Tag Archives: george orwell

Paul Walter

Is George Orwell’s view of England still true?

By Paul Walter | Tue 1st September 2015 - 7:54 pm

George-orwell-BBCOver on the (unaffiliated) Journeyman blog there is a review of George Orwell’s collection of essays called Why I write, which was originally published in 1946.

The review quotes a couple of passages where Orwell makes observations about England. (I apologise that these opinions are very specifically given about England only, rather than the country as a whole).

The first passage is about the artistic and intellectual characteristics of the English:

Here are a couple of generalizations about England that would be accepted by almost all observers. One is that the English are not gifted artistically…the English are not intellectual… another English characteristic which is so much a part of us that we barely notice it, and that is the addiction to hobbies and spare-time occupations, the privateness of English life… The most hateful of all names in an English ear is Nosey Parker.
(The Lion & The Unicorn pp14-16)

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 32 Comments
Stephen Lloyd

Stephen Lloyd MP’s maiden speech

By Stephen Lloyd | Sun 13th June 2010 - 1:49 pm

Yesterday we brought you maiden speeches from Stephen Gilbert and Michael Crockarty; here today we have Stephen Lloyd and later we will have Ian Swales. We are reposting maiden speeches here for the information of our online community, so that people can read and comment on what our MPs choose to use as their first words in Parliament.

I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden speech this evening. It has been a privilege to listen to so many of my colleagues making their maiden speeches. I mention particularly the previous three speeches-from Mark Reckless, who has deep …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 21 January 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 21st January 2010 - 8:30 am

1920s woman in silk kimono smoking using a cigarette holderGood morning and welcome to Daily View. If you submit a tax return, there are hardly any days left to get on with it.

On this day in 1908, New York City voted to ban women from smoking in public. Two years ago, Black Monday did a number on the world’s stock markets.

In birthdays, we sing a song to Commander in Chief star Geena Davis and Christian Dior, who were born today.

And in deaths, we remember George Orwell – and use him as an excuse to pimp this link – a cartoon that fears that when it comes to dystopias, it was Aldous Huxley who nailed it, rather than George Orwell.

2 Big Stories

Stop the presses!

Men are wearing shorts in the snow in New York.

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , and | 5 Comments
The Voice

Final call for Lib Dem bloggers: Orwell Prize 2009 for blogs

By The Voice | Sat 10th January 2009 - 3:44 pm

It’s almost a month since we first alerted LDV readers to the following:

The deadline to enter the Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is fast approaching: 14th January 2009. Submissions are invited for work published between 1st January 2008 and 31st December 2008 (inclusive).

It won’t surprise you to know that, with the elapse of a month, the deadline is even faster approaching. Of special interest, perhaps, to Lib Dem bloggers is the new Blog Prize:

In the year that we have made George Orwell a blogger, the Orwell Prize is delighted to announce a Special Prize for

…

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Posted in News and Online politics | Also tagged | 1 Comment
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