Orwell That Ends Well

Whilst some members of The Third Estate are veteran bloggers, 2009 was my first year of serious political blogging with the exception of a few articles here and there for Socialist Unity. It is, then, with some trepidation that I follow fellow lefty bloggers such as Phil BC, Andy Newman, Left Outside and Though Cowards Flinch in entering this year’s Orwell Prize. The following are my entries, not necessarily my greatest hits, but the ten I feel best represent the spirit of the prize.

1) An Interview with George Galloway

2) An Interview with Nick Clegg

3) An Interview with George Monbiot

4) An Interview with Tony Benn

5) The Spice of Life

6) A Thousand Splendid Sunnys

7) Though Cowards Flinch and Traitors Sneer, We’ll Fly the Red Flag at an Undetermined Point in the Future

8 ) I Read the News Tomorrow, Oh Boy!

9) The Curious Case of Dana Ali

10) Copenhagen: History is Watching

Given that one of those articles makes the case for the decriminalisation of drugs and that the other is an interview with George Galloway, and given that the judges are a serving police officer and Oona King, I doubt that they will be particularly sympathetic to the positions I’ve taken. However, as Orwell himself said, “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” and it is that spirit that I humbly submit my work to them. A lot of new left-wing blogs – The Third Estate included – entered the fray last year and with any luck the prize will be inundated with progressive talent.