Spain's two main political parties have been indulging in some light scrapping in the run-up to this month's local elections by attempting to burn down each other's Second Life headquarters, Reuters reports.

The "bitter political wrangling" between the socialist government, represented by the PSOE, and the conservative opposition, the Partido Popular (PP), has been entertaining Spaniards for months as the two abandon any pretence at political debate and roundly accuse each other of provoking the collapse of western civilisation.

Most seriously, the PP accuses the government of "capitulating" to Basque terrorist group ETA by entering into dialogue with the fun-loving separatists. This has provoked huge rallies in support of a no-nonsense hard line against ETA, at which much inflammatory rhetoric has aroused nationalist sentiments.

So inflammatory, in fact, that the PSOE accuses PP supporters of all manner of virtual outrages in Sadville. A PSOE official known as "Zeros Kuhm" explained: "They have thrown bombs, entered the building with sub-machine guns, lit fires, everything you could imagine."

The PP, meanwhile, says it's been handed the same treatment. A party spokesman said: "We have complained to the Second Life commission about the terrorism."

Given the way things are going, we suggest it's only a matter of time before the United Nations is forced to intervene in Second Life, possibly prompted to action by a US pre-emptive strike against the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shopping mall's enriched uranium emporium. Watch this space. ®

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