It is part and parcel of modern-day politics, and indeed much else, that a job applicant’s social media history gets pored over before they are even considered for appointment. Even those in office get the treatment. And it’s not just blogosphere gotchas that are made of wayward Tweets, as the trashing of Paris Brown, the successful applicant for Kent Youth Police Commissioner, by the Mail on Sunday showed.
He's desperate, Dan
And the past Twitter history of the loathsome Toby Young was enough to influence his decision to resign a post on the board of the new Office for Students recently. But oh, how the tune changes when the boot is so firmly on the other foot.
There is to be a Parliamentary by-election in Lewisham East soon, after Heidi Alexander resigned the seat, to take up the post of London’s Deputy Mayor for Transport. Much has been made of the selection battle, but all that paled into insignificance yesterday after Ian McKenzie, chair of Lewisham East CLP, was caught in possession of two viciously inflammatory items in his Twitter history.
Twitter shaming - OK for the MoS ...
These told “Emily Thornberry is too old for ISIS. They won’t make a sex slave of her. They’ll behead her and dump her in a mass grave”, and “Maybe she’d agree sex slavery to one man only, provided he didn’t sell her on or insist on gang rape”.
Now I hate to come over all censorious, but that is bang out of order. No ifs, no buts. So what would a representative of the MoS - the paper that thought it OK to trawl through a teenager’s Twitter feed and then trash her all over its front page - like to say about it?
... even if the target is a teenager
Well, we have an answer: the MoS’ not even slightly celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges has come to his paper’s rescue. After Owen Jones had called out Mike Gapes, a Labour MP who ought to know better, for dismissing criticism of McKenzie’s abhorrent behaviour as “trolling and sectarian bullying”, Hodges was away.
“The Corbynites’ commitment to internal Labour democracy being underlined by the way they’re currently targeting Lewisham East chair @iMcKenzied for having the temerity to take a stand against the attempted stitch-up in favour of their candidates … Moderate Labour MP says ‘enough is enough’. Corbynites move to stitch up the selection of her replacement. CLP chair takes a stand against them. Corbynites extract revenge by targeting and smearing him. This isn’t politics, it’s base gangsterism”.
Oh look - Twitter shaming is now Very Bad Indeed!
There was more. “Important lesson tonight for any Labour moderates who think they can engage constructively with the Corbynites. Take a stand against them - even in defence of internal Labour democracy and due process -and they will come for you and try to destroy you”. Shine a light, his comments were beyond the pale. But Hodges wasn’t finished.
There had to be leftie blaming: “I understand Skwakbox and other Corbynites have claimed I “doubled down” last night, and defended the chair of Lewisham East Ian McKenzie after he made comments which a number of people found offensive. So let me clarify. Yep, I did. And I’m doing it again this morning”. Someone else’s fault, see?
And then came the pièce de résistance: “Ian McKenzie's comments were ugly. But in the context of negotiating with the murders, torturers, rapists and slavers of IS - legitimate”.
No, Dan. Just no. Not even a little, teensy bit justifiable. Had that been a Corbyn supporter making those comments about someone on the right of the Labour Party, Dan Hodges would have been cheering on his pals in the right-wing press as they splashed the comments all over their front pages. There would have been no “context” justification then.
But when it’s someone who they can call “moderate”, even the representative of the paper that creepily trawled a teenager’s Twitter feed just so they could trash her reputation on their front page is back-pedalling so furiously that he looks beyond foolish.
“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less’”. Humpty Dumpty Hodges has shown the world that he and his press pals are now Through The Looking Glass.
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