The latter, I think. Just a piece with a controversial title to draw readers. In the article we find this:
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It was Orwell's own particular genius to possess a prose style that stated a small number of things with painful clarity.
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So it seems that even Will Self thinks that Orwell had some sort of genius. Self's objection, it seems to me, is that Orwell is readily understood by the masses (hence to mediocrity), and Self seems to think this is a bad thing for an author to aspire to. This interpretation is further supported by this paragraph:
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And while I don't judge Orwell himself too harshly for his talent, I feel less well-disposed to those mediocrities who slavishly worship at the shrine of St George, little appreciating that the clarity they so admire in his writings is simply another kind of opacity, since in the act of revealing one truth it necessarily obscures many others.
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And there is an element of truth in the concluding sentence. Much writing that seems profound manages to hide as much truth as it reveals - it's one of the things that marks out very clever speech-writers ... and journalists.
