In the context of me wanting to shit on them, it refers to the tendency in British soft-left politics of:
1) thinking that the problems of the poor can be improved through means cheaper than writing cheques (ie, compulsory parenting classes, patronising diet sheets, giving teachers a hard time)
2) wanting to have a wholesale reorganisation of local government and/or Parliament every couple of years because, unaccountably, the last one had no effect in making anyone any more interested in voting than they were previously.
3) giving the Labour Party a free pass on *everything* it does.
4) ahistorically, bemoaning the coarsening and cynicism of British political culture.
5) doing a big number about "the media" and how it is all their fault (strangely, I missed the massive tabloid clamouring for more reorganisations of the hospitals, or for the introduction of ID cards, or for the PFI or similar).
these are all generally grouped under the slogan of "giving power back to the people", meaning "giving power to people like me". In general, progressives are not generally actually evil, just horribly irritating when Labour are in power. When the Tories are in, they tend to give up on Social Progress and join the rest of us.
best dd
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