign catchphrase in “Treehouse of Horror VII,” a Halloween episode of The Simpsons satirizing the 1996 U.S. election. “My fellow Americans,” a cartoon of former U.S. president Bill Clinton says, “we must move forward not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling toward freedom.” There is “no connection” between the Labour campaign and The Simpsons, the party said in a statement. Blair was a guest star in the 2003 episode titled The Regina Monologues, in which The Simpsons visited England.
