In Your Face

1984 – Twenty Years On

In Orwell’s chilling vision of the future of Britain, 1984, the Ministry of Truth was responsible for propaganda. Orwell illustrates this by describing the release to the media of news about the statistics for shoe production. The statistics showed another increase in production.

However, as the protagonist Winston Smith mused, no one knew if the statistics related to left foot shoes, right foot shoes or were for pairs of shoes; indeed no one knew if the statistics were correct and, most damming of all, no one cared.

In 2004 we find ourselves to be in a very similar position. There is a rumour, “doing the rounds”, concerning the latest figures released by the government about the number of homeless people living on the streets of London.

It seems that a “directive” was issued to all the homeless care centres in London, instructing them to hold a party for the homeless of London on the same evening.

The homeless were duly “rounded up” to attend this very philanthropic event. A good time, we assume, was had by all.

On the face of it there is nothing sinister, or worrying, about giving a little warmth and cheer to those on the lowest end of the social ladder. However, there is one piece of information that needs to be added to this “Dickensian tale” of generosity.

The night of the party was the night that statisticians were walking the streets of London, counting the number of people living rough on the streets. These statistics would then be compared to the previous count, to see if the government had reached its target of reducing homelessness.

Needless to say, because a large number of homeless people were attending the special party they were not physically on the streets at the time of the count. Therefore, the statistics for the number of people living rough on the streets of London showed a marked improvement. The government had reached its target!

It seems that Orwell’s vision, although it may have missed the mark by twenty years, has become reality.

Bliar and his team of cronies in New Labour are so adept at lying, that they know that they can do it with impunity; the lies are no longer reported, even when they are no one seems to care.

The result is that Bliar no longer cares what lies are told; so long as it serves the cause of New Labour, and their desire to cling on to power at whatever the cost.