I know it’s the silly season for news, but a tech story on BBC News today wins my prize for the year’s most witless tech waffle. Headlined “UK ‘could become hi-tech titan'”, the story refers to a report (unnamed and unreferenced) by consulting firm Deloitte that urges “swift action” (by who it does not say) “because overseas competition was threatening to eclipse the UK’s advantages”. And who is behind this blood- curdling warning of imminent danger? Fifty of the “UK’s top technology opinion-formers”, that’s who. Utterly unswayed by the vast government subsidies that keeps many of them in work, this fearless 50 say disaster can only be averted if there is “co-operation and communication between all those involved in the UK’s hi-tech sector – government, researchers, businesses and financiers”.