Blair government threatened to be sued over copyright breach of Orwell’s ‘1984’

 

Trustees of the George Orwell estate yesterday announced that they intend to sue the British government over copyright breeches relating to the George Orwell novel '1984', a novel about a futuristic police state. Professor Ramsbottom, a trustee of the Orwell estate, said: "Our lawyers have compared George Orwell's novel '1984' with a number of Labour documents.

 

These documents include the Labour party manifesto, known in the Labour party as the 'The Book', and a number of laws passed by the Labour government over the past five years. Our analysis shows there are clearly great swathes of text that have simply been copied and adopted as Labour policy, far too much for this to be just coincidence."

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, said: "This is clearly absolute rubbish. A police state is a political condition where the government maintains strict control over society, particularly through suspension of civil rights and often with the use of the police. We thought police should not be used for that purpose as it is inherently anti-democratic. Name me one thing that demonstrates Labour is heading that way? OK - name me two things? OK - name me three things..."

 

Prime Minister Tony Blair added: "I flatly deny that we have used material from George Orwell's novel '1984' in any of our manifestos and subsequent laws. There are clearly very many differences such as: this is Britain and not Oceania, we have the Home Office and not the Ministry of Love, and the majority of people in this country believe that everyone must listen to the government in order to have an orderly society at the expense of some of the freedoms of the people. I have no idea what the 'Proles' who come up with these ideas are talking about. Now enough of this nonsense “fancy a game of chess?"

 

Meanwhile, the 82-year-old pensioner Walter Wolfgang, who was thrown out of last year's Labour party conference, and who had not been seen for several months, was tracked down by DeadBrain reporter Greg Mullet to his local pub the 'Chestnut Tree'. Walter said: "I took a bit of a holiday and feel fully re-integrated...I mean fully reinvigorated."

"I am looking forward to this year's Labour conference," he added. "To make up for last year they will be putting me up for free in room 101 at the Grand. I will get my chance to show Big Tony I love him. It is not enough to obey him, you know; you must love him. After all, war on terror is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength."

 

(Not mine—But found on the web unattributed)

 

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