The Orwell Prize Longlist

My first reaction when I read that this Blog had been longlisted for the Orwell Prize was that they must have confused me with Jack Night, last year’s fine winner.

And then I remembered this couldn’t be the case, as Jack Night is actually one of the judges.

So I now wonder if my longlisting had something to do with the blogposts which I submitted having included a sympathetic analysis of the Jack Night privacy case and a long rambling blogpost with my theory as to why George Orwell gave “Nineteen Eighty-four” the title he did.

I also seem to have benefited from other leading law bloggers such as Charon QC and Lucifee either not nominating themselves or not having been around long enough.

Similarly, I seem to have been the only one of the wider posse of “skeptic” and related bloggers to have nominated themselves; so to contextualise my blog, please do check out Gimpy, Quackometer, Petra Boynton, Vagina Dentata, Lay Scientist, Jourdemayne, DC's Improbable Science, and the incomparable Crispian Jago, as well as the others listed as "Comrades" on the right of this page.

Nonetheless, it is rather nice to be longlisted.

But the name on the longlist which gave me the most pleasure was that of Dave Osler.

I am one of a group advising Dave Osler pro bono in respect of the awful and very misconceived libel claim he is currently fighting.

Because of my role in this, it is inappropriate for me to say more now (though I certainly will do so in due course).

And if he wins the award, which I very much hope he does, it really couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.