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(not satire – it’s the Tories!)
Here’s an extract from George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (my highlights):
“Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And when they become discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontentment led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances.”
Remind you of anything?
Don’t say we weren’t warned!
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Related articles by Tom Pride:
Boost to north England economy as Osborne pledges to reduce duty on whippets
Grant Shapps: I love digging holes as much as I love beer and bingo
Oops! Tory Chair Grant Shapps admits Tories are not hardworking people
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Please feel free to comment.
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Pride's Purge 
Yes.We always knew the rewriting of history and the redefining of words,shall we say ,where spare encompasses necessary for example ,was a salient characteristic of this Government.When I saw this ,being familiar with the book, I genuinely thought was a spoof and a reference to it and took some convincing it was real,I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.
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Exactly the same Orwellian point was made when the National Lottery was started by John Major’s government, but I didn’t notice the subsequent Labour government changing anything! I have never bought a lottery ticket and I never will.
Orwell was right about many things. It’s not about party politics, it’s about the means to control populations, and they are increasingly used by ALL governments.
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…and which party implemented the most wide-ranging liberalisation of gambling laws? – Labour. Have you not noticed the huge number of TV advertisements for online gambling sites?
Once again, it’s a huge mistake to make this just a Tory-bashing issue, it’s far more serious than that, as Orwell foresaw.
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Indeed, it doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government always gets in. If it is true that the only role of national government in a global capitalist economy is to mitigate against the worst excesses of capital (perhaps a forlorn hope that this is possible) then it would be good to hear from the Labour Party what they intend to do to reverse the depreciations of this government, though they remain depressingly silent on that score. However, the level of patronising cynicism displayed by the Tories in issuing this poster is I feel still worthy of partisan note, simply as a tool to encourage Labour to feel that they may have support for radical change, rather than more of the same with a slightly sweeter coating.
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Great point Tom .. and the similarities don’t end with Bingo and beer. The parallels with Nineteen Eighty Four are so strong that I wondered if there was some sort of course in world domination, where the Tories/Washington Consensus/sundry oligarchs and the 0.01% learnt their craft.
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Reblogged this on glynismillward189.
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Such as the supposed threat of terrorist attacks from ‘Eurasia’ and ‘Eastasia’?
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Reblogged this on Vox Political and commented:
Notice that the people are all “them” and “they” in Orwell’s novel, as well as the Tory poster.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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Reblogged this on Same Difference.
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And the fighting over the Middle East…
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Reblogged this on My Blog.
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Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Apart from the references to Nineteen Eighty-Four, the appeal to alcohol and gambling has been a staple of the Conservative’s appeal to the working classes since the 19th century. It was Gladstone, who said that the Liberals lost an election in a torrent of cheap gin after being beaten by the Tories over the issue of pub licensing laws, if I remember. Thatcher initially increased the time pubs could stay open by a half an hour, while back in the 1950s or 60s or the Tories also legalised gambling, or allowed it to expand with the licensed betting shops. It’s all part of a policy of keeping the masses distracted to stop them realising the way they’re being kept poor and exploited.
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syzygysue – I’m not sure you got the point. The fighting in the Middle East was and is real. The terrorism threat governments love to say they are protecting us against is mostly NOT real. Read 1984 again!
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Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.
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I don’t drink, smoke, gamble and don’t watch tv, listen to the radio or read newspapers. I’ll bet I’m not the only one in the UK who has cut themselves off from many of the things that I have. I know as much as I can about how the government, the banks and those who control the government are exploiting us, but what can I, and thousands like me do? I can only see that this tory led coalition are out of office next year and vote for Labour as it’s the only party that we can actually change.
Having said that, that may not happen for me as the Independence vote for Scotland is in 6 months and I intend to vote Yes! Something has to change, and, if the vote is yes then that change can start in the rUK as well. If it’s a no vote, then the face of politics will never be the same again.
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Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
Never read 1984 before but I’m going to download it for my kindle now…
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Are you saying that you live in Scotland, and you think Labour is the only party that we can actually change? Are you kidding? If that’s what you think then maybe it’s about time you started watching TV, listening to the radio and reading newspapers! Because you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
Try to get to grips with some current affairs, and then maybe you’ll have some sensible opinions. Reading 1984 will help put some of them into perspective. I might even go so far as to say that anybody who hasn’t read 1984 doesn’t have a valid opinion.
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This government seems to regard 1984 as a handbook.
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