Stu,

Sincere, passionate debate is part of the culture of our islands. We reserve the right to say we think something is total bollocks if we think it is

In my opinion, that would not pass as "acrimonious bickering" in the sense of Ake and that anonymous Mudelf, not even as a full-fledged insult, just "strong language". Actually there is a British tradition of faked taunting and sneering as a branch of comedy; think of John Cleese. Musket seems to claim a part in that tradition. However, he does not only fall short of it, but misses it completely, first of all because he is not funny, secondly because he cannot always hide his emotional involvement. Steve, on the other hand, neither claims to be a comedian at all (witness his rare lame jokes) nor tries to hide his "fierce" emotional involvement (27 Oct 13 - 09:06 PM). The only thing that is funny about him is that he calls others neurotic. Jack the Sailor is his fitting mirror. All this has been observed many times even in the few threads I have read; no psychology is needed. Sad to see, but not mine to cure.

To be scientifically exact, there is a faint possibility that some extremely clever people might have tediously faked some of those personalities completely - but for what secret agenda? In the eyes of a good observer, most of the bickerers effectively work for the opposite agenda they claim, thus neutralizing each other. (It seems clear though that Conc is indeed a fake by one of our crusaders.)

A real pity is that casual readers who want to learn about the topics of the threads may not only be frustrated, but thoroughly misled.