I have just watched the Tyne, Tees and Border News. One item was particularly interesting. A group of Iranians in Middlesborough were protesting about the unknown number of people killed in the last few weeks in Iran after the recent election. The protest was peaceful they asked for freedom. There was a similar protest in Newcastle last week.

Our democracy is far from perfect I am very critical of many things this government has done or not done in the case of affordable housing for everyone.

But I felt a sense of pride in British democracy that peaceful demonstrations against our own government or in this case a foreign government are part of the system. We can all take pride in something that took hundreds of years to achieve and the lives of many brave trade unionists and suffragettes, politicians and awkward characters like Tom Paine, who wrote ," The Rights of Man ". A famous man once said the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. There is a great need to keep ourselves well informed. The internet is one way that I have very recently discovered.