Orwell and Socialists
The press is overloaded recently in latching on to the recent improvement in the performance of Ed Miliband. For God’s sake! It would have taken a ‘blithering’ idiot to miss the ‘open goal’ of the Murdoch phone hacking scandal.The Milibandians are far from idiots, but despite that, David Cameron must still be praising God that he doesn’t have the other Ed (Balls) opposite him at the dispatch box.
With the possible exception of Balls, and his deceptively able wife, there are few in the shadow cabinet that inspire much confidence of a turnaround at the next election. Like me, working class people throughout the UK must be in despair.
I have been re-reading Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, and while some of Orwell’s opinions are no longer relevant, much of what he wrote remains remarkably prescient. Chapter 11 in particular makes very entertaining reading if you substitute Islamic Fundamentalism for Fascism, and Industrial Regeneration for Rearmament. When you analyse what George said at the time you can’t help saying, ‘How did we end up where we have ended up?’
After the spectacular implosion of the Tory party in 1997, it seemed inconceivable at that time that we would ever see a Conservative government again within the lifetime of many voters (especially those in their thirties and beyond).For goodness sake, how can socialism have failed to consolidate itself as the de-facto ideology in British politics? Well, many books have been written since Wigan Pier and many writers will make a good living in the future theorising upon the recent failure of socialism. However, forget the prevailing global economic and political turmoil, it is almost certainly the case that, as Orwell wrote, “…the problem with socialism is the socialists themselves”.
Just take a look at the current Labour shadow cabinet. With just a few exceptions it is exactly as Orwell described. The majority resemble, to use Orwell’s words “youthful snobs”, or maybe, “a prim little man…secret teetotaller with vegetarian leanings’. What happened to the ferocious looking working men with raucous voices whom Orwell describes? People like Aneurin Bevan or Denis Healey, or more recent stalwarts like Robin Cook and David Blunkett? One thing’s for certain, you won’t find them in the current shadow cabinet.
Reading further into chapter 11 of Wigan Pier, Orwell further describes socialists (or more specifically, the socialists commonly found in the south of the country) as, “…every fruit juice drinker, nudist, sandal wearer, sex maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist and feminist in England”. Despite chuckling each time I read that sentence, I have to accept that Orwell’s thoughts, though relevant at the time, are extreme in a modern context. However (as I raise my eyebrows), have a guess to which modern labour politicians the sandal wearing feet in the photographs below belong to.
