Bankrupt, broken Britain's heading for Orwell's 1984

THE Office of Budget Responsibility has made a strange and unprecedented prediction - not for one year ahead, but for 50 years ahead. And it paints a terrifying picture of a bankrupt, broken Britain where National Debt is at least 270% of GDP, perhaps as much as 650%. The OBR’s bleak futurism prompted this re-imagining of George Orwell’s 1984 as 2084. Read on...

- Paul Baldwin

It was a bright warm day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the scorching heat, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Osama Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

The walk home had taken him past the famous Greta Statue in Thunberg Park and the Grand Mosque of the 7/7 Martyrs, its minarets glistening in the sun.

In the park preparations were in full swing for Hate Week: an annual event which saw the nation uniting in its loathing of heteronormative males and their prehistoric notions of democracy and freedom.

It was exactly this weakness, this freedom, this unbearable tolerance which had led to the great non-war of 2039 of course. And this, in turn, had freed everyone from the shackles of servitude to “democracy” and rescued them from the tyranny of “freedom” — notions which had troubled they-kind since the Enlightenment.

ALL this had been corrected in the Anti-Enlightenment of the 2040s when the human species moved from the futile endeavour of “seeking evidence”.