We have been told that the Internet is the ultimate tool of democracy, a tool which reduces the government ministers of closed states like North Korea and Mayanmar to quake in their Gucci combat boots.
Now our own humble electronic forum, Scuttlebutt, has bared its teeth in the face of alleged bullyboy tactics from a giant corporation.
Yachting Monthly reader Mark Walker, who sails a Warwick Collins 38 from Anglesey, North Wales, dissented electronically at his treatment by cheapo grocery store Aldi . They charged him £30 for a parking infringement.
Big mistake.
Suddenly the legions of Scuttlers, who are normally complaining about their SWMBOs, telling incredibly long-winded and misspelt jokes, or ranting about the weather, awoke from their isolated yet shared reveries to a real threat. In sailing terms it was like spotting a supertanker nosing quietly up the Hamble. In no time at all the cash-only chain was being hung out to squirm.
All anoraks were off as the lads piled in one after the other supplying websites for complaints about Aldi; telephone numbers and names for Aldi’s PR people; threats of a boycott and a description of Aldi as ‘parking Nazis’. By the time the online pages had reached 5, and the views had reached 1,319 Mark had been promised a refund by the Third Reich of grocers.
It’s enough to warm the cockles of the saddest heart.