Battlefield of Love did not make longlist of Orwell Prize 2011 - no surprises there

One of the judges, David Allen Green who calls himself a liberal http://theorwellprize.co.uk/shortlists/david-allen-green/ helpfully admitted during his talk that the Orwell Prize favours the Left of Centre.




Richard Horton, the other judge, mentioned the horror of having to read blogs that he thought people had a right to write but which he thought he had a right not to read.   I asked if he had any particular blogs in mind when he said that hoping that he would mention http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/ and http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/, but did not get the answer I hoped for.


Below are the 5 Battlefield of Love posts I submitted.

http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/2010/11/engagement-of-prince-william-and.html
http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/2010/10/case-for-disenfranchsing-women-or-why.html
http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/2010/05/official-marriage-strike-by-men.html
http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/2010/09/single-mothers-cancer-of-society.html
http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/2010/10/exploding-myth-of-multiple-orgasm.html



Below are the 5 Voice of Reason posts I submitted.


http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/2010/07/raoul-moat-has-too-many-friend-requests.html
http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/2010/06/should-and-ought-must-and-should.html
http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/2010/07/muslims-once-prayed-in-direction-of.html
http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/2010/01/let-us-call-unique-and-supreme-deity.html
http://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/2010/08/international-marxism-and-national.html

Below are the blogs that were entered for the Prize.

http://theorwellprize.co.uk/the-orwell-prize/how-to-enter/entries-2011/blog-prize-2011/

http://theorwellprize.co.uk/events/orwell-prize-longlist-2011-announcement-and-debate/

Spoke to Dan Hodges who was on the Orwell Prize longlist with http://labour-uncut.co.uk/ (which seems to be a digest of the blog posts of Labour bloggers)  who was wearing a pretty floral shirt. He had a kind of androgynous David Bowie face (ie good bone structure) and I thought he looked like he could have been the Transgender blogger who was also on the longlist.  He took it quite well and introduced me to Juliet Jacques of http://theorwellprize.co.uk/longlists/juliet-jacques/ who looked more the part now that I had had a closer look at shim.  I also spoke with another transgender blogger with startling red hair in the Territorial Army (now gender neutral I was told by shim) who did not make the longlist.  I suggested that men now want to become women because it is harder to be men and women are now more powerful.

Met John Chubb who did not make the longlist with his http://adlibynct.blogspot.com/ networking and giving his cards out.  "Positive Deviancy" is mentioned on it, which I rather like the sound of.

I also met Dominic Cavendish of the Telegraph, carrying a Waterstones carrier bag.  

Madam Miaow (who made the shorlist last year with http://madammiaow.blogspot.com/) came over to commiserate with my failure to make the longlist. I said I would actually be more surprised to be on the longlist than off. While she did not agree with me on most things, one thing she did agree with me about was that it was wrong to bomb Libya, and was aware of my Colonel Gaddafi Support Group mentioned at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8357620/BNP-members-pro-Gaddafi-Facebook-group-snares-politicians.html

It was probably not the time to mention to her that there is talk that I may be the 2012 BNP London mayoral candidate so I said nothing, in case it all comes to naught.

I suggested to David Allen Green that there should perhaps be an Orwell Prize for Tweeting.    I have written to the very pleasant and polite Gavin Freeguard and hope they adopt my idea.   (What they should do is have Tweeters enter themselves and then vote for the best Tweeter, but it cannot be for themselves.)

An Orwell Festival in Letchworth in Hertfordshire is taking place from 9th to 18th September 2011.  Details to be announced in April.   http://georgeorwellfestival.org/