Cameron should avoid these Twitter traps
Peter Hoskin 2:36pm
Oh dear. The Twitter wars are continuing apace, now that David Cameron has risen to John Prescott's challenge of a debate on the NHS. The mediators are the Manchester Evening News, who have just published Cameron's response to Prescott on their Twitter feed. So what is it? Erm, this:
"The real question is why won't Labour match the Conservatives' pledge for year on year real-terms increases in NHS spending over the next Parliament"
As I said last week, there are definite dangers with the Tories pushing this line quite so eagerly – not least because it plays into the Brownite idea that spending is a good thing in and of itself. But, more generally, it demonstrates why Cameron should steer clear of Prescott's Twitterific hunting ground. There's not a lot of space for nuance in 140 characters, and – as we've seen over the past week – that can help fuel tittle-tattle and caricature. What happens next? Does Cameron get challenged to add a #welovetheNHS tag to his tweets? And will Prescott claim a moral victory whether the Tory leader does or doesn't?
All in all, I'm not sure what Cameron can really gain from debating with Prescott. Sure, the Hull East MP may have reinvented himself as a web personality, but it's not as though he's a key player in government or in the world of health policy. But if the Tory leader really is committed to this debate, then far better for him to do it in the real world – where he can more sensibly discuss the grey area between #wehatetheNHS and #welovetheNHS.
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Sally Chatterjee
August 20th, 2009 3:35pm Report this commentCan we have #electionnowplease and #gordonbrowndisaster tags please? Or better still, #prescottadultery ?
Stevo
August 20th, 2009 3:51pm Report this commentThe dopey thug Prescott is now a 'web personality'? I find it hard to believe that he can read and write TBH.
Chuck Unsworth
August 20th, 2009 3:58pm Report this commentNo-one in their right minds 'debates' with Prescott. He doesn't even speak English.
Desperate Dan
August 20th, 2009 4:21pm Report this commentI quite agree that Cameron should ignore Twitter. It has far fewer fans than the government and BBC would like us to believe and Cameron's original thoughts on the subject of Twitter were spot on.
I was appalled to notice that today's Times has regurgitated Prescott's spiteful ramblings as though they were a serious contribution to a serious debate. If a member of the Labour Party every says anything half sensible then Cameron should respond to it. Until then he should treat them all with the contempt they deserve by ignoring them.
TrevorsDen
August 20th, 2009 4:22pm Report this comment140 words is just about Prescott's limit when it comes to debate - and besides what will Prescott's answer be? Just why are Labour not ring fencing NHS.
#weloveourarmedforces
#wewantmoreafghanhelicopters
#whereareourMRAPs
#wecondemnlaboursdeficit
#whereareourpensions
#lessspinmoredelivery
#endlabourslies
TrevorsDen
August 20th, 2009 5:03pm Report this commentMs Chatterlee - if it were only Prescott's adultery we had to contend with we could compare him to the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson.
As it is as a public employer holding power of patronage - having an affair with his employee (on taxpayers time) should have ended with him in jail.
Laughing Gravy
August 20th, 2009 5:03pm Report this commentAt the risk of seeming to sing the same song on every occasion, and without getting into the discussion about systems, the answer to the conundrum of protecting/ increasing NHS expenditure over the coming years is to cut back to the core services that the NHS should provide 'free at the point of delivery'. In comments elsewhere, I have illustrated what could be removed: primary care dentistry. audiology. chiropody etc; and some chunks of public health, and medical education. These need not have budget protection. And do not forget that most general medical practitioners are not NHS employees - they are 'independent contractors to the NHS'!
Hysteria
August 20th, 2009 5:06pm Report this comment"The real question is why won't Labour match the Conservatives' pledge for year on year real-terms increases in NHS spending over the next Parliament"
You have GOT to be kidding me ?
Jeremy
August 20th, 2009 5:16pm Report this commentPete,
I agree with the basic thrust of what you have to say. 140 characters is not enough for literate - let alone nuanced, comprehensive or even stylistically pleasing - debate. So by going on twitter, Dave may be playing into the hands of semi-literate thugs like Prescott, who can then hit him over the head with their monosyllabic tweets. However, if twitter is also "a la mode" amongst today's "yoof" then it is certainly right for the Tories to have a presence on there; and if Dave wants to go there for a scrap, then let him. He may win a battle, he may lose a battle; but as you know, on the Internets the war is never over.
It is probably best to view twitter as a fad and not take it too seriously. Like all fads, I dare say the press will get bored with it. Eventually.
Alfred T Mahan
August 20th, 2009 5:30pm Report this commentI don't care about Twitter - I do care about that imbecilic pledge of Cameron's. If he'd had 1,400 characters instead of 140 it would still have been crass.
Hysteria
August 20th, 2009 5:49pm Report this commentSurely the issue here is not twitter - but the bloody response from call me Dave????
Ray
August 20th, 2009 5:53pm Report this comment#whyareweuptotheeyeballsindebt?
IH
August 20th, 2009 6:19pm Report this commentI don't care about Twitter, I think it is juvenile - and I don't think Cameron should lower himself to get involved with it.
TrevorsDen
August 20th, 2009 6:20pm Report this commentYou are aptly named 'hysteria' -- there is nothing wrong with Cameron's response (BTW the only leader to say "Call me ... " was Brown).
Its right the Conservatives pledge to protect the health service. IIRC, Labour's planned figures will already cause serious cut backs - Labour's figures included significant cuts on the previous levels of growth.
Hysteria
August 20th, 2009 7:04pm Report this commentso you think , in the face of reports of mounting debt and other economic indicators, that real term increases in spending is the way to fix the NHS?
Even a little nuancing that team DC "seek to protect" - or even "seek to increase" - would be welcomed.
But a downright promise at this stage seems to me to be both economically as well as politically, er, wrong.
Just my opinion of course...
drakes drum
August 20th, 2009 8:26pm Report this commentThis proves Cameron is no strategic thinker, Has no idea of leadership and will never be able to make the big decisions.
Everyone, I believe, realises that the NHS needs pruning of both roots and branches. So for Cameron to continue to press for increase spending year on year is utter insanity.
But when the tories picked an Eton bullyboy as its leader it lost its perpective and also its soul.
Mark my words. Cameron will be so bad people will want Gordon Brown back!
Edmund Jerk
August 21st, 2009 1:17am Report this commentDavid Cameron = not a neo-con, nor a neo-Thatcherite, but a neo-Wet.
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