Wheelie bins

To the Today programme:

So!  There's a shortage of wheelie bins.  

I am so pleased!  There is nothing so ugly as a straddled line of these things along roads and streets, waiting to be collected.

We never asked for them and so they are living proof that we do not actually live in a democratic society.

Bring back the humble dustbin!

To Clay Shirky

I don't know whether this is a tiny example of what you are on about but it certainly amazes me.  Two or three months ago I go to a presentation about how social neworking on the net can help business and the guy mentions Twitter and the work of Hugh MacLeod.  I should mention that this happened in Bradford, a former textile city in the north of England, near where I live.  So there's thousands of miles between us all here.

I have formerly never heard of Hugh MacLeod and he certainly has not heard of me (to my knowledge still hasn't).  So I set up a Twitter account of my own and followed his twitters and even became concerned when he stopped twittering for a while - he had mentioned that his dad was ill and I thought something terrible might have happened.  Anyway, one day he mentions you and your book.  So I begin following you twittering and I buy the book.  It arrived today, I've read the first chapter now and enjoyed it immensely.

Not too many years ago, none of this could have happened.  As you say - a social revolution.