I'm of Ireland,

If you want facts - you can't have them.
If you make allegations - we open a tribunal where, millions upon millions of taxpayers money (this is not an exaggeration - the full amount will not be costed until years from now.) In said tribunals, we have 'disclosed' information that make headlines regularly about elected politicians. But because the information is 'disclosed' as opposed to uncovered, then legally this information cannot be used against them in law. The politicians made these rules, and fought not to have tribunals at all.

A ton of information is out there - all anecdotal, so yes proper discussion is hard to achieve.

Is it so bad though ? Not as bad as other countries, and we do have a whole heap of honest people, so it is worth staying, if for nothing else (and there are other reasons) then at least we can watch the politicians squirm - albeit at our expense.

As a note: My Mum said of Charles Haughey - 'sure we all knew he was a crook - but at least he was an honest crook'

Kind of sums up a lot.

Diesel