George Orwell really is the gift that keeps on giving. Am using Vol. 1 of his collected journalism as my kitchen-and-lavatory book at the moment, and just rediscovered this gem (translating Stalin’s show trials into 1938 British terms): “Mr Winston Churchill, now in exile in Portugal, is plotting to overthrow the British Empire and establish Communism in England. By the use of unlimited Russian money he has succeeded in building up a huge Churchillite organization which includes members of Parliament, factory managers, Roman Catholic bishops and practically the whole of the Primrose League. Almost every day some dastardly act of sabotage is laid bare – sometimes a plot to blow up the House of Lords, sometimes an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the Royal racing-stables. Eighty per cent of the Beefeaters at the Tower are discovered to be agents of the Comintern. A high offical of the Post Office admits brazenly to having embezzled postal orders to the tune of £5,000,000 and also to have commited lèse-majesté by drawing moustaches on postage stamps. Lord Nuffield, after a seven-hour interrogation, confesses that ever since 1920 he has been fomenting strikes in his own factories. Casual half-inch paras in every issue of the newspapers announce that fifty more Churchillite sheep-stealers have been shot in Westmorland or that the proprietress of a village shop in the Cotswolds has been transported to Australia for sucking the bulls-eyes and putting them back in the bottle. And meanwhile the Churchillites (or Churchillite-Harmsworthites as they are called after Lord Rothermere’s execution) never cease from proclaiming that it is they who are the real defenders of capitalism and that Chamberlain and the rest of his gang are no more than a set of Bolsheviks in disguise.” The next paragraph begins “Anyone who has followed the Russian trials knows that this is scarcely a parody.” And the next article – another book review – refers to “the middle-class Socialist who accepts Marx as his prophet – literally a prophet, a tipster who not only tells you which horse to back, but also provides the reason why the horse didn’t win.” We shall not see his like again.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 21:14:19 +0000
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