Longlists announced for 2012 George Orwell Prize

The longlists have been announced for The 2012 Orwell Prize for blogging and journalism.

The longlisted bloggers are:

Alex Massie Alex Massie (www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie)

Anna Chen Madam Miaow Says (http://madammiaow.blogspot.com/)

Bagehot Bagehot’s Notebook (http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot)

Ms Baroque Baroque in Hackney (http://baroqueinhackney.com)

BendyGirl Benefit Scrounging Scum (http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/)

David Allen Green Jack of Kent (http://jackofkent.blogspot.com)

Gavin Kelly Economics and the reality of the ‘squeezed middle’ (http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/gavin-kelly)

John Rentoul Independent Blogs (http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/johnrentoul/)

Lisa Ansell Lisa Ansell (lisaansell.posterous.com)

Pavel Konnolsky The Konnolsky Files (http://konnolsky.tumblr.com)

Polly Curtis Reality Check with Polly Curtis (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis)

Mick Fealty Slugger O’Toole (sluggerotoole.com)

Raph Shirley Another stupid human (www.raphshirley.com/blog/)

Rangers Tax-Case Rangers Tax-Case (http://www.rangerstaxcase.com)

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi (http://rebeccaomonira.wordpress.com)

Tim Marshall Foreign Matters (http://blogs.news.sky.com/foreignmatters)

Toby Young Telegraph Blogs (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/tobyyoung/)

Wiggy Beneath the Wig (http://beneaththewig.com/)

Those longlisted for the journalism prize are:

Camilla Cavendish, The Times
Edward Docx, Prospect Magazine; the Guardian
Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
Amelia Gentleman, the Guardian
Simon Kuper, Financial Times
Paul Lewis, the Guardian; Twitter
Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph; The Spectator; Channel 4 Dispatches
Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times; openDemocracy
Steve Richards, the Independent
David James Smith, the Sunday Times
David Usborne, the Independent
Zoe Williams, the Guardian

This year’s shortlists will be announced on the evening of 24th April at The Boardroom, University of Westminster. After the announcement the Orwell Prize is hosting a debate on corruption in sport.

The winners of the Orwell Prizes 2012 will be announced at an awards ceremony at Church House, London, on 23rd May 2012. The Prizes are awarded to the work which comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition "to make political writing into an art". Each winner receives £3000 and a plaque bearing Orwell’s quote.