For all their talk of engaging online and being so technically advanced, sometimes politicians painfully show just how of touch they really are. Most Twitter users at some point in the last week would have received a message from one of their followers or friends that said “haha is this you?” with a link. Classic spammer trick, it then spreads to all your followers. Harriet Harman has gone into full hysterical mode claiming in the House of Commons that her account had been “hacked” when Alan Duncan, a new gaffe-potential convert to the Twitterati, replied to what he thought was a genuine message from his old sparring partner. Far from Twitter proving this lot are in touch, more often than not it makes them look like morons. Perhaps it would be a more appropriate use of MPs time to be working on fixing that £178 billion deficit rather than messing around trying to look like they are down with the kids.

Professor Prezza is very excitedly Twittering about the government’s announcement that they plan to do some pump priming  on the home building front.  John Healey announced today that 47 councils will share in  a grant of £127 million to build what amounts to about 30 homes per council.

They will be completed by 2011.  So Prezza is, in a sense, wrong when he tweets that you won’t get this from a Tory government.  He is also wrong in the wider sense, after all in’t it under the Tories that the most council homes have been built?  Harold Macmillan promised to build 300,000 a year and ended up building a million.  A building programme unmatched by Labour. In fact Labour this year are actually knocking down 3,000 homes.

Professor Prezza needs to study a bit more history…

First things first, if you want to message use @guidofawkes. Better still, use email.  Ben Brogan has joined Twitter.  God knows why, suspect it might be something to do with Paul Waugh claiming Twitter-lead “scoops“.

How many million did the Telegraph lose last year? Don’t you have a paper to write Ben?

You ain’t gonna tweet your way to profitability…

Guido is starting a new occasional blog feature highlighting some of the idiocy that appears on Twitter.  If you find any examples, please email them to twitter@order-order.com.

Email ‘em, don’t Tweet ‘em, please…

@foreignoffice Opium cultivation, production and prices are down according to @UNODC report

Why, if you are trying to eradicate supply in Afghanistan, proudly boast that opium supplies are cheaper?  Is that supposed to be a success?

@John Prescott If Adam Boulton insisted empty chairing every politician he asked on his show he’d need to do a deal with Ikea!

Boulton would need only one empty chair.   Once filled, it would by definition no longer be an “empty chair”.  Back of the maths class Professor Prezza, doh!