Hating Alan Jones

This would be unwise, of course, for democracy demands the careful balancing of liberties against responsibilities, and when examined dispassionately it should be quite obvious that Jones broke only the law of common decency when making his now infamous comment about Gillard's father.

Thirdly, it gives members of the public permission to bully the bully back - and to exonerate themselves by claiming that he is simply getting what he deserves.

Peter FitzSimons writes in The Sydney Morning Herald that this is merely an example of 'decent Australia saying enough is enough'. Australians have taken to the internet to voice their opinions of Jones, and things are looking ugly; there's nothing decent about descending to the offender's juvenile level. Better to condemn Jones' actions without resorting to the very vilification that one is decrying.

Finally, this incident has resulted in the monopolising of the headlines by a person who doesn't need publicity and a story that is really a non-story: someone says something mean about the prime minister and her constituency is outraged.

Nasty comments have been endured by most of us, and are dished out with alarming regularity and viciousness by politicians themselves. Gillard will recover from this, and so will Jones. And then who will we hate?