Guardian Comment and Rightist Spluttering

Three articles that are worthwhile reading on the Guardian Comment Is Free site today.
The first is by George Monbiot. I do not always see eye-to-eye with George, but he does argue a good case. Today he has an interesting contribution on airports expansion and carbon trading entitled Ministers know emissions trading is a red herring and won't work

Elsewhere, the blatant playing to the gallery of Sun-and-Mail-believers by government Minister John Hutton on the subject of the long term unemployed attracts comment. The frequently controversial Polly Toynbee, whose Fabianism sometimes comes over as annoying middle-class liberal hectoring, but who nevertheless has at least tried to exist for some time in the economic conditions of the worst off in Britain, responds to Hutton's comments that The Welfare State needs to be policed at the top as well.

A similar response, but without some of Polly's more annoying traits comes from fellow Green Blogger (at Philobiblon) Natalie Bennett who has a piece on Comment is Free entitled Labour market pains. Having been unemployed for only a short time myself, but having worked with unemployed people in various capacities I can say that the picture painted by Natalie is far nearer the truth than the hate-filled, tabloid-stereotype-repeating bile we get from the usual crowd of Rightist Neanderthals who turn up to liberal-bait on the Guardian comment pages. You can almost see the flecks of spittle covering their screens as the red-faced self-righteous scourges of indolence spew out their hatred of Natalie and Polly. Not a pretty sight. It must be terrible for them containing their urge to type up the foul language that is all too common on the inexplicably popular blogs of your average British, American or Australian Rightist in order to avoid falling foul of the Guardian's moderators.

Reading the articles by Polly and Natalie I am moved to reflect that it is a little rich for government ministers to try to focus public attention on a small number of wrongdoers from the most disadvantaged groups whilst presiding over what the former director of the establishment think-tank of Chatham House calls "a terrible mistake", "a disaster", and "a debacle" , along with loans for peerages and dropping enquiries into dodgy arms deals at the merest hint from friendly tyrants. The rightists would perhaps be better employed spluttering about these crimes of New Labour than joining in as chorus to the puerile dog-whistle politics of New Labour Ministers. But then the nature of a reactionary, I suppose, is that like Pavlov's Dog, they react on cue.