Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

The Liddle Defence fails for David Wright MP

Seems that the Liddle Defence - saying that your computer has been mysteriously hacked into by someone else, then carrying blithely on and not deleting the offensive things that person has said, and keeping them under your name - doesn't work if you're not Rod Liddle.

The rascally recently-shaken-awake Womble (copyright Charlie Brooker) managed to elude opprobrium by the press after deeply despicable messages were posted under his internet identity with a skilful use of what I think we must now call the Liddle Defence. Journalists, worried that they might have to work for him one day, decided to walk off whistling down the corridor, and didn't probe too hard whether he was actually telling the truth or not, or whether his story was really credible. That's the way it works in that cosy little world: someone who has the potential to hire (or more to the point, fire) you is not fair game, and if they come across with a vaguely plausible but realistically crummy defence to something distinctly unpleasant, you just let it slide.

It's a different matter if you're an MP, because unfortunately for David Wright, while some journalists took what he said on face value, this isn't a nice closed shop where people are worried about you being their boss - in politics there are enemies who are out to get you. So while the BBC initially reported:

Mr Wright told the BBC that this was a legitimate "edgy Twitter comment about the political process" and the Tories' "general policy position".

"If it is good enough for Obama it is good enough for me," he said.

But he insisted he never used the phrase "scum-sucking", saying his account had been hacked into and the phrase added by someone after the message was published.

"What I think has happened is someone has tinkered with that and made it more offensive.

"I try to use Twitter to engage with people. Someone has messed with my account. I find that very frustrating."

It took the Tories a while to creak into life. They started off by labelling it as 'gutter language', but that was a fairly feeble attack. And even prolific tweeter Eric Pickles didn't seem to realise what everyone else who uses Twitter did when they read David Wright's explanation: it just didn't add up, at all. Sure, as with Liddle, it's plausible, but is it likely? Who goes into someone else's account and writes stuff that's very similar to other stuff they write, but slightly more offensive, and then leaves it at that? As we all know, when someone hacks your account they run around going LOL IM GAY INNIT for about half an hour, then gets bored. Did David Wright change his password? Were his offending tweets really modified? How is that possible? Wouldn't there be a record of the deleted initial tweet which was changed? Isn't there going to be an audit trail on all of this? All of a sudden, the Liddle Defence crumbles, because there's someone actually looking into it properly. And now Eric Pickles has woken up:

Moreover, rather than owning up to your actions you seem to be trying to claim that your ‘Twitter feed’ was hacked into. This explanation is simply not credible:

• The ‘Tweet’ was made under your name.
• You have used similar language in the past on Twitter, including describing David Cameron as a ‘horrible opportunistic scumbag.’
• Immediately after the ‘Tweet’, you posted again to say that you ‘must’ve hit a nerve,’ and then again that Conservatives ‘do get riled very easily.’
• You then decided to apologise for the ‘Tweet’

Only after all of this did you then claim that your Twitter account had been ‘tinkered’ with.

Ah. Yes. There is that, isn't there? Irritating that it takes another politician, rather than a journalist, to actually work this stuff out, isn't it? But there you go. And yes, it goes without saying that Pickles is a thoroughly awful human being, but on this occasion, he's got a point. A pity that every instance of someone claiming they've been 'hacked' isn't looked at with such scrutiny, really, but there you go.

Is it the end, then, for the Liddle Defence? I'm not sure. There may still be some wriggle room for Wright, though not a great deal. The point is whether anyone cares, and I sense that in what's likely to be a bloody election campaign, this sort of thing is going to be just the tip of the iceberg. Is it really so shocking for a Labour MP to refer to Tories as scum? Really? I don't think so. But then to try and weasel out of it? Ah, that's a different matter. I think if Wright had just fessed up and said: "Do you know what - they are scum, and I'm not sorry for saying it" then no-one would have given a monkey's about it. Politician insults other politicians of other party - big deal. It's not the end of the world. There's a big election coming up, can't we concentrate on the things that really matter? Ah, if only that would happen...

Related posts:

1. Is this you????
2. The Liddle Defence
3. A Liddle bit of racism
4. The Indy’s in a Liddle bit of trouble
5. David Davis is Janet Webb.