Britain's Future Has Echoes of Orwell. June 18 by-election
Nine decades ago, George Orwell spent several months living among the mining communities around the bleak, impoverished town of Wigan.
In two weeks, a special election taking place in the same corner of northwest England could determine the course of British history for decades to come.
When I visited on a squally day last week, obviously much had changed since Orwell’s time, yet the arguments playing out ahead of the June 18 by-election in the Makerfield constituency bear striking similarities to those set out in his seminal work, The Road to Wigan Pier.
A special election is taking place in the Makerfield constituency in northwest England, which could determine the course of British history for decades to come.
The area's voters have a choice between electing Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Manchester, to Parliament
or voting for the populist Reform UK party, which seeks to exploit racial division and blame immigration for the north's woes.
The election is seen as a test of Burnham's pitch and a final opportunity for a left-of-center party to see if progressive politics has anything to offer voters, with the outcome potentially having significant consequences for the future of British politics.
Rosa Prince Bloomberg June 8, 2026
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plus_%C3%A7a_change,_plus_c%27est_la_m%C3%AAme_chose
The Road to Wigan Pier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier
George Orwell
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime".
Kommentarer