The revelation that the suspect in the murder of Sir David Amess was allegedly lured into extremism by the online hate preaching of Anjem Choudary is stomach-churning.
Choudary, a British Islamist, was jailed for five-and-a-half years following a trial at the Old Bailey in London in 2016 after he was deemed to have been a recruiting sergeant for the blood-soaked Islamic State terror movement.
It is outrageous that material from extremists such as Choudary can be found online by just a few clicks of a mouse.
There are now fears of a new wave of radicals being unleashed.
Alarms have been raised over concerns about those who have time during lockdown being brainwashed by online sermons and lectures.
Since Amess’s death, there have been calls for the online abuse of politicians to be tackled – and for anonymous accounts to be prohibited.
Making that work will be fraught and difficult but the broadcasts of convicted hate preachers should not be available to anyone with access to the internet.
If radicalisation and extremism is to be tackled then the online giants who rule the information age have to be brought to heel and face the same rules of the rest of us.
In the meantime, hate speech should be taken down from online platforms as soon as it is brought to the attention of content providers.
Listen up, Yousaf
Three Scots health boards have now been forced to ask for help from Army medics because their staffing has hit crisis point.
And with staff at two other health boards revealing they, too, have problems, it is clear the predicted winter crisis has arrived a season early.
A&E departments, maternity units, acute services and the ambulance service have all been warning of the forthcoming crisis.
The perfect storm of Brexit, staffing shortages, increased delayed discharges, Covid isolation and sickness levels in hospitals and a general lack of beds generally – because of planned reductions in recent years – has led to queues at hospital doors and ward closures.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf needs to step up to the plate and take charge.
This NHS-wide crisis cannot be fixed with cash alone and Yousaf needs to listen properly to those on the front line who know better than anyone what needs to be done.
Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie is correct when she says: “Winter is now.”
But if this is already winter, Scotland’s NHS could be heading for the longest cold snap in history.
