I'm coming in a bit late on this, but I wish to support MtheGM.

Fred appeared to be threatening the perpetrator of the offending recordings with common assault. Michael made a sarcastic comment about that, which Fred described as "a pointless dig at me". It was not pointless, because it was directly relevant to what Fred had said.

By contrast, Fred's comments about Michael ("the only person on the planet who plays that badly" and "pompous right wing chronic bore of a Thatcherite") were not only extremely ill-mannered but entirely irrelevant to the thread.

BUT, can we please stop the personal attacks and concentrate on the rights and wrongs, and on the adequacy of otherwise of the apologies and explanations that have been offered.