Our Country of Children

All the talk on the morning news was about government ideas about powers to shut down social media during our next round of riots. Or, I suppose, whenever they feel it necessary.

I'm going to go ahead and assume this is a "much ado about nothing" situation, even though both television and radio news were talking of little else. Just because I can't imagine this is at all a serious consideration, but rather some press making a big deal out of Cameron's throwaway comments. I hope...?

In any case that fact that anybody in government even considered the option of shutting down social media (or any form of media) during emergencies is a clear sign that these people have little or no understanding of, well, virtually anything. I mean, they might have wonderful stamp collections, or grow magnificent aubergines, but they know little about why and how people communicate.

You don't have to like Twitter to accept that other people DO like it, and use it. For me it worked wonders during the riots breaking news about areas that were starting to look dangerous, what was happening where, and most important of all: in organising the riot clean up.

Or as I would have said when I was in high school: "Duh!"

Or, once again, Westminster looks out of its windows and sees not a nation of citizens, but a playground of children, who must be treated and dealt with accordingly.