In a moment that could be touching, creepy, sinister or just hilarious, depending on your interpretation, resurrected LibDem leader Vince Cable had a kind of reverse ‘Ed Balls’ moment on Friday evening when he tweeted Jeremy Corbyn’s Twitter ‘handle’ – and nothing else:
Former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls achieved a perverse Twitter fame in 2011 when he (presumably) accidentally tweeted his own name and people have been celebrating its anniversary ever since:
The connection with the ‘Balls up’ was made immediately:
And there was simply no way that the population of Twitter was going to let such an opportunity go to waste.
Many people, like the above tweeter, surmised that Cable was attempting to join in with the now-famous Corbyn ‘homage’ to a tune by the White Stripes:
Some put the tweet down a presumed lack of familiarity with Twitter functions on the part of someone who didn’t grow up using a smartphone:
Others put it down to career-envy, an abortive attempt to ‘get with the youth’ – or maybe just a little wistfulness:
And some just reached for the popcorn and sat back to savour the developing spectacle:
Mr Cable doesn’t yet seem to have noticed that he’s trending – or if he has, he’s trying to brazen it out. Either way, as of 1.30am on Saturday morning, his tweet remains undeleted – and by now it’s too late anyway, as screenshots abound.
So if you have a contribution to make to the hilarity, you’ve still got the opportunity – and Vince might just enjoy a little limelight for something other than his hypocrisy over tuition fees and his over-readiness to, er, accommodate Tory policies:
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.