...and from the link above, the part that i think says it all is the comment:

"I'm always ready to be condescended by Guardian readers trying desperately to establish their moral high ground and find a new supposed victim or spurious cause to support. "

Doesn't exactly set the groundwork for 'serious and considered political debate' when you start from this low, IMO.

Good work has certainly been done by people who are quite prominent on both forums but it is a pity that some of the ill informed and often unpalatable views of some of these individuals has found an outlet on forums where it becomes a permanent record and possibly works to undermine, by association, a lot of goodwill towards such things as the library etc.
Having had a rather odd and worryingly hysterical and slightly unhinged (on his part) interchange with the person mentioned above, it has certainly put me off wanting to go near any of the 'local' concerns that he or his close associates have anything to do with.