Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers

Rain, high winds and chilly with it. Yep, definitely Autumn out there at the moment.

I woke up at four in the morning, with the room spinning as if I'd been drinking. Not good, considering the strongest thing I had last night was a can of diet coke. I was awake for an hour or so, sitting up in bed again, nodding off to a nightmare about rescuing kittens from a fire just before the alarm went off. I was feeling lousy and couldn't face the drive to Leeds, so I rang into work and worked at home.

I have just been flabbergasted by the outcome of the Twitter joke trial. For a stupid joke to be so blown out of proportion and end up in this astonishing illiberal ruling is gob-smackingly stupid. Any hopes that the coalition would take a more reasonable approach on freedom of speech and civil liberties compared to Labour look to be going out of the window. It's also emerged today that a Conservative counsellor has been arrested for making an offensive joke on Twitter too. Good grief - the solution to things like this is to vote him out at the next election, not send in the internet storm troopers.

This is the day when we remember those who died for our freedoms. It mocks their sacrifice if we go down the route of totalitarian government where saying the wrong thing can get you arrested.