This has been one hell of an educational thread so far, and special thanks go to Steve, epeeist and Mark Jones for their diligent working away on this, with jaw-dropping amounts of erudition thrown in en route. The scope of my ignorance has never seemed greater, as the list of terms I must now look up and ponder has increased dramatically. Epeeist, you hold more than your fair share of responsibility for this situation...!

Sadly, it seems that MW is not as keen to decrease the scope of his own ignorance. It seems that the self-aggrandising solipsism characterising much of his posting is not exactly new, either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Martin_Woodhouse/Archive_1

There was a worrying moment a day or so ago when /Mike was about to shut down argumentation I thought was the raison d'etre of these front pages. Good news he reconsidered his censorious proposal. I hope this doesn't change.

For what it's worth.

Sean Tyrer