Hashtags are used on Twitter so that people can comment on topics. They’re also great for awareness campaigns, like when people recently drew attention to #DWPcrimes. What you shouldn’t do, however, is start a hashtag to attack a political opponent that more readily applies to you. Especially when your side isn’t all that good at the internets:
A new gift has just arrived from @CCHQPress in the form of their very own hashtag. I can’t actually believe some numpty got paid to come up with this. Are you ready for it?#UnfitToGovern
I’m not actually joking. I’m sure you’ll all do the right thing anyway. #Lab18
— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) September 23, 2018
Shots fired (feet hit)
Early on 23 September, the Conservative Party’s Brandon Lewis said Corbyn is “not fit to govern our country”. He doesn’t historically have the best judgement, though.
Lewis is the Conservative Party chairman. This means he’s in charge of the seldom-followed Tory ‘respect pledge‘. He’s also in charge of sweeping the Tory Islamophobia scandal under the carpet. Beyond that, he recently ‘broke’ an agreement with a woman on maternity leave for political gain – something he claims was an “honest mistake”. Nice guy.
The geniuses at the CCHQ Press Office presumably saw Lewis’s comment and decided to turn it into Twitter gold:
.@jeremycorbyn on #Marr says Labour will back a second referendum if their conference votes for it, breaking his manifesto pledge and betraying millions of voters who voted in good faith to leave the EU #unfittogovern pic.twitter.com/sHiW7nlpOf
— CCHQ Press (@CCHQPress) September 23, 2018
And they did create gold. Just not the sort of gold they could take to the bank:
I can’t quite believe that the Tories’ social media team have come up with #UnfitToGovern. Well, maybe I do: their understanding of social media is on a par with their understanding of government……
— Prof Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) September 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/NAJ562/status/1043872520271745025
The horror
Of course, when you’re pointing out the reasons why the Tories aren’t fit to govern, most of it is no laughing matter:
120k+ deaths linked to austerity
The richer have gotten richer whilst the rest get poorer
Wages going backwards
Disabled people getting abused and rights violated
Many disabled people getting declared fit to work than dying
Tories have decimated our communities#unfittogovern— Hardeep #SuperCampaigner #NHS💙 (@Hardeep216) September 23, 2018
An utterly shambolic government has brought the UK to the brink of a catastrophic 'no deal' Brexit … but today the Tories have launched the #UnfitToGovern hashtag to attack Labour.
— Steph Paton (@stephenpaton134) September 23, 2018
FACT: Theresa May prioritises the hunting of foxes over the protection of the NHS.
In her GE17 Manefesto, she introduced a return to fox hunting, but had nothing to prevent the NHS being privitised.#unfittogovern https://t.co/eMBrbjPYOM
— Reverend Paulie (@Paulieplayspop) September 24, 2018
Inch by inch
When talking about Tory social media strategy, we can’t forget this tweet from 2017 – a tweet which only grows more potent with time (like a fine wine or a John McDonnell):
The #UnfitToGovern hashtag has given one person a chance to tell the Tories exactly why they’ll never understand social media:
Next time the staff at CCHQ have a bright idea, they should probably just type #UnfitToTweet and take the rest of the day off.
Get Involved!
– Contact Brandon Lewis the next time you see a Tory failing to uphold the ‘respect pledge’.
– Join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account.
Featured image via pxhere
