Man in monkey suit starts revolution?
It's the trivial things that count.
Revolutionary figure?
"Twitter ye not"! A very old and well worn joke that's been around since the day the social networking site of the same name was launched. And I see Richard North on EUReferendum used it the other day too. So there you are, good advice from comedian Frankie Howerd. Except for the fact he had died before social networking in the style we now know had been invented. There is also the important point that Howerd would have said "titter ye not", as this was one of his favourite lines. And another thing, Howerd's idea of social networking was to sit in a favourite pub with friends.
Either way it's worth a quick look at the Twitter war . South Tyneside Council have become upset about allegations of this and that concerning local dignitaries being posted on Twitter. I've talked about this, or tried to, with friends "it's all so trivial", they declared. Yes, and that's the point, hence the whole affair is worthy of a second look. At the root of all this malarkey is something as old as the hills. I first came across this 30 years ago when a friend who worked in local government let me in on one of the office secrets.
Twitter arithmetic
The significance of numbers
Frankie Howerd
As predicted the death toll of UK soldiers in Afghanistan has exceeded 200 in 8 years. This totemic figure will ensure that the media spotlight will shine brightly, for a while, on a number of issues given a trial run recently - equipment shortages is an obvious one. But let's wait and see for it's unlikely that anything related to strategy will be part of a wider public debate.
Tragic as the 200 deaths are they have to be seen alongside the 30,000 over 5 years in NHS hospitals from superbugs, reported in the Telegraph. Over the same period as the war in Afghanistan this would be 48,000 deaths. What a strange world it is, the deaths of soldiers only jars the national conscience when the figure has a certain resonance, yet deaths from superbugs appear to be running at over 100 per week. But the only hint of a debate, which soon turns into a bipolar rant, is when MEP Daniel Hannan makes his opinions of the concept of 'Big State' as related to health provision known on a US TV news programme.
