The parallel here is not exact, since Woolas impugned his constituency opponent, whereas Carmichael condoned an enterprise designed to damage a whole political party.
In written submissions to the preliminary hearing, James Eadie QC,for the government, said: "The [intelligence services] adopt a 'neither confirm nor deny' stance as to whether relevant steps [surveillance] were in fact taken in relation to the claimants, whilst accepting that the impugned regimes might in principle have been used".
Who out there could do any kind of job properly knowing every split‑second response will be scrutinised with relentless hostility, that your competence will be questioned, body mass ridiculed, integrity impugned?
Yet if election candidates who impugned a whole political party – as happened with Carmichael – were required to stand down, there'd be hardly any left standing at the end of an election campaign.
See articleSingapore's High Court sentenced Alan Shadrake, a 76-year-old British journalist, to six weeks in jail for having impugned the impartiality of the city-state's judiciary in a book he wrote about its use of the death penalty.
YOUR columnist owes an apology to Michael Gove, who he has twice pestered and impugned.
But as a philosopher, Sidney Hook, once said, "before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments".
But the schools that failed the assessment were praised for their local initiatives and impugned for not offering more bursaries, whereas those that passed spent 5% or more of their income on financial aid.
In the run-up to the election the PAP sued the tiny Singapore Democratic Party, arguing that one of its campaign leaflets had impugned the ruling party's honesty the one thing that is guaranteed to inflame its ire.
General Halutz impugned General Adam by naming another general to oversee him late in the campaign.
Ms Livni could find her party's patriotism impugned by the more strident voices on the right.
