Tweeting in adversity: Elliot Morley

Last year I wrote about blogging in adversity:

When things go wrong or bad news breaks, it can be tempting to hunker down and say nothing. If you’re a blogger, particularly one who allows comments, the idea of having to write something for your blog can be very off-putting. The thought of ignoring the keyboard and just wishing that time would move on more quickly can be very alluring.

But is that the right response? It is a situation on which I have advised various people over the years, and nearly always the best advice is actually, “keep blogging”.

The same logic applies to other online presences, such as Twitter. It’s a lesson that under-fire Labour MP Elliot Morley could have applied.

Elliott Morley has been in the news for claiming £16,000 in mortgage expenses after the mortgage had been paid off. He’s been on Twitter for a while, but rather than use this outlet to apologise or to explain, he at first simply went quiet as Croydonian spotted. Elliot Morley has since sent one tweet, but it’s not up to much:

Dreadful day cant wait to put my side of the story now gone away for a few days

Leaving aside the appalling / trendy punctuation (delete as appropriate), it just prompts the questions, “Why not tell us your side now?” and “Are you sorry?” and by neither explaining nor apologising makes himself look worse.

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in Online politics.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Caracatus
    All the focus groups highlight town centre regeneration as a key issue, the lib dems have a great policy and for 8 years, they have kept it a secret so not eve...
  • Mick Taylor
    Actually what is really needed is fearless politicians, unafraid to make difficult decisions. What we have seen over many years is vacillation and u-turns. In t...
  • Jonathan Parry
    Good article, Roz. I hope that in your essay you will flesh out what you mean by 'communities'. It's a neat word for Lib Dems to use, but part of the party's ...
  • cim
    @David Allen I think the key - for electoral communications, at least - is to skip the description of the process entirely and go straight to the outcome. Yo...
  • David Warren
    The last sentence sums up it for me. We are getting squeezed out in the majority of constituencies and the beneficiaries of the progressive protest vote are the...