[burkean]

I think you might need to put your sarcasm detectors into British mode.

Questions around outsourcing, the standard of secondary education, and how education meets the needs of industry all loom fairly large in the British political landscape.

[_grrr]

Except I honestly don't think these answers weren't meant to be sarcastic. I sometimes skim through Guardian comments and these seem par for the course.

[TeMPOraL]

Poe's law? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

[swombat]

I've lived in the UK for way too long now, so my sarcasm detector is finely tuned... and I do think those are satyrical comments. It'd be hard for a clueless idiot to hit these buttons quite so precisely. Must be some smart commenters on the Guardian website!

[swombat]

*satirical ...

[jurchen]

now now swombat. i can't tell at all whether you are being sarcastic here. (newcomer to HN, won't be surprised to fail the tuning test)