jonathan18: The argument being made here by some that this is just a distraction from what we should be discussing at election time - ie policies - is missing the bigger picture. Yes, policies should be the focus, but to suggest that matters that clearly raise significant concerns about:

 

• the ethics and values of our politicians
• the use of bloggers to do the 'dirty work' of political parties
• the use of astro-turfing to manipulate public onion
• digging for dirt to essentially blackmail people in public office...

shouldn't be investigated, discussed and debated in public, AND have an impact on the appropriateness of particular individuals to hold public office, is one screwed-up way of thinking. To do so is to argue that it doesn't matter what goes on behind closed doors as long as the policies are good, an untenable ostrich-like position.

Similarly, I agree with those that say the debate here (and more widely) has too often been coloured by the political leanings of the poster. This is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to the debate, and I'm really disappointed that intelligent people appear to be unable to have a debate about the matters in hand without simply resorting to political positioning. Perhaps as I have a social science background this is more critical to me than others.

• defacement or destruction of campaign hoardings
• racial vilification
• hiding of donations
• hiding of third party manpower and resources applied to campaigns