you can put lipstick on a scum-sucking pig but it is still a scum-sucking pig
That’s apparently what Labour MP David Wright said about the Tory party on Twitter on Monday. I say “apparently” because he claims he didn’t say it. He says that his tweets have been tinkered with. He says that the words “scum-sucking” have been inserted by someone else. But how likely does that seem? I think that we need to consider three alternatives.
- The tweet was changed by someone before it was passed to Twitter. This would imply that Wright has someone else who actually runs his Twitter account for him and who decided to have a little fun. No such Twitter assistant has been mentioned by Wright, so I think we can dismiss this possibility.
- The tweet has been edited since it was initially submitted to Twitter. Now Twitter doesn’t offer users the facility to edit old tweets so this would involve someone hacking into the the Twitter database, tracking down one tweet by an obscure British politician and changing that. I know that if I wanted to start hacking into Twitter and changing tweets, David Wright would be a long way down my list of potential targets. I think we can dismiss this possibility too.
- David Wright is being dishonest. Given that his first response to people complaining about the tweet was “Oh dear, upsetting Tories again. Must’ve hit a nerve” and that the tampering story only emerged later, I think this is a far more likely explanation.
Which leaves us wondering why he thought that lying about it like this was a good idea. This time I think we have two options to consider:
- Wright knows nothing about how any of this stuff works and doesn’t realise how ridiculous his story sounds.
- Wright knows how ridiculous he sounds, but believes that none of his constituents understand this internet stuff so they won’t realise that he’s talking nonsense.
To be honest, I don’t think that either of those alternatives show Wright in a particularly good light. In the first option, Wright is an elected representative who is apparently jumping on the Twitter bandwagon without understanding the first thing about the tools he is using. And in the second he’s someone who doesn’t mind deliberately lying to the electorate as long as he thinks there’s a good chance that he won’t be found out.
I have way of knowing which of those two alternatives is an accurate description of what happened here. But if I was voting in Telford I’d be having a serious think about whether I wanted a man like Wright representing me in Parliament.
Update: David Wright has issued a statement. He says:
My Twitter account has been hacked into and changed,” he said. “I have demanded that Twitter provide me with the identity of whoever has inputted into my site. I will make a further statement when that information is available, and I will be seeking a meeting with ministers to discuss the general protection of blog sites.
To which I can only respond “Bwah Ha Ha!”