The bile of anti-politics is corroding the zeal for change | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian
Polly Toynbee has posted a reasonable article about the poll-based observation that the vast majority of the people in the UK are happy with their lives as British citizens. She then notes the equally polled observation that few Britons seem to give any credit to the politicians who have actually brought about fairly effective public services. This would include both the Labour government AND the largely Tory controlled local county councils.
In the first 50 comments online (CIF) almost no-one saw even minimal value in what she had written.
The reason is that the Guardian's CIF (Comment is Free) website is now dominated by Libertarian and Tory wingnuts. The kind of people who would watch FOX news in the US.
We in Briton are in fact living in one of the freest, wealthiest, kindest, most artistically productive, technologically innovative countries and periods in history.
Britain in 2009 is a much better place than it was in 1999, 1989, 1979, 1969, 1959 and 1949.
And before the Labour government of that period working people starved, and had no health-care. Kids died of easily treatable diseases.
I'm no fan of new Labour, but we need to address the prominence of wingnuts in Guardian/CIF. Not by banning them in any way, but by posting and supporting comments that come from the progressive political majority in this country.
1 comment:
I think you raise excellent points, as I agree that there is an inherent negativity to the blogosphere. I'm not sure if they are Tories and libertarians, I think it's just people who like to winge, moan and complain. Anyone saying something positive gets shouted down by those saying everything is pants. I don't just mean comment is free, but just about everywhere. Dale and Fawkes are prime examples of people who love nothing more than to complain, especially about Labour it's true
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