Pier Pressure

[Birchy]

Did George Orwell actually visit those awfully Northern workplaces to research 'Wigan Pier', or was the whole thing an anti-Tory scam?

[Hippy]

I think you'll find that he not only lived in those "awfully Northern" places, but he also tried to pass as a destitute tramp and starved himself researching "Down and out in London and Paris".

P.S. Northern places are not awful - there' s much more fresh air and fun that stuffy overcrowded South East. (Lights blue touchpaper and stands well back!)

[Elle]

I thought Birchy meant 'awfully', as in 'very'.

[Birchy]

Thanks. Being a north westerner myself, I was attempting to be falsely snooty as opposed to offensive. So the former Mr Blair used to live the part, rather like Robert de Niro? How smashing of him!

[FredPuli]

The 'Orwell' Mr Blair was a public school-educated man with true socialist beliefs , who even risked his life fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and who cared geuninely for the poorer workers and the socially disadvantaged and who went to great lengths to understand and publicise their lives.. The other Mr Blair is a public school-educated man too.. Spot the difference.....