Still two weeks to go and as the polls make people jumpy I expect that the attack politics will continue and as the majority of policies have been unveiled it’s going to get far more personal.  The three leader debates to come in the next ten days will also focus people on personal issues and attacking statements will continue to increase.

My inbox is full of attack statements (except Sinn Féin who have decided to stop emailing me for some reason).  It is depressing to see words being put in the mouths of different spokespersons from the same party on the same issue.  Also within moments of a key figure doing an interview on TV or radio a statement arrives from the opposition attacking what is said.  (It’s a Fianna Fail speciality.)

It’s not fact checking, it might be good if it was, but no it is negative attack spin which some political correspondents are putting into their reports in the ‘interests of balance’ and the job of the press officer is done.

So if you read one thing today have a look at the analysis that Andrea Pappin on Election2011.ie did on the press releases from the political parties and have a think about what you are reading and watching and listening to during this election.

I can’t put words to blog post regarding the latest stunt. Just want to show what I got this evening which shows how it can be abused.

From Leo Varadkar’s email address addressing me as Lez (as in short for lesbian which is what I am by the way in case you are new to the blog but Lez is no term of endearment)

I know (and hope) Leo Varadkar didn’t send it but this is what is going to happen – people are going to be spammed and anything can be put in the name section so it can be abusive. I got one from Lucinda Creighton’s email address also.

And FG head office sent robot tweets out from countless candidates encouraging people use this stalker device and then deleted them but not before people took pictures for evidence.  (Not the first time head office took over FG twitter accounts).

I’ve stated on a number of occasions on TV and Radio and print in recent weeks that this is not the internet election, I want to talk about and analyse the issues and policies and the campaign offline. (Yes I too am fed up hearing me talk about the twitter!)

Fine Gael seem obsessed about it and they are dangerous with it also.  Lots of money is being spent and now members are abusing it and me online for pointing out the dangerous and insulting nature of the campaign and by using the applications that head office is designing and sanctioning.  And votes are lost, first and other preferences but they think they are elected already.