I don’t want to boast or anything, but something I said on Facebook the other day has – at the time of writing this – received no less than 141 ‘likes’.

I don’t know how well-liked you are, but for me this is easily a record, by more than a hundred.

But even this is trivial compared with the current Facebook interest in the Magic Roundabout, which, though it might be stretching it to say it has gone ‘viral’, is certainly topical.

It started a few days ago when a lady from the United States – you could tell she was from there because, to her, roundabouts are ‘traffic circles’ – posted a picture of the Magic Roundabout she had found.

“Isn’t it amazing?” she asked. More than 1,300 ‘shares’ later and after nearly 3,000 ‘likes’ of her original comment, countless people have had their say about it, many of them from our fair town.

Most were eager to tell the lady how clever the Magic Roundabout is, with tips on how to negotiate it, although a worrying number said the trick is to aim the car where you want to go, and put your foot down.

The vast majority seemed proud of the Magic Roundabout, as they should be. As we all know, it is the work of a genius, and only one in a long line of brilliant inventions to come out of Swindon.

But then there were the usual handful of people who seized the opportunity to tell the world how bad Swindon is, often with the bizarre logic that if it is famous for a roundabout, nothing else of note could ever have come out of it.

I will not flatter such ignorance with a reply.

Neither will we dwell on those Oxford United supporters who jumped on the bandwagon as if we are the slightest bit interested in their football-biased drivel.

But I would like to spend a little time addressing those people who, it turns out, live in Swindon, but are still keen to tell us how unlucky we are to live in such a “boring” place.

It takes a lot to upset me these days, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people who spend their time complaining about their home town.

If it really is that bad, perhaps it’s because there are too many people moaning about it who either don’t have the brains to do anything about it, or are too lazy. I’m a great believer in places being what residents make of them. It beats me why they think Swindon owes them something when they offer nothing in return.

But what really bothers me is that these people seem to think it is compulsory to live here. Don’t they realise they are free to leave if they think there is a much better place to live?

Perhaps they would be kind enough to send us a postcard when they get there, because we’d love to know where it is.

In the end, I got so fed up with people knocking the town – people who should think themselves lucky – that I put up my own post on the subject.

The Magic Roundabout (I said) is just like people from Swindon – interesting, easy-going, clever, super-efficient… and much friendlier than you might think.

It’s true – and it was this comment that received all those ‘likes’.

Yet still the wolves were baying.

One person, called Hugh, reckoned I don’t get out much and wittily added: “Swindon is disgusting ha ha.” Thanks for that, Hugh. It must have taken you ages to think that one up.