LAST week saw an average-speed camera cut down on a stretch of the A39 between Falmouth and Truro. 

Coincidentally, this seemed to happen less than a day after a certain right-wing 'personality' reportedly had his home searched and devices seized for allegedly advocating for people to vandalise ULEZ cameras. Am I stating as fact that there's a connection here? No. Does it look oddly coincidental to me? Yes. 

Now, if people are soft-headed enough to cut down an average-speed camera in a pathetic act of vandalism, that says everything you need to know about them. However, a scarier thought is that certain people in Cornwall are potentially being influenced by social media mouthpieces and pseudo-political commentators. 

With everything that's going on in the world today, what really terrifies this Skipper is the idea that we've become so entangled in technology we barely understand and so caught up in algorithmically generated echo chambers that we're beginning to lose our ability to engage with and act towards each other rationally. 

From those who froth at the mouth over the idea that we should be kind to asylum seekers to those who denounce anyone who disagrees with them as 'fascists', surely we are not yet at the point where our intellectual capabilities barely extend beyond caps-locked tweets?

If you're tempted to take out your frustrations with the world on an inanimate object, like a speed camera, maybe it's time you reassess your approach.