Monday, February 15, 2010

When in a Hole...

Oh dear. A Labour Minister and Whip, David Wright, has been caught lying. Red Handed. Banged to Rights. In THIS Telegraph article he denies using the words Scum Sucking Pigs, referring to Conservatives, yet as THIS screenshot clearly shows, he absolutely did use it.

In the Telegraph he says...

"Somebody has tinkered with my tweet. I never said 'scum sucking'. I said 'you can put lipstick on a pig and it is still a pig'. I need to find out how this happened."

Er, it's because you typed it mate. Jonathan Sheppard picked him up on it minutes after it appeared on his Twitter feed. As he has just tweeted...

@DavidWrightMP Y didnt you say they had been hacked after I RT your original "Scum Sucking" version to you calling it disgraceful 4 hrs ago?


Mr Wright should reflect that when in a hole it is best to stop digging, especially when you're using a bloody great JCB.

And he might reflect that government ministers in the past have had to resign for lying like this.


Daniel1979 said...

Good work. It's a shame that when the dust settles the collective reuptation of MPs will have been dragged further into the gutter.

Anonymous said...

and Iain, heres that conversation from Jan 18th, between bevaniteellie and davidwrightmp, pieced together.

If only! RT @Sambo119: @KerryMP we do really need a tory cabinet minister on here that twitters regularly
1:41 PM Jan 18th from TweetDeck

@BevaniteEllie There aren't any Tory cabinet ministers and long may that continue

1:42 PM Jan 18th from web in reply to BevaniteEllie

sorry, good god yes, we missed a shadow there! RT @DavidWrightMP: @BevaniteEllie aren't any Tory cabinet ministers &long may that continue
1:44 PM Jan 18th from TweetDeck

@BevaniteEllie as long as the scumbags stay in the shadow I'll be happy
1:46 PM Jan 18th from web in reply to BevaniteEllie

@DavidWrightMP haha! Brilliant. As will I.

Anonymous said...

Oh sorry Iain, you will notice that in that Jan 18th conversation, he refers to the entire shadow cabinet as scumbags.

Richard Gadsden said...

Let us suppose that someone else had hacked into his account and was waiting for him to post in order to change it.

They would need to see him post, note that he was posting from mobile web - ie from - log on to that site, delete the original tweet and then insert a new, edited tweet.

No, I don't believe that. Even if it was true, there would still be a tweet-number for the original (and Twitter can recover tweets if you ask them nicely). So there is some possible evidence if he wants some. Also, someone would probably have seen and have a copy of the original tweet.

Another possibility is that someone had a bot running on his computer which edited the text when he it Send without displaying it to him. Possible, if unlikely - but it would have to have been on his mobile (remember he posted the tweet via mobile web) and there's no way there's a bot running on his phone.

Old Holborn said...

I've got copies of the original and the apology ten minutes later

Let's see how far they dig first

no longer anonymous said...

Tories are scumbags are they?

Why do Labour activists hate the Tories so much? Amongst Tory activists I don't see the same bile directed towards Labour.

Old Holborn said...

I love the way an MP thinks he is smarter at the internet than the billions of us living on the internet. The ones who do this stuff for a living. The ones who watch them watching us.

Utter joy

Paul C said...

"And he might reflect that government ministers in the past have had to resign for lying like this."

Not ministers of this government, sadly - that would require a modicum of honour.

Frugal Dougal said...

The irony is, if he'd just put his hands up to it, we'd have huffed and puffed then forgotten about it.

Anonymous said...

You are too young to remember Crichel Down, but I think that if Ministers still had the same responsibility for the actions of their subordinates that company directors do in the private sector we might see some improvement in the treatment of ordinary people


If they can't tell the truth about a f*!$ing tweet, how can we trust them on the NHS and the economy?

Martin S said...

David Wright has a reputation for having a somewhat strained relationship with the truth.

Locals cannot stand him.,com_fireboard/Itemid,27/func,view/catid,91/id,9674/#9674

the man who fell back to bed said...

'And he might reflect that government ministers in the past have had to resign for lying like this.'

Iain - if they wont resign for being caught red handed theiving thousands in expenses, submitting blatantly false expense claims and even faking receipts, what makes you think this is going to lead to a resignation?

Unknown said...

No longer anonymous

Tottaly agree, listen to any R4 'comedy' the 'now show' being a prime example or stuff lick 'mock the week' and the hatred of the left is clear.

I would estimate that 90% of the bitterness in the country is owned by the richest 10% of comedians.

Unknown said...

2 words and 4 numbers for you Iain:

Grant. Shapps. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Not condoning Wrights subsequent actions. If he thinks Tories are "scum sucking pigs" then he should have the courage of his convictions. But at least he wasn't pretending to be someone else from a different party during an election campaign.

Dual Citizen said...

Don't ask me why (I was sitting in a bar for an hour before my friend showed up) I went through all David Wright's tweets going back to March last year.

He was incredibly civil - you could say boring - through the local and Euro election debacle. Then from about September he became "aggressive". References to Gorgy Porgey, slamming Paxman, finding every excuse to mention Lord Ashcroft, and then of course the scum.

What happened?

Could it be just a coincidence that just before he turned nasty Labour appointed our dear friend Kerry McCarthy as Twitter Czar?

The Empty Suit said...

"Please, Sir, A big boy hacked my Twitter and ran away, Sir"

Sean said...

If David Cameron wants to restore confidence in parliament - and I am sure he does - he should lay down broad and clear guidelines that this kind of behaviour will not be permitted in a Conservative government and that resignations will be expected.

Richard said...

You should also note that whilst you can delete a Tweet, you cannot EDIT a Tweet once it's been published so no one can tinker with his Tweet as he says

Pip said...

Tim Collard - a retired British diplomat (and stalwart Labour supporter)wrote a political blog for the Telegraph It is still there suggesting the Conservative party name should change to the LTV party - Lower Than Vermin.
Infantile and ugly.

The King of Wrong said...

no longer anonymous said:

It's because they think they're right, and that they have the only 'moral' position, ergo anyone disagreeing with them is not only wrong but also profoundly immoral.

And, as such, their (subhuman) opponents aren't worthy of respect or free speech or any rights at all - look how bent out of shape they get when the BNP have the temerity to use the freedom of speech that they claim to support.

Tom said...

It is worth bearing in mind Iain, as I'm sure you've figured out for yourself, it is literally impossible to go back into something you've tweeted and change it. The best you can do is delete it and write something similar in its place. Anyone who follows Wright knows that isn't what happened and he is therefore telling a complete lie. It is a pity the mainstream media has not picked up on this.

Bartleby said...

Very helpful of the BBC to highlight examples of false Twitter accounts to help the reader see logic in Wright's defence. More helpful possibly would have been to get a spokesperson from Twitter to comment on whether such hacking is technically possible.

Me said...

I used to go drinking in the Crown in Oakengates with Dave Wright and although I've always found him to be a really nice chap I was really surprised when he became the candidate to replace Bruce Groucott in the Telford constituency because he really isn't the sharpest tool in the box.

Cut the thick twat a bit of slack you beasts.

golden_balls said...

The King of Wrong
No Longer Anonymous

Have you never read TB or Guido ?
Its littered with obscenities homophobic and racist comments.
Don't get high on your Self righteous

Tory activists are just as bad so please leave your halo at the door.

CC Baxter said...

The BBC are so in love with twitter, and are more than aware of what it is capable and what it is not capable of.

Their online report could nail him with the basic facts if they wanted to, guess what it doesn't.

Unknown said...

Calling the Shadow-cabinet Scumbags is just as bad as what some of the Tory Bloggers get up to (thinking of Harry Cole aka Tory Bear and his obsession with paedophillia). David Cameron hit the nail on the head when he said that too many tweets make a twat.

The Opposition need to be whiter than white, and for that reason I think we need to be very careful about having any association with these unpleasant attack-dogs. Decency is a quality that should be expected of all people, not only ministers.

Moriarty said...

@golden balls

Bang on cue up pops Labour's very own pet Symes, man of straw in hand.

Just as a matter of interest: which Ministers of the Crown have been posting on Guido Fawkes?

Moriarty said...

Tom, last time I checked Tory bloggers were not covered by the Ministerial Code of Practice.


This man is a complete irrelevance.

He's also a scumbag.

I prefer pigs with or without lippy any day of the week.

How can a person of such evidently limited ability be a Minister of the Crown?

Silly me! I forgot we are living in the milk and honey paradise of Tone and Gordy.

Paul C said...

Tom, it's call the Ministerial Code of Conduct for a reason - although I note that all serving politicians should adhere to it. It would be nice if the blog comments on Guido were less rabid sometimes but we shouldn't confuse the general public with a serving government minister who should know better, and from whom we are entitled to expect much higher standards of behaviour than this.

MikeyP said...

New Labour Politician = Lying scumbag?

Shurely not. It would destroy my faith in human nature!

Sean said...

And now he's on Wikipedia

The King of Wrong said...

@golden balls:
Are you confusing TB/Guido's posts with their comments pages again? 'Cuz I think you're going to have as much trouble making the "racist" and "homophobic" smears stick as you usually do.

In any case, I don't seem to remember either of them being a Minister of the Crown...

golden_balls said...

king of wrong

This was the comment you made


I took this as a general comment about Labour Activists

I assume a good portion of TB and Guido readers are Tory activists.
I'm sure Guido has a graph somwhere to show how influential his blog is lol
So my comments still stand.

You would be suprised who reads and comments on these blogs.

Moriarty said...

@golden balls.

Interesting. You've attributed to me a quote I never made and then attacked the quote.

You're not Gordon Brown are you?

I'm happy to defend what I write but not what I don't. Fair enough?

The King of Wrong said...

golden_balls said...

Does that include the LibDem PPC and the civil servant collecting a dossier on his posts?

Your assumption is rather baseless. My impression is that the vast majority of Guido's posters are antisocial, borderline-psychotic internet trolls attracted to the 'fame' that his statporn draws. TB's readers seem to be fairly similar to Iain's, and may include some Tory activists, but that falls down for you since - as here - there's very little (if any) racism or homophobia.

And, so, we still have that whole Minister of the Crown blatantly lying to the public thing...

golden_balls said...

If you think TB recent twitter comments are reasonable i don't share your view.

I think you do Guido and Tory Bear a diservice but unless people come forward we won't really know will we. but maybe more will be made of this on another day.

I don't know whether Davids twitter account was hacked or whether he is lying about it
with respect neither do you or others its all assumptions.

I do find iain and pickles comments hypocritical when they use and associate themselves with people who have said far worse.

I'm getting rather bored of this issue unless some new facts emerge thats it for me.