Having met last week, and delayed the expected announcement on Friday, it leaked over the weekend that the Orwell Prize committee will strip Johann Hari of the prize. His foul practices in his articles and submissions to the competition have been exposed at length. Given the depths to which we now know that Hari’s deceit went, the focus of attention must now fall on the Indy and how, despite warnings of bad-practice, Hari’s half-truth and deceits managed to fill their pages. Perhaps their new editor might like to review their long held distaste for subs. 

Guido hears that the Indy tried to get the Orwell committee to delay their announcement for two months. Sources claim that the paper banned Hari from making his own representations to the review panel, then complained bitterly last week that they had made the decision without hearing Hari’s side of the story. They then argued that the announcement should be delayed, as it could jeopardise their own internal  investigation. It hardly looks like they are on top of this situation…