Peter Rhodes on burning bikes, rioting over microchips and mixed reflections on being Yorkshire-born

Anti-lockdown demonstrators in Holland set fire to bicycles. A very Dutch riot.

I was transported back to 1981 when I was helping to choose a new computer system for a newspaper group. Our research took us to The Hague where a Dutch newspaper proudly showed off its system. We remarked on the silence, the tidiness, the cool competence of a computer-powered newsroom. Each time we paid a compliment, our Dutch hosts smiled and chorused brightly: “Ya, it's the new technology.”