It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen

February actually, but 1984 is the only reference that comes close to describing the UK today. Our slide into totalitarianism accelerates by the day – with no hope that party politics will reverse it, as all mainstream politicians subscribe to the same odious causes. But we know this. What has struck me this week is not the irony of the State bullying an anti-bullying charity (to the extent of demanding proof of all accusations they have made, but then telling them, via the Charity Commission that if they are not permitted to provide proof. That’s some catch, that Catch 22 eh?), not even the media colluding in hiding the psychosis of our PM, but simply the BBC’s continued, brazen distortion of reality to suit its political ends. The Stafford hospital scandal. Perhaps 1200 dead. Managers paying themselves hundreds of thousands, nurses leaving the bedridden to, literally, rot, ignoring the corpses piling up, obsessed with paper targets… It’s a story that even led in the US, where the drive to socialised health care is now a big issue. But for the BBC, it lasted half a day, and is now gone.

He who controls the past controls the present. He who controls the present controls the future.