#AskEdM saboteurs make Ed Miliband look a twit

Ed Miliband

Labour leader’s ‘ask meanything’ Twitter project ishijacked by his enemies

BY Jack Bremer LAST UPDATED AT 09:45 ON Thu 16 Jun 2011

Labour leader Ed Miliband just can't get anything to go his way right now. Having launched a Twitter question and answer initiative - #AskEdM - he's had to watch it be sabotaged in recent hours by Tories and other enemies having fun at his expense.

Here's a taste of how it's been going:

• If Buzz Lightyear doesnt think he's a toy then why doesn't he speak when humans enter the room? #AskEdM

• If you give a speech, but nobody cares, do you make a sound? #AskEdM

• Do you feel bad about stabbing your brother in the back? #AskEdM

• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? #AskEdM

• Was Brutus an Honourable Man? Discuss. #AskEdM

Perhaps most pertinent is this one:

• Will you be firing the person who suggested this? #AskEdM

As The First Post's Westminster insider The Mole wrote on Monday, Miliband's friends are already in despair at the muddled messages coming from the Labour leader's office and some are pointing the finger at his spin doctor, former Times journalist Tom Baldwin.

Will Baldwin take the rap for #AskEdM? We shall see. In the meantime, those Twitter questions just keep coming, among them this one:

• Pippa or Kate? #AskEdM · 

Comments

Being asked stupid questions isn't necessarily a bad thing. In the age of social media it's all about engaging with the public. Look at Lady Gaga (@ladygaga), she uses Twitter to build relationships with her fans and I'm sure she gets her fair share of stupid questions sent to her but it doesn't prevent the service being a useful tool.

Ed and his team will still be able to use this as a way to speak to the public, as long as he doesn't engage with the trolls they will eventually go away. Ed's main problem will probably just be sorting the relevant tweets from the dross. The worst thing he could do is to give up on the idea because then the trolls will be able to claim a victory.

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