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  1. Politics
21 September 2010

Lib Dem website hit by abusive tweets

Party’s website carries attack on Miriam Clegg and reports of activist discontent.

By George Eaton

After the Tories’ “Cash Gordon” campaign was forced off the web by abusive tweets, you would have thought political parties would have learned the dangers of unmoderated Twitter streams.

But clearly not the Lib Dems. Their website currently features all tweets using the #ldconf hashtag but, as the screenshots below show, the comments aren’t all flattering.

Tweet

An attack on the leader’s wife, for example, isn’t the sort of thing most parties want prominently displayed on their website.

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Tweet

And there’s more, as the screenshot above shows. The former Labour PPC Luke Pollard‘s tweet on activist discontent also appeared at the top of the site’s conference section.

Tweet

Another tweet reported: “#ldconf hall virtually deserted, one activist gave huge yawn.” Which isn’t the sort of material likely to attract the masses to Conference 2012.

A recent report concluded that Nick Clegg needs more staff to avoid being “overwhelmed”, in which case he might want to begin by hiring a few web moderators.

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