The Prime Minister said that in the internet age a reclusive country like Burma, also known as Myanmar, can no longer remain hidden away from the world.

“Direct people power is going to be a force not just for individual countries but for foreign policy as well,” Mr Brown told a conference organised by Google in Watford.

He predicted that “whether it is famine, cyclone or whatever, pressure from the people is going to force government interaction.”

– Thomas Bell, “Myanmar cyclone: The internet will shame Burma’s junta, says Gordon Brown”, The Telegraph, 19 May 2008.