"The trade unions "have turned into the government's nodding dogs"; social democracy "has gone"; NGOs "good at raising public awareness, less good at building sustained, multifaceted campaigns". Few escape his disapproval. And finally he offers the solution to the decline in political culture: a new website modelled on MoveOn.org in the US, which helps to mobilise people to lobby their senators and congressmen and women."

It's a very good no-nonsense piece that Hazel's colleagues could do with copying. At this stage of the government, a small part of Labour's problem is that it's activist base is often demoralised by the kind of witless demagogic attacks of the type that Monbiot churns out. Hazel rightly picks up on the lack of any real alternative offered by Moonbat, but I think she misses out the most important point: That if progressive people think that they can sort things out by boosting the dubious legitimacy of single-issue campaigns, they are forgetting where that kind of thinking leads.

This would not advance the George Monbiot agenda. It would be much more useful to the Richard Littlecock one.