Saturday, May 18, 2013

George Orwell. Part Eight.



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I am, in this series, trying to illustrate  that  what George Orwell wrote in his book,'Nineteen Eight-Four'is almost a blueprint of the World we are now living in.

In 2007, The Centre For Policy Studies published a thirty page book that promised to translate' politicians speak' into plain English.The dictionary actually calls politicians language' Newspeak.' This is one of George Orwell's expressions.

The Director of the Centre For Policy Studies, Jill Kirby, had this to say:

"The government when talking about a problem has come to mean the same thing as doing something about it.."  She also said that when a politician says,"Let me finish"all he really means is that he will continue talking so that you cannot ask any more difficult questions.

Are these Governments by the people and for the people?

Here are a few random examples of the Newspeak talked by politicians.

In the Chilcot farce Jack Straw was asked by Sir Rober Lyne the following:

"What was the general view that you were getting from your Ambassadors around the Middle East about the likely consequences if military action was taken to topple( hang, in public, as it eventually turned out) Saddam Hussain?"

Jack Straw replied,"Well, it varied is the answer, but there was a constant theme in the advice"
There we have a good example of modern Newspeak. Varied and constant in one sentence.
It really could have come out of the pages of a Stephen Potter book, or out of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.

If you read Britain's Labour Party's webpage, it claims that one of its policies is to make sure that wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.
On 6.12.2004 John Carvel in the Guardian wrote an article that included the following:
'The wealth of the super-rich has doubled since Tony Blair came to power(Office For National Statistics)',.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in an article written on 16.7.07, based on a study done by the organization, Britain is moving backwards towards levels of inequality in wealth and poverty last seen more than 40 years ago, and that the rich and poor are living further apart.

Members of Parliament earn about ( not counting allowances) three times the average pay. of a 'normal citizen'.
But of course they are worth it, because they make every ones lives so much better don't they?

Now here's a classic. Tony Blair on 30.11.1995 in a speech at the Victoria and Albert Museum:

"We are on the side of ordinary people, against privilege, against vested interest of the public or the private sector".

His first speech from Downing Street on 2.5. 97 is another gem:

" It will be a government that seeks to restore trust in politics in this country".

But the following must win the prize as being the absolute opposite of what was said:

"We are not the masters."He said on 7.5.97."The people are the masters now.We are the servants of the people.We will never forget it".

Never forget it?

There are more from this weaver of guile, deception and spin.How about the following?

" I think most people who have dealt with me, think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy and I am".

Or this whopper:" The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on weapons of mass destruction is itself the real lie".

This is straight Orwell.

One final one:

On 7.4 95 he told the Daily telegraph that he couldn't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves.

On 4.3. 2006 though, he said to Michael Parkinson on his T.V. show,"I think if you have faith about these things, we realize judgement is made by other people, and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well"

It's frightening that this guy is back in the British Political scene.Perhaps he can smell blood from a war that might be next on the agenda.Blood and money, of course.

Part 9 of this series on George Orwell will follow shortly. Here is my song, ' George Orwell'. Just click on the link here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szSamQJKBTM

By Mike Selley.




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