The Twitter musings of Gerry Adams have long been a source of widespread fascination. In the 1980s the Sinn Féin president was considered so threatening to national stability they got someone to dub over his voice on the evening news. Now he puts kisses at the end of goodnight tweets, takes pictures of his breakfast and says things like: “Is anyone out there? Being twitterless is like lonely.”
Adams is a great example of how difficult it is to craft a cheeky online persona without looking as if you’ve forgotten to take your medication. For that reason, most politicians stick to the script: selfies with photogenic children, bromides about “a great day on the doorstep”, and faithfully regurgitating HQ’s spin lines.
A noble exception is Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson. Last week, after being included in a discussion of why politicians like to pose with animals, she volunteered a photo of herself next to a huge gawping fish. It prompted an equal split of responses between “Is that a Sturgeon?” and “Is that a Salmon(d)?” “Boom, tish. #TipYourWaitress” was her wry response. Davidson has also gamely participated in BuzzFeed reporter Jamie Ross’s long-running attempts to identify a young woman photographed eating a Solero held out by a young Alex Salmond many years ago. (Was this you? Please get in touch.)
Elsewhere it was manifesto week, and that meant lots of hacks faithfully posting images of dull booklets. Labour lost points for not recreating the “family staring at a nuclear sunset” vibe of its 2010 effort, offering instead a sombre screed about fiscal responsibility. At the launch of the Lib Dem manifesto, meanwhile, political editor Faisal Islam showed that Sky News is still trying to Make Periscope Happen by live streaming “5 pledges as conceptual art”. His colleague, Sophy Ridge, took us “behind the scenes on the Labour bus” as it headed up the A1 to Lincoln, showing off the vehicle’s fine range of crisps and bananas. No further word on Kay Burley’s chickens, sadly, although Andrew Marr joined Twitter last week and devoted his early tweets to the news he was smashing up his “much loved pigeon loft”. “Anyone got a recipe for pigeon pie?” he added, unsentimentally.
The political week culminated with the “challengers’ debate”. It attracted a respectable TV audience of 4.3 million, but didn’t captivate social media in the same way as its predecessors. The only meme to emerge was “Sultry Ed Miliband” (a screengrab of Ed Miliband, squinting slightly). The biggest loser was the prime minister, with “Why is David Cameron not at the debate?” topping Google’s search terms. Second place went to “what is austerity?” to which the answer is: “No point asking George Osborne, he’s the one who changed his deficit reduction target halfway through the parliament.” Boom tish. Tip your waitress.
Helen Lewis is deputy editor of the New Statesman
