[William McKinley]

If if he had recovered from TB, and you and I had been sitting with him five years later, I think he might have said 'It was a mistake'."

Or, he might have said "I was right". Orwell hated communists, Mr. Ash.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Ah yes, the left's continuing struggle to keep Orwell as one of "theirs", and in doing so keep 1984 as a vision of the right in power. (despite all evidence to the contrary)

[freebilly]

the comedian Charlie Chaplin, the bestselling novelist JB Priestley, the actor Michael Redgrave, the Soviet historian EH Carr, the historian of Trotsky, Isaac Deutscher, and the leftwing Labour MP Tom Driberg.

You mean they weren't commie symps?

[henderson field]

Was Chuck Schumer's name on that list?

[T'wit]

I just sent the story to a retired intelligence agent who's a living encyclopedia in the field. I'll be interested in his take. I myself don't see any "mistakes."

[headsonpikes]

"I was right."

I suppose that all the scurrying leftist rats will now paint Orwell as a McCarthyite.

That might prove to be a two-edged sword. ;^)

[irv]

"What remains unsettling about the actual list sent to Celia is the way in which this symbol of political independence and journalistic honesty is drawn into collaboration with a bureaucratic department of propaganda, however marginal the collaboration"

What would be unsettling about this whole article, if it were not so common, is the assumption that taking a stand against the total evil of Communism is inconsistent with "journalistic honesty."

Note the use of the word "collaboration." One collaborates with oppressors, such as the Nazis after they conquered France. If he had named patriots opposed to Communism, he would not be a collaborator, but a hero.

[Savage Beast]

Orwell was brilliant and visionary--unlike the lunatics at The Guardian.

Also unlike them, he recognized Marxism/communism/socialism as the prototype of the horrifying world he described in 1984 and Animal Farm (something that is beyond the comprehension of the lunkheads at The Guardian, who obviously can't grasp reality much less learn from experience).

"Liberals"/socialists/communists ignore that fact that 1984-type totalitarianism is a requisite and an essential part of the Marxist "paradise" that they envision.

They also ignore the fact that it has always failed and that failure is inherent in its concept.

They also ignore the fact that Animal Farm is an inevitability to the revolution that they envision.

The jerks at The Gardian are so lost in their "Liberal" delusions (I know; it's a redundancy) that they cannot understand this either:

Orwell was much smarter than they are, and

Orwell knew what he was doing.

[Prodigal Son]

What the Guardian fails to mention here is why Orwell was up to turning in names of communists in the first place. It wasn't for love. This is to demean his reasons.

Orwell was a hardcore leftist who went off to fight against Franco in Spain. He was wounded their by a sniper. He believed in the leftist cause. But then he saw that the communists were not interested in uplifting the little man but simply in attaining power and they were willing to be just as or more ruthless as any other despot to get it.

This was an epiphany for Orwell. He devoted his writing thereafter to trying to demonstrate what was wrong with Marxist movement. It's the leftists own fault that he came out hard against them after Spain. He meant his books as a warning against the very ideology he had held dear and for which he had shed blood.

[Southack]

Blair once proposed marriage to Celia Kirwan, but the fact that should resonate with spy-watchers is that Celia had a twin sister (twins are beloved by spy agencies) who was not so coincidentally married to Arthur Koestler, the author of that other famous disquisition on Stalinism, Darkness at Noon.

Thus, *both* 1984 and Darkness had more than a little connection to MI6, and both turned out to be rather true, though in the case of Blair/Orwell's 1984 slam against the Soviets, perhaps it should have been called 1989 (i.e. the year the CCCP finally collapsed). He only missed it by 5 years.

And for the record, McCarthy was right, too.

[witnesstothefall]

Good communist = dead communist.

The subversion is deep. It has been decades since the Left has won the 'right' to subvert the West. They don't hardly hide it anymore. As we can see, in the UK, they are running the show, even being asked to write cover notes to Orwell's little list. We have stepped through the Looking Glass, and do indeed dwell in an Orwellian world.

And somewhere in the back of our minds, we wonder who's watching.