Olympic Torch relay a great success - official

People along the Torch Relay route have extended the flame a warm welcome and the relay is proceeding successfully as planned.......more than one thousand Londoners from all walks of life participated in the launching ceremony of the London leg of the Torch Relay. London artists gave brilliant performances amid snow; passionate crowds lined the relay route.....Local people in London strongly opposed the attempt to sabotage the Torch Relay. And the behavior of "pro-Tibet independence" activists has aroused resentment and received condemnation in London.

Press release on the worldwide Beijing Olympic Torch Relay.

Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.

George Orwell, 1984

Farce as flame extinguished

There were farcical scenes today as the century old flame of working class representation was finally extinguished. Speaking to Labour leader Gordon Brown about the rise in income tax for five million low-paid workers, former leader Keir Hardie was quoted as saying: "Ah cannae be arsed wi' this, git oot o' ma face ya wee bawbag".