I can never understand why it is seen as an effective argument, when your own side is criticised for some dodgy behaviour, to turn round and start talking about the faults of the other side.

What's that got to do with it? If I go to a restaurant and the food is lousy, and I complaion, I wouldn't be too impressed to hear the manager saying that it's much werse at the restaurant next door.

The first responsibility of a loyal supporter is to clean up their own side. Once that has been done, it may be time to turn attention to the defects of the other side, but not till then. "Why do you go on about the mote in your brother's eye, instead of dealing with the plank in your own eye?"

To drift a little, does anyone know what kind of odds the bookies are giving as to who will actually turn out to have "won" when the sunshine law recounts are done (if they ever are done)? Those guys generally are a better guide to those kind of things than the pundits in the papers.