George Orwell joined the Independent Labour Party in June 1938, but left the party in 1939 after World War II broke out and the ILP stood against the UK’s participation in the conflict, so technically he was a card carrying socialist for a little over a year. Of course in a free society you can call yourself anything you like. Near the end of his life, Orwell hid himself away on the island of Jura in Scotland to write 1984. Jura is one of most remote and sparsely populated places in the United Kingdom, so at least at that point in his life Orwell may have been a “socialist”, but he wasn’t too social. The type of socialism where you can detach yourself from society whenever you like if you have the means and the money might prove to be a popular option for the people who have vacation houses.