Afternoon Mugs,

What a miserable fucking country this has become. We're passing laws preventing child refugees being reunited with their families. We're withdrawing from the EU and the Erasmus program allowing UK students to study abroad. We have radio stations allowing people to call in and tell 'retainers' to clear off and live in the EU (if only we could do that easily). We have a US president ordering assassinations in foreign lands and then warning said lands not to retaliate. We have airliners being shot down by missiles due to the assassination. We have a member of the Royal Family and his new wife vilified by the Great British Public for choosing to try a different and less pressurised way of life, rather than be driven down the same path that killed his mother. We have moronic, racist, jingoistic useless fuckwit MPs demanding a 'Big Ben  peal of bells on Brexit night. Because , you know, there's fuck all wrong with rubbing peoples noses in your fatuous victory.  

And herein lies the problem -= the Great British Public (GBP) . They have a voice now through Facebook, Twitter and the Daily Mail/Express/Sun comments sections. And of course this gives the impressions that the GBP are a bunch of mewling , gullible, racist, homophobic little Englander (yes the English are the main culprits) pillocks. Now no doubt some of them are. Some are ill educated, some choose to be ignorant, some think it's a laugh and some are trolls. What everyone, and I include me in this, is to remember that Social media is NOT the world. Social media is a new phenomenon....it's a spoilt kid that allows other split kids to sit behind the shelter of a keyboard and spout hatred, untruths, lies, defamation and bullying. It pains me to say it, but maybe regulation is needed. But then we value 'freedom of speech' don't we? The harsh fact is our freedom of speech has always had boundaries, but maybe more are needed. This goes for the web page comments sections as well. 

Perhaps it's time to look at 'licensing' internet and social media access, making base criteria like a  valid debit card/credit card/ID/passport a user requirement. Validated email addresses must be linked for all accounts. Phone numbers? Postal addresses? Electoral register entires for over 18s? Parental authorisation for under 18s? I don't know the answers, but I do know it's harder and harder to turn off the bile and hatred being legitimately piped over the airwaves, into our TVs and onto our laptops, tablets and phones, and then to differentiate good from bad and right from wrong and truth or lie. 

if something doesn't change, then I fear society is being dragged down into a race to the the very bottom, a free for all where moderation, reason, fact and debate is drowned out by the crowd-think hatred of the GBP. 

Depressing huh?

Later Mugs, GJ