Andrew Bolt has decided those on the Left need to mind their manners. We had a look at some of his commenters, and think perhaps they could use an etiquette lesson or two themselves ...

Australia’s most-read columnist, Andrew Bolt, thinks our culture of incivility has gone too far. Or rather, the Left’s culture of incivility. He says small-L liberals are just too darn rude, and he’s not standing for it.

In this morning’s News Corp screed, Bolt calls out Julian Burnside QC for encouraging, via Twitter, little children to spit on Immigration Minister Scott Morrison’s shoes (Burnside has said: “Anyone who thinks the suggestion would be followed literally is missing the point: the suggestion is intended as a mark of my contempt for Morrison”).

Speaking of intolerance, perhaps Bolt should issue his calls to civility to his own readers. One commenter suggested a measure a far sight more serious than spitting on someone’s shoes:

“You can start by using real bullets instead of rubber ones when faced with a ‘protest’ (read: riot) by the leftwhingers, dude. A few ounces of lead does wonders in controlling the population.”

Bolt also takes The Age to task for publishing a news photo of a sign saying “the bitch is dead” upon the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. This, after denouncing signs calling former Australian PM Julia Gillard a “witch”, is the height of hypocrisy, says Bolt. Crikey could only find a photo of a sign saying “the witch is dead” on The Age‘s site, and that in a gallery related to an opinion piece by Sydney Institute executive director Gerard Henderson that the Left should show more respect for the Iron Lady.

Whatever the language, though, Bolt thinks The Age should be more respectful to women.

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Perhaps some of his commenters should, too. Bolt wrote a short piece on his blog about Mia Freedman’s advice that women stay sober in order to avoid rape. The commenters agreed with Freedman, and then took it further:

“… if they choose to walk down a dark alley alone at 3am in the morning in a short skirt and high heels then they are just looking for trouble.” ” … If you dress like a prostitute, people will have certain expectations …”

And speaking of Gillard, here is a comment on Bolt’s blog about the Walkleys:

“Strategy of the ALP spin doctors to denigrate or

has TA wisely ignored sexual overtures from

the ‘scum of the middleclass’ especially

those of Julia Gillard who appeared to be

coming on to Abbott when they shared a

media spot some years ago during the Howard

years and on other occasions.”

Perhaps everyone could learn from Bolt’s final words in this morning’s column:

“The crude now rule. And it’s not OK.”