No, aken - "no ways tard" wasn't you, it was Guest Woodrow playing with a quote from Hilary Clinton, to bring in an abbreviation of "retard", an insult word that fortunately we don't hear that often over here. We've got nasty little equivalents, of course.

I think the reason people in the UK get involved in these kind of political grudge fights more than the other way, is that it actually matters to us what happens over there, and our national media probably gives about as much attention to it as it does to what happens here. In fact generally a lot more attention than it does to what happens here outside London.

As to whether political discourse is nastier here or in the States, it probably varies - but we've never to my memory had anything remotely comparable to the kind of hate directed at Obama over the years, that birther/muslim stuff aimed at a clearly decent man, albeit with politics straight out of our Conservative party.