Film stars do it, teenagers do it and now even MPs are falling head over heels in love with Twitter。
They spend 1,000 hours a year chatting to constituents, friends and even complete strangers on the social networking site. In one week alone this summer, MPs tapped out nearly 2,500 ‘tweets’。
According to new research, the politicians spend the equivalent of almost one day a week sending out the messages of no more than 140 characters. The survey by a political lobbying firm found that 275 out of 650 MPs are tweeting, including Labour leader Ed Miliband。
And research by The Mail on Sunday reveals that Mr Miliband’s party dominates the Twitter Top 10, which is made up of six Labour MPs, three Tories and just one Liberal Democrat。
Topping the list are Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy and Glasgow South’s Tom Harris – who have both tweeted well over 20,000 times。
Mr Harris, 47, said: ‘People like to know that MPs are human and have interests outside politics. I don’t just tweet about politics. I do it about family, TV, normal things like that.’
But Tory MP Brian Binley, a committed non-tweeter, said: ‘I just cannot see the point. I’ve never had a constituent come to me and say, “Why aren’t you blogging or tweeting?” ’
At least Northampton MP Mr Binley, 69, has the backing of the Prime Minister on his aversion to Twitter。
Two years ago, David Cameron famously made clear he was no fan when he unguardedly
told a radio station that ‘the trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it – [is that] too many twits might make a tw*t’. He later apologised for his language。
Westminster Public Affairs, which conducted the Twitter survey, said parliamentary tweeters fell into two camps – obsessives who tweeted all the time and ‘lurkers’ who only occasionally sent out a message。
Last night, Olly Kendall, director of Westminster Public Affairs, said tweeting helped MPs ‘humanise’ themselves。
‘Some of the unguarded moments of honesty reveal a side to them that most people don’t usually see – humorous, self-deprecating and down-right ordinary.’
Mr Kendall added: ‘The savvy
MPs use Twitter not just to propagate party spin but to engage in an honest and open dialogue and to let constituents get to know them as people as well as for their political views.’
電影明星“織圍脖”，青少年“織圍脖”，如今，英國(guó)眾多國(guó)會(huì)議員也成為“推特控”。
據(jù)統(tǒng)計(jì)，英國(guó)議員每年花費(fèi)一千個(gè)小時(shí)和選民，朋友，甚至素不相識(shí)的陌生人通過(guò)“推特”社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)交流。僅在今夏的一周內(nèi)，議員們就發(fā)出了近2500條“推文”。
一條推特信息不超過(guò)140字符，但最新調(diào)查卻顯示，議員們每周上推特的時(shí)間相當(dāng)于一整天。在受訪的650名國(guó)會(huì)議員中，有275人使用推特，包括工黨領(lǐng)袖埃德•米利班德。一家政治游說(shuō)公司開(kāi)展了此項(xiàng)調(diào)查。
《星期日郵報(bào)》開(kāi)展的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，在推特排行榜前十名中，工黨議員以六席占據(jù)多數(shù)，保守黨占據(jù)三席，剩下一名是自由民主黨議員。
位居榜首的是布里斯托爾的克里•麥卡錫議員和南格拉斯哥的湯姆•哈里斯議員，兩人都發(fā)了超過(guò)兩萬(wàn)條推文。
47歲的哈里斯先生說(shuō)：“議員也是普通人，除了政治也關(guān)心別的，人們樂(lè)于去了解這些。我的推特不僅和政治有關(guān)，還涉及家庭生活、電視節(jié)目、和平常事。”
不過(guò)保守黨議員布萊恩•賓利就是反微博主義者。他說(shuō)：“我覺(jué)得沒(méi)有意義。從來(lái)沒(méi)有一個(gè)選民走過(guò)來(lái)問(wèn)我，‘你為什么不寫(xiě)博客，不用推特��？’”
69歲的議員賓利先生來(lái)自北安普頓，并不只有他一人厭惡推特。至少，英國(guó)首相卡梅倫也在他們這一陣營(yíng)。
兩年前，首相大衛(wèi)•卡梅倫就宣稱(chēng)他對(duì)推特毫不感興趣。他在接受一家電臺(tái)采訪時(shí)一不留神說(shuō)漏了嘴：“推特的麻煩在于，發(fā)太多推文人會(huì)變傻，這也是它的即時(shí)性造成的。”之后他為自己言語(yǔ)不當(dāng)而道歉。
威斯敏斯特公共事務(wù)部門(mén)開(kāi)展的一項(xiàng)推特調(diào)查稱(chēng)，使用推特的議員們分為兩個(gè)陣營(yíng)，不停發(fā)推文的“推特控”，和偶爾才發(fā)一條的“潛水軍”。
昨晚，威斯敏斯特公共事務(wù)部主任歐利•肯達(dá)爾稱(chēng)，用推特使得議員們更有人情味。
“一些不經(jīng)意的真情流露，展示了他們通常不易被大眾看到的那一面：幽默風(fēng)趣、善于自嘲以及普普通通。”
肯達(dá)爾還說(shuō)：“聰明的議員，不會(huì)僅僅利用推特來(lái)鼓吹自己的政見(jiàn)，而是會(huì)進(jìn)行開(kāi)誠(chéng)布公的對(duì)話，讓選民在了解他這個(gè)人的同時(shí)，也了解他的政治觀點(diǎn)。”
