Tag Archives: tweetstorm

Fact trumps Tory fiction on the #RoadToRuin ‘Twitterstorm’

You’ll be aware that David Cameron and the Conservative Party metaphorically shot themselves through the head with their very first appeal to the voters in advance of May’s General Election.

Today (January 3) saw a mass movement on Twitter to get the facts of Conservative-led government across to the masses, using images and information to hammer home the realities.

The impact was so great that the campaign’s hashtag, #RoadToRuin, did not just trend in the UK but also in the USA, with around 30,000 messages sent between 6pm and 7pm. That’s 500 every minute.

Let’s have a look at some of them.

We’ll start with the infographics:

ruin1 ruin2 ruin3 ruin4 ruin5 ruin6 ruin7 ruin8 ruin9 ruin10 ruin11 ruin12 ruin13 ruin14 ruin15 ruin16 ruin17 ruin18 ruin19

ruin20 ruin21 ruin22 ruin23 ruin24 ruinsecondlast ruinlast

And here are some of the comments:

Meals on wheels for elderly in 63% decline under coalition, analysis finds. http://gu.com/p/44hjt/tw

Coalition’s VAT rate hike four years ago has cost families an average of £1,800 over four years.

1.5 million people on #RoadToRuin courtesy of the Work Programme.

#RoadToRuin when NHS pay private care home thousands of pounds for two week bed but won’t pay for nursing funding for 95-year-old.

Millions relying on foodbanks because Tories and FibDems put them on the #RoadToRuin.

Tory policy of taking money from public purse into privaet hands is #RoadToRuin.

They said they were “paying down our debts” but we know they haven’t. They said they have halved the deficit but they haven’t.

200,000 people waiting for first PIP assessment on the #RoadToRuin.

Tories will bring more low pay more insecure employment weaker employment rights in return for tax cuts for the rich.

90,000 children homeless, millions of people reliant on food banks; Tories call that a recovery.

2.25 million sanctioned – wiped off statistics. 3.45 million children in poverty. 900,000 use foot banks. Political poverty creation.

Rents and landlords need regulations. Rents are far too high and too many landlords are greedy and/or untrustworthy.

Independent Pay Review recommendations for nurses pay ignored on the #RoadToRuin.

220,000 less meals on wheels served to vulnerable people in 2014 than 2010 because of Conservative cuts.

Public sector workers didn’t cause greed-driven global banking crisis – that was bankers – who are still being rewarded today.

Mervyn King says no-one to blame for financial meltdown. Tory fibbers blame previous government.

After housing costs, 14.6 million (23.2 per cent UK population) in absolute poverty 2012-13, up 600,000. iaf.gd/lts

If you think things are bad now, Osborne still has 60 per cent of his planned cuts to make.

Govt doesn’t want public to challenge their policies in the Court of Human Rights so it wants to scrap Human Rights laws.

UK government to sell Eurostar stake before general election. Selling off family silver is #RoadToRuin.

Austerity is an excuse to shrink the state and sell off profitable public assets like Royal Mail leaving us on a #RoadToRuin.

Iain Duncan Smith to accelerate benefit reforms to stop Labour reversing them fw.to/EM13uib

Povery, hunger, foodbanks, privatisation of OUR NHS, zero-hours contracts, workfare, lies and broken promises!

Two companies to run more than half of privatised probation services. #RoadToRuin or complete insanity?

How many of these new jobs are low paid, don’t reach the tax threshold and have to be topped up by tax credits?

David Cameron is taking UK down a #RoadToRuin by forcing fracking and removing landowners rights.

The Tories scrapped rent controls for housing.

The Conservatives must go because they can never admit they are wrong e.g. badger cull. They will keep us on the #RoadToRuin.

Tories don’t care that we’re on the #RoadToRuin – they already have profitable consultancy positions lined up and the cuts won’t affect them.

400,000 children being taught by 17,000 unqualified teachers. Just not good enough. Failing our kids’ future.

With 400 tankers going to every fracking well every road will be in ruins.

Government is not properly regulating private companies and are allowing private companies to rip off public.

If the Conservatives win in May, our NHS will be lost forever.

If majjority of ‘jobs’ created are unpaid workfare, what happens to existing workforce competing against free labour?

Children shouldn’t go to school hungry or go home knowing they won’t eat till the next day. David Cameron, shame on you.

Tories like to keep us in a climate of fear and insecurity – makes their progress on the #RoadToRuin easier – that is, the road to OUR ruin.

Most of us plebs aren’t too savvy when it comes to economic stats but we know by instinct we’re worse off and being lied to by government.

For generations, people fought for a better world. Much of what they achieved has been undone in five years under the Conservatives.

I wasn’t born at the start of the war yet I paid the war debt down. Why the rush down the #RoadToRuin to pay a debt so quickly? We have time.

Bankers crippled the country. They got off. Decent people suffer.

They are taking away the dignity of the disabled.

Don’t become sick, disabled or old. You will be chucked out of Dave’s limo like a fag end discarded at the traffic lights.

The last word – in this article – goes to Yr Obdt Srvt, because it’s important:

Every Tory campaign statement is a step along the #RoadToRuin – let’s make sure they are ALL debunked as thoroughly as their first poster.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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Was there a secret Tory conspiracy to get rid of #CameronMustGo?

141208simpsonscameronmustgo

Even Bart Simpson thinks #CameronMustGo, according to this satirical cartoon by the Facebook page ‘David Cameron is killing Britain’.

The Twitter hashtag that caught the imagination of the nation has been unceremoniously retired – despite the fact that it is still being used by thousands of British citizens who have had enough of the man it names, and his government.

That’s right – #CameronMustGo has gone.

It disappeared from Twitter‘s United Kingdom trends an astonishing 16 days after it was launched and – suspiciously – while it was still being tweeted at least once every three seconds [accurate at time of writing].

Users instantly smelled a rat – has Twitter been hacked? Or has it been corrupted by Cameron’s cronies?

“# has disappeared from list. So tonight we test the water to try & bring it back Twitterstorm tonight 7pm plz RT” tweeted Sue Rose.

“Looks suspiciously as though censoring hashtag, doesn’t it?” suggested David White.

In order to test whether the hashtag really is being prevented from appearing on people’s screens, they launched a ‘Tweetstorm’ – a co-ordinated barrage of tweets using the hashtag – at 7pm this evening (Monday).

Result: Nothing.

No reappearance of the hashtag in these circumstances clearly suggests someone has taken action against it.

The hashtag has come under criticism – almost from Day One – from the mainstream media. The BBC, the Mirror and even The Guardian are among those who have said #CameronMustGo must go.

The Guardian’s article, headlined ‘#CameronWontGo: why a Twitter campaign alone can’t bring about change’, attracted a less-than-140-character rebuke from ‘Jen’.

She tweeted: “If it means nothing…why is it no longer showing?! It is not because people have stopped tweeting #

At 7.48pm (19:48 GMT) #CameronMustGo had still failed to reappear, despite being tweeted more than 20,000 times in the previous 60 minutes, according to one bemused user.

This story is not over, but we’ll leave the last word to that man – David Crossweller. His tweet?

has nearly over 20,000 tweets in the past hour and isn’t trending? , you bad birdy.”

Breaking:  Thanks are due to Stephen Dolan for the following information. He writes: “Regarding Twitter trends.
https://support.twitter.com/articles/101125-faqs-about-twitter-s-trends#
“‘The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world. (We had previously built in this ‘emergent’ algorithm for all local trends, described below.) We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.'”

“So by definition you can’t trend for a long time.”

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