Awesome use of mixed metaphors, platitudes, empty phrases etc

From a Guardian editorial:

Voting blue to go green was always going to require a leap of faith, and six years on from David Cameron coining that slogan it sounds a hollow ring. His government has a few worthwhile initiatives on energy saving and green investment, but these are not being pursued with any oomph.

As soon as green building regulations got branded a conservatory tax, they were meekly dropped. Another rethink is under way on airport expansion, binning the principled stance briefly taken in opposition. The chancellor has taken to cynically rousing the Tory party against "burdensome" green tape...

This is one area where the Liberal Democrats are putting up something of a fight – witness Nick Clegg's robust speech which answered George Osborne's tendency to treat green growth as an oxymoron, by pointing to the vibrancy of a green economy that's expanding at 4% a year.

The Conservative mainstream, however, is making a crude calculation – that in hard times like these, voters are little interested in the future of the planet, and will smile on politicians who downgrade such lofty matters in favour of the here and now. Labour's quietude on matters environmental suggests that it, too, believes there are few votes here.

The oddity, however, is that a steadily growing band of the voters themselves are pushing the planet centre-stage. It is still a smallish band, to be sure, but in this month's local elections the Green party advanced a little on every measure. It put forward 943 candidates, and the indications are that they chalked up a respectable average of approaching 10% in these contests.

In wards that they had fought previously, they inched forward 0.7 percentage points compared with last year, and by 1.4 points against the baseline of May 2008, the pre-recessionary moment when most of the same seats were last contested. The party picked up a handful of extra councillors to add to its total of over 130 across England and Wales, and its sister party in Scotland made parallel advances.