I appreciate that Dave as in all honesty I was beginning to wonder.
I'm familiar with his style of posting, although not with him, and it's a style which embodies two facets: an apparently belligerent approach coupled with a shrewd appreciation of the issues involved. In other words, it's an ideal style for debates and discussions, but often comes over as too assertive and aggressive, characteristics which can mask what he's actually talking about.
If you look at what he's actually saying about issues, however, it quickly becomes clear that he makes a lot of sense, and that makes his contribution important for a forum. In fact, I probably disagree with him on a lot of the salient points, but that's irrelevant, because he's bringing them out and forcing folk to think about their positions on them.
Forums like this one can quickly become very cosy and intimate, with everyone knowing almost exactly what the other is going to say, and thus conversations can easily become simple joke swapping exercises. But I feel we need different voices, different ideas and different views coming into the mix, and we shouldn't automatically assume that because someone's
style irritates, that person has no place here.
