Tag: Twitter
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Meddle Ceremony
I am a fan of etymology and the origins of words, but I have always known that they might sometimes be susceptible to the incorporation of urban legends. This false etymology, as linguists term it, sometimes takes the form of outwardly reasonable explanations that are essentially flawed or backronyms (acronyms that are contrived to provide…
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Fiefdom of Speech
The Twitter police have been sharpening their pitchforks and have disabled a number of high-profile accounts, most notably those of Katie Hopkins and the writer Graham Linehan. Others who stand firmly outside the liberal thought-orthodoxy circle of trust are next up for a jolly good forking. Inevitably, this has raised a furore about attacks on…
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Plane Daft
A banner reading ‘White Lives Matter Burnley!’ was towed by an aeroplane over the Etihad Stadium during Burnley’s game against Manchester City. The plane circled over the stadium five times just after kick-off after players and staff had ‘taken the knee‘ in support of the Black Lives Matter movement moments earlier. Predictably, the reaction to…
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The New Black
So, black lives matter. Well, they do this week because there’s a big old meaty bandwagon gathering pace and every bloated, comfortable, privileged hypocrite wants to hop on for the ride. If black lives mattered – as a point of social reality – then the Back Lives Matter movement would not need to exist. Make…
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Scum Off It
There’s a lot of anger about at the moment. ‘Dominic Cummings has undermined the Government’s key messaging, and people will die’. That’s the gist of the populist line, and yes, the sublime irony is noted. How about an alternative perspective: ‘The Government has ballsed up their strategy, policy, and messaging for the coronavirus response’. I…
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Phone a Friend
Another day, another distraction. This time, the Prime Minister’s principal adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been outed for allegedly breaching lockdown rules 10 weeks ago. He denies that, and no action had been taken at the time. Meanwhile, the eloquence of lawyers who had been falling over themselves on social media to create ‘reasonable excuses’ for…
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Tweet to Woe
Out in the wide, beloved cybersphere, there seems to be just a slither of controversy about celebrities buying in fake social media followers. Ooh, the abject shame of it. It’s ruffled a few feather boas, I can tell you, and several fame hoggers have been on the receiving end of allegations that they’ve bought millions…
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The Six Million Follower Man
There seems to be a new trend on Twitter with posts commencing, ‘…now I don’t normally agree with [Person X], but…’ or, ‘It hurts to say it, but I agree with [Person X]. I have even withstood the visual assault of, ‘Four words I never thought I’d hear myself say: I. Agree. With. [Person X]‘.…
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Cyrus the Virus
Italy is in complete lockdown for 14 days, and Donald Trump is facing his toughest presidential fight yet. Not from the coronavirus but from boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome. After dining out for years on the battle against alleged media froth, he’s now being screwed by real fake news, if you get my drift. Well, that and the…
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For Fox Sake…
Well, my Boxing Day was relatively quiet – just how I like it. Though not everybody could say the same. Prominent Remain lawyer Jo Maugham QC was out in his back garden, too-small-satin-kimono-clad, duly dispatching a wild fox that had strayed into his chicken complex (no pun intended). As per the current penchant for microblogging,…
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