The Observer, which is celebrating its 225th birthday, has a long article today criticising Google and Facebook for publishing fake news.
The Observer, of course, publishes only true news. Its editor, who is not elected, decides what goes in and how it is presented. Some of this true news is opinion. The Observer follows a left of centre course, so maybe those of a right of centre persuasion may not agree that it is all true news.
Google does not follow a left or right course. Its unique selling proposition is that it give you everything there is. You have to decide which of it you believe as true and which you reject as false.
The Observer's view is that Google and Facebook should be controlled in some way so they show only the news which is acceptable to Observer readers.
Russia and China follow this line of thinking. They allow their people to see only the stuff their ruling party thinks acceptable.
The European Commission also thinks there should be controls on what Google and Facebook show. They have ordered that past misdeeds should be excluded from search results.
I prefer to live in a world in which I can see everything there is and make my own mind up about it. And I am happy that the loonies, on whichever left, right or religious extreme they dwell, also have this right.
We as a society and the politicians we elect will be stronger if we face up to these issues and debate them, rather than pretending they do not exist.
This blog is usually concerned with putting the world to rights. Journalists always think they know how to run the world better than those who actually do.
Today, it is about me. I have been diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease. The nerves which take signals from my brain to my muscles are failing.
The only symptom so far is my voice. The muscles which control it are getting confused signals. They do the best they can, but the sound is not as mellifluous as it was.
Everything else works fine. It will not always be so.
My mother died of motor neurone disease. It took two years from diagnosis to death in the 1980s. Since then, cancer outcomes are much better. Motor neurone outcomes are not.
The world will have to work out how to get along without my advice.
I am always cynical when unions say they are striking over safety.
Train workers usually do it. Junior doctors are now doing it.
Funny how safety always requires more staff to be hired, or wages to be increased.
I have no time for train strikers who want to keep jobs which are no longer needed.
I have little time for either side in the NHS dispute. We do need a 7-day service. We do need negotiators who can negotiate, not take fixed positions.
The government put a 7-day service in its manifesto. It is obliged to bring it in.
It is ludicrous that the Health Secretary has allowed himself to be drawn into the dispute and become the great Satan. It is ludicrous that the doctors have allowed their union to negotiate a settlement and have then rejected that settlement.
The only solution now is for an independent arbitrator to be set up with the authority to impose a solution on all parties.
Negotiations over our future relationship with the European Union are expected to be long and difficult.
Negotiations between Canada and the EU have been long and are still not completed.
The EU has a complex arrangement with Norway, another with Switzerland and a third with Greenland.
The World Trade Organisation has similar problems in getting agreement. The deals America is trying to do with others are likewise fraught.
Why doesn't the EU draw up a single contract which any country or company which wants to trade with it has to sign?
This contract could specify the rules you have to follow, the tariffs and taxes you have to pay and so on.
Countries which wanted to leave the EU or trade with the EU would then have certainty over what they had to do.
Membership inside the EU, with all the benefits that brings; one contract for those outside, without those benefits.
This contract could be a model for other trading groups to follow.
I'm sure such a contract could be drawn up inside two years, sooner if lawyers are not involved.
It must be simpler than trying to negotiate with every country indvidually.
And if that is possible, why not draw up a single contract for citizens? Agree to these principles, pay this fee and you can be an individual mamber of the EU. If you don't you will have to jump through these hoops if you want to visit or live in the EU.
Having individuals living under another county's rules but following your principles could be a great way of promoting your values.
An earthquake causes chaos. It often brings further chaos in its wake in the form of aftershocks and tsunamis.
The European Union referendum is doing likewise. The old certainties of countries and their political tribes are in danger of disappearing under the rubble and the waves.
The Conservatives and Labour now realise that at least half of the people who used to support them cannot be relied upon to follow the party line.
The public have discovered that politicians who normally tell you their opponents are idiots, can park their scorn and work with the opposition for a specific cause.
Westminster has discovered that Scotland is cleverer than it is. Northern bits of England think the government doesn't understand them or listen to them and deserves a good kicking. They are seduced by charlatans who tell them all their problems can be solved by getting out of Europe and stopping immigration.
In Scotland the Scottish National Party does understand its people, from the Gorbals to the Hebrides. They are pro-Europe, pro-immigration and feeling good about themselves. And the referendum has given them another reason for getting out of the UK.
Out of all this I expect to see new parties created, more coalition governments, more devolved power, more internet polls to test an idea before it is put to an official vote.
And we could see the return of an old idea - the city state, If a union of countries is too unwieldy, why not a union of cities. London, New York, Paris have more in common with each other than they have with the rest of their country. Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and his Paris counterpart Anne Hidalgo wrote a joint letter to the FT this week suggesting more co-operation.
Disappointing referendum result. Life will not be better out of the European Union.
The have nots will have even less and will have to find someone else to blame. Those who are celebrating today will help them - Donald Trump, Marine le Pen, Geert Wilders.
The EU will be better off without Britain opting out of this and that. It will move towards 'ever-closer union' and life there will get better.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am a European. I think the European Union is a good idea. Working with other countries is good; working alone is bad.
I also like immigrants. Anyone who has the initiative to leave where they are and go somewhere else to get a better life is likely to be more successful than somebody who stays in Hull or Tirana and complains that there are no jobs.
And I question the belief that where we are born defines us. Governments think it does and gives us passports to reinforce that view. Politicians also claim that people who were born somewhere else are sufficiently different to be a threat.
In this internet-connected society, we are defined by who we are, who our friends are, what interests and beliefs we have. I have more in common with people who have worked in newspapers, people who follow football and people interested in technology, wherever they are in the world, than I have with people in Britain who are interested in religion or TV personalities.
My interest in politics is not soley in Westminster; it is in how people in different countries tackle the problems we all face.
The internet is international. Big companies are international. Refugees are international. Crime and terrorism are international. If nation states are to survive, they must join forces with other nation states to become international, too.
Deciding to pull out of an international group because you don't like foreigners or you think our governments are so good they should be allowed to work without any help from outside, is obtuse.
And politicians who play on people's fears about immigrants have always been dangerous.
Please vote Remain on Thursday.
Well done Caroline Lucas. The Green Party's only MP always talks sense and her contribution to the European debate says something no other politician has dared to say: the free movement of people is a good thing.
'No case for the EU is complete without making clear just how much we value the contributions of our fellow Europeans to our country. They are our doctors, our nurses, our shopkeepers, our plumbers, our teachers, our professors, our builders. They are our friends, our neighbours.'
All we have heard so far is: immigrants = bad; free movement = terrorism.
Lucas counters this: 'The warped myth-making on migration won't be beaten by winning this referendum alone; it will be beaten when politicians are bave enough to stand up to the myths and lies and promote fair, alternative solutions.'
She is right. Immigrants are people like us who want to live somewhere where bombs don't fall, or regimes oppress. Or they simply want to achieve more than they can where they are.
When I was a young lad, I gave up the job I had in the city where I grew up and sought fame and fortune 300 miles away. How does that differ from a lad in Bulgaria wanting to see if he can make it in Germany, or Britain? That's what freedom of movement does. It gives people opportunities.
People from other countries may not look like us; they may not speak like us; they may be more keen on religion than us. Does that make them people to be feared, or interesting people from whom we may learn something? Do we still think we are best and all other people are inferior?
In American Donald Trump is gaining votes by telling people foreigners are the cause of all their troubles. I recall another demagogue telling the people of his country that all their troubles were caused by Jews.
In Britain, we have Jeremy Corbyn challenging the status quo with a vision of the 1940s. And we have the Green Party, shaking things up with common sense on immigration and a basic state wage.
I like to think our radicals are more sensible than the Americans, but whether their voices are heard or drowned out by the bile will only become clear on June 24.
Of the three music stars who died recently, the one I will miss most of all is Glenn Frey, of the Eagles.
Bowie was inventive, Lemmy was loud, but Frey was clever with words and music, and there are few who do both well.
'It's a girl my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me'
'City girls seem to find out early, how to open doors with just a smile.'
'You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave'
Words like that, with great guitar and drum work from a bunch of long-haired, tall, lean guys in jeans and checked shirts made the Eagles special.
And they were proper rock stars. They fought each other, they drank and took drugs.
They made great records. Thank you Glenn.
