George Monbiot eviscerates Hazel Blears

[flatandy]

And the whole of the government.

Like a stopped clock, even George Monbiot is right sometimes. And this is a good reminder of why New Labour are utterly hateful...

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/10/hazel-blears-george-monbiot

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Ouch! That's a proper shredding.

Doesn't change the fact that Monbiot is everything that is least likeable about lefties.

[flatandy]

Oh yes. Monbiot's a thingy and no mistake. But this is great stuff.

[mids]

It's like Peter Sutcliffe telling Rose West she's a bad lady.

[omnipleasant]

He seems very surprised that a government minister usually votes with the government in parliament.

Anyway, this is a pathetic attempt to smear the wonderful Hazel Blears.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

This

"I believe there is a vast public appetite for re-engagement, but your government, aware of the electoral consequences, has shut us out. It has reneged on its promise to hold a referendum on electoral reform. It has blocked a referendum on the European treaty, ditched the regional assemblies, used Scottish MPs to swing English votes, sustained an unelected House of Lords, eliminated almost all the differences between itself and the opposition. You create an impenetrable political monoculture, then moan that people don't engage in politics."

is bang on IMHO.

[peterb]

When The Media Makes an attack on Politicians its a bit like the old adage :-
"The Saucepan Calling the Kettle Warm-Arse"
'Cos they both make their pile out of what they can get away with--- ( Makes entertainment for the Hoi Polloi though!)

Oh! Hi by the way: I dont usually enter these Hallowed Halls but this interested me,

[omnipleasant]

"I believe there is a vast public appetite for re-engagement"

Is there fcuk.

[flatandy]

I think lots of people would be much more involved in politics if Brown/Blair/Jowell and Cameron/Osborne hadn't deliberately created a vapid monoculture; even more so if they'd followed through on their promises of proper reform to the electoral and parliamentary systems.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

I think there is. People are joining pressure groups and stuff in ever vaster numbers. It's just that NuLabour are god-awful, the Tories are a policy-free zone and the LibDems seem to have disappeared.

For the first time in my life, and in the knowledge that my 16 year old self would have clubbed me over the head for it, I am not planning to vote in a general election. It's not because I'm not interested.

[omnipleasant]

Rubbish.

The politically aware are becoming more engaged with pressure groups etc, because of the crapness of democracy.

But there are fewer and fewer and fewer politically aware / interested people.

[flatandy]

And whilst it is, of course, a bit pots-and-kettles, and hateful though the media is, it's worth remembering that the media don't actually govern us, make laws and so on. We shouldn't judge the media and politicians by the same standards.

[omnipleasant]

"the media don't actually govern us, make laws and so on."

hoho.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Well maybe you have a point. The government is stripping out our basic rights to freedom and liberty and people say "Oh well, not really bothered".

[omnipleasant]

"The government is stripping out our basic rights to freedom and liberty and people"

Or not, as the case may be.

[dwad]

Bit mixed about this. I mean, I love to see Hazel Blears being rogered but some of his points are easily brushed off and while he thinks there is a "vast appetite for re-engagemtn" I think he must never leave the middle class, liberal confines of Guardian Towers. Most people couldn't give a crp.

He can hardly be shocked that cabinet ministers vote with government and things like his attack on the health citizens juries are a bit OTT. I mean, they were awful but I can't remember any government in history even pretending to do something like this before and there was a website for anybody to have their say and they interviewed 5 million people through GP questionnaires.

Things like backing the dictator of Uzbekistan are just so much more complicated tha a sounbite allows.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Feb 11, 2009 11:35:38 GMT dwad said:

I love to see Hazel Blears being rogered

You are a sick, sick pervert and now I have to go off and do work with that image in my head.

[flatandy]

Backing the Uzbek government is a bloody outrage. Read Murder in Samarkand by Craig Murray.

[flatandy]

But you're right, there are some parts of the attack that are misplaced - the stuff on nuclear and the heathrow third runway are clearly Monbiot's usual green-stupid mentality.

[mids]

Still it's great to see the left fighting among themselves as power slips inexorably from their slimey grasp...