Failed Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith has already created a few unwitting trends on social media, as anyone who remembers that ice-cream van during Smith’s attempt to win support in Liverpool will be aware.
But Mr Smith outsmarted himself on Twitter yesterday when he thought he’d executed a ‘gotcha‘ on an aide to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
The @James4Labour Twitter account shot down a centrist attempt to sow division in the Labour Party over Brexit by pointing out that Owen Smith had campaigned for the Labour leadership on a promise to offer a second EU referendum – and had been resoundingly rejected:
Of course, Labour members also sent their delegates to last year’s annual conference and they also resoundingly rejected the opportunity to debate Brexit, which the Observer was complaining should be offered at this year’s conference. But centrists being slow to get the message is hardly new.
Cue Owen Smith. Smith thought he had reliable information that @James4Labour is the account of one James Mills, an aide to John McDonnell – and he attempted to embarrass the supposed Mr Mills:
The problem with attempted smugness is that you have to be very sure your facts are solid – and Smith’s were definitely not, since @James4Labour has nothing to do with James Mills, who has his own Twitter account – as former Corbyn aide Matt Zarb-Cousin was quick to point out:
@James4Labour was highly amused, too:
The Twitter concept of ‘the ratio’ suggests that any tweet that has more comments than retweets has been a failure. But a ratio of 227:5 is a level of failure only rarely attained:
Cue much hilarity and ownage mixed with a sprinkling of outright put-downs, of which the following are just a small selection:
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) May 26, 2018
I'm hurting here 🙈🤣🤣🤣
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) May 26, 2018
Ice creams, of course, made frequent appearances:
https://twitter.com/SamanthaPippin7/status/1000714678237106176
Lots of social media users called on Smith to apologise for his crassness, but so far he has failed to recognise the virtues of discretion and has, in fact, attempted to brazen out his blunder:
So blatant was Smith’s error that it even triggered a kind of ‘reverse Spartacus’ movement of Twitter users claiming not to be James Mills under the obvious hashtag:
Although one enterprising account turned an existential crisis into a very funny barb:
Comment:
On a serious note, though, Smith’s behaviour has served to remind Labour members and observers of the reality of centrist Labour – and to shine a handy spotlight on the motivations of the right of the party in making noise about things that have already been decided democratically by the members.
Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the thorny issue of Brexit continues to be intelligent – and is allowing the Tories to face the consequences of their own idiocy. The ‘moderates’, on the other hand, would press ahead with something guaranteed to cost Labour the next general election when the people of this country desperately need a Labour government and Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.