A bit circular

The other day I blogged Jackie Ashley's piece in the Guardian on Heathrow expansion. She wrote this about Labour's inexplicable enthusiasm:

The most cynical explanation, which I have heard buzzing around in the past few days, is simply that ministers who know they have lost the next election are cosying up to the business interests that may help them out in the private sector afterwards.

Yesterday, jossc wrote something very similar on the Greenpeace blog:

The cynical answer is that Labour know they've already lost the next election and are cosying up to industries that will employ them once they're out of government...

Perhaps Jackie has been talking to Joss, who is presumably Joss Garman. On the New Statesman today, Garman approvingly quotes Ashley:

It's surprising that it's taken this long for any serious Labour dissent over this to become apparent, especially when, to quote Jackie Ashley, "a swath of Labour ministers and MPs can expect to lose their seats if Heathrow's third runway is given the go-ahead."

All very circular.

Comment is free... sometimes

On Comment is Free this afternoon, Jackie Ashley argues that we shouldn't expect commentators to be anyone's mouthpiece:

We're commentators - not MPs, not spin-doctors, not players - and there's a basic duty to tell it as we see it.

If only...

Meanwhile, Lisa Appignanesi, deputy president of English PEN, has a go at Tesco for trying to stifle criticism in Thailand.