Ben Duncan’s Twitter troubles have been fun to follow, even if their outcome – for the councillor – has been unfortunate.

It’s a medium that encourages political gaffes, due to an instant distribution of idle thoughts from a ubiquitous pocket device.

There is a precedent, however. Think of a schoolboy who uses simpler tools to inscribe critiques of pupils and teachers on to a wooden desktop. More wayward, the teenager with spray can or marker pen who tags a neighbourhood with vain proclamations.

Twitter, used carefully, can speed bullets of knowledge at the speed of a click. Used clumsily, it is nothing more than digital graffiti.

Aren’t the council meant to remove that?

Peter Poole, Eastern Road, Brighton