Too many tweets make a…

November 10, 2009 — admin

twitter…Twit; I think we’ll settle for that on here. I woke up this morning to a lot of Twitter activity as people messaged me about things I appeared to have sent them on the social networking utility. Unfortunately, at best some of these messages were spam and at worst they were rather unsavoury.

Obviously my account had been hacked and I remember exactly how it happened. I was messaged by a follower with the words “Why are you on here?” followed by a link. In my innocence, I took it to mean why was I on Twitter and clicked the link – which in it’s shortened Twitter version didn’t appear to be problematic.

Er, no. The next thing I know, the good people who follow me were bombarded with unpleasant messages and to all of them, I want to apologise. Most of them, thankfully, will have realised that those weren’t from me and many were good enough to message me and let me know what was going on.

I find blogging and Twitter to be a really enjoyable element of my life and I think that the people who delight in going around and spamming through others’ accounts must lead pretty sad and meaningless lives. Unfortunately, wherever there is a good thing, society will harbour people determined to ruin it for everyone else and use it for their own ends regardless of the inconvenience and embarrassment for others.

What a shame. Anyway, I shall certainly take a bit more care on Twitter in the future. Only a couple of people decided to unfollow me because of it; I’m grateful for those who haven’t for understanding.

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#welovetheenvironment

August 25, 2009 — simonashall

Having achieved a degree of success conning the media into following their vacuous Twitter campaign #welovethenhs, @KerryMP and the Labour e-coterie has now decided to run another silly season bandwagon, this time on the environment.

Enter Ed Miliband, the Environment Secretary now fully Twittered up, who Tweeted a week ago:

“@KerryMP totally agree on end of the line. Showed in my constit. did they give
out guide on fish to buy? Should be campaign on this.”

This particular piece of non-communication refers not to the end of the line for the Labour government followed by advice on having to buy your own fish (as opposed to getting it on expenses) but to the Bluefin Tuna boycott being pioneered by this organisation.

Now it’s turned into a wider campaign on the Road to Copenhagen, where in 104 days, world leaders will sit down and talk about the environment. They will discuss carbon outputs before India, China and the US refuse to lower their own emissions, instead paying for lesser developed nations to lower theirs in lieu. They will refuse to cut air travel, increase investment in renewable technology, lower oil consumption and take proper action over the destruction of rainforest and natural green space.

There will be no progress on population control (except in China where the sensible one-child policy is the most far-sighted thing about that nation) and instead we will get a series of headline-grabbing initiatives such as save the whale, hug the trees and re-glaze the icebergs – none of which will make the slightest difference to our environmental mess.

Still, if Labour really wants to push this charade as caring about the environment, that’s their problem. I’m sure a #RoadtoCopenhagen topic will appear soon, as well as some media coverage about climate-change denying Tories (which no doubt they will try and generate – Tory MPs/MEPs beware).

And after the environment, what will be the next campaign? It’s not as if Labour hasn’t got a huge mess that they’ve landed this nation in to try and sort out.

Posted in Environment, Labour, Twitter. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

McCarthyism is back

August 24, 2009 — simonashall

There is one Labour MP whose media profile is being inflated by a concerted PR effort and that is Kerry McCarthy, the highly prolific Twitterer who in between tweets is also MP for Bristol East.

Having managed 4,555 updates in 36 weeks – that’s 126 a week, or an average of 18 each day – @KerryMP has now been “officially” appointed as Labour’s Twitter Tsar by Douglas Alexander, who was not only a very poor Secretary of State for Transport but will now look after Gordon Brown‘s general election campaign.

The very fact that anyone would be foolish enough to take on such a job is reason enough in my mind to doubt their judgement and to appoint a Twitter Tsar seems to institutionalise Twitter in a way that is the very opposite of its original intended purpose. That MPs have to be trained on how to use it is damning of the calibre of people that sit in parliament – most 14-year olds seem to pick it up in a few days.

So the thrusting of @KerryMP, willingly no doubt, into the limelight (she’s also in PR Week today as well) may seem like a good plan but I doubt that Twitter is going to win many votes at the next general election. Most people on Twitter are there, by their very nature, because like me they’ve already made up their mind and have something to say.

And Twitter is the perfect ether into which to spray their rants, prejudices and humour in the hope that some like mind will be found to appreciate it.

PS: @KerryMP ought not to spend too much time Twittering because her Bristol East seat is vulnerable. In 2005, neighbouring Bristol North turned yellow, overturning a Labour majority of 4,500 to give a majority of 5,000 to Stephen Williams. @KerryMP (majority 8,500) is facing ex-West Byfleet Tory councillor-turned Lib Dem PPC Mike Popham in the seat in 2010, which is packed full of students (ironically as a result of Labour’s accessibility programme). Will she hang on? Electoral Calculus predicts a Conservative gain of all things!

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Cameron's four-letter rant

July 29, 2009 — simonashall

Well, here’s the thing. DC went on Absolute Radio this morning and – presumably completely on purpose – used the words “twat” and “piss” (the latter as a verb) to get his point across.

Swearing doesn’t really bother me much; having worked in a newsroom for the former part of my career I got pretty used to it and even, I dare say, may have uttered a few choice phrases myself.

But there’s no need for DC to stoop to this kind of “Hague’s baseball cap” lowest common denominator. He’s a great interviewee and superb speaker with effective messages. He has a talent, like Tony Blair had, of capturing the issues that the public care about.

So I agree with David Hughes’s analysis in the Telegraph – it’s all a bit desperate and contrived. I thought Peter Mandelson had cornered the market there with his “underdog” confession on behalf of Labour. Sadly I was wrong.

More worryingly, this whole episode wasn’t spontaneous despite the immediate apology. The apology itself calls into question the tactic – did he mean to use those words? If not, why did he? If he meant to, why apologise? Is this a double bluff? Or a triple? It’s all a bit confused and DC, who’s normally spot on with this PR stuff, seems to have made a bad call.

The Telegraph Tories won’t like it and although they’ll probably vote for him anyway, it will leave a strange, unfamiliar taste in the mouth. That’s sometimes necessary – but surely not here?

Posted in David Cameron, Twitter, politics. Tags: , , , , , . No Comments »
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