for those of you who thought twitter was just about stephen frye telling us his latest move, we've now seen it. people on the street started uploading video clips onto youtube that men make their way into the -- then make their way into the news reports around the world. that's why the u.s. administration, rightly, asked twitter to postpone its web site maintenance so iranians could go on using the site. this, if you like, the sort of foreign policy in the information age giving other people power so they can use that power to demand change. and we've seen the dramatic power, let's be frank about it, of information to shape events right here at home. last month the daily telegraph published receipts and expense claims that had previously been kept secret, information that the authorities -- to their shame -- have even now only released in a half hearted way thick with black ink. but what the telegraph did, the simple act of providing information to the public, has triggered the biggest shake-up in our political system for years. informs alone has been -- information alone has been much