Tweeting Troubles

The funniest political moment of the week came at last Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) - when David Cameron turned the tables on one of his inquisitors - Gloria De Piero, the Labour frontbencher.  

Now Gloria, as many MPs do these days, had been using Twitter to engage and interact with the public - an area fraught with difficulties as everyone knows - but Gloria made the mistake of asking her Twitter followers what question she should ask the PM at PMQs.

To which a fellow Tweeter responded:

"How happy are you that the leader of the Labour party will still be in place at the next election?”

Now Gloria wisely decided not to ask this question - knowing full well that it was a trap designed to show her party leader, Ed Miliband, up in a poor light - given his disastrous poll ratings these days. 

But the Prime Minster had been alerted to Gloria's Tweets and pounced on the Ed Miliband question - demanding to know why the MP had dumped this in favour of a 'safe' question on city bonuses.

So I suppose the lesson is for politicians to be aware that their Tweets are read by political adversaries as well as friends unless - like the following chap from UKIP - you're not remotely bothered about alienating potential voters in Scotland. 

@RonNorthcott1 (UKIP)
“Just saw a clip of jocks haranguing Nigel Farage. Unbelievably, one strung a whole sentence together — ‘Scum’, and was sober.” UKIP’s former election candidate in Plymouth resigned after calling Scots “workshy addicts”.