PEOPLE in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Unfortunately for Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, she seems to be trapped in a conservatory with a trebuchet.
The top Tory has found herself trending on Twitter for days after she proposed an Online Safety Bill which she claimed would “end abuse, full stop”.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Dorries said: “If it’s any kind of toxic content that breaks a social media company’s terms and conditions, whether hiding behind a fake name or not, it will have to be removed.”
However, it seems that a fair few of the Culture Secretary’s own tweets would fall foul of her new rules, as SNP MP John Nicolson pointed out to her at the Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill.
READ MORE: 'Could sister marry sister?': The worst tweets from UK's new Culture Secretary
Dorries had previously told one reporter she would “nail your balls to the floor... using your own front teeth” after they asked how she could employ two of her daughters using public funds.
But Nicolson instead focused on another incident, where she had called LBC radio host James O'Brien a “public school posh boy f*ck wit”.
Ignoring the fact that Dorries herself said she sent two of her daughters to the same school O’Brien attended, the confrontation that followed is a masterclass in how not to obfuscate.
First Dorries claims she doesn’t remember the tweet, then she sets out to make herself the victim, before claiming the bill is actually important to fight “misinformation”, before finally moving back to positioning herself as the victim again.
Nicolson’s face when Dorries says that he has tweeted about her and “mentioned [her] name a couple of times in this committee hearing” is nothing short of brilliant.
I asked the Culture Secretary about offensive tweets she's written. She defended calling @mrjamesob 'a public school posh boy f*ck wit' saying she responded to his tweets, & 'appalling things' directed at her. But would she now fall foul of her own legislation? @OnlineSafetyCom pic.twitter.com/rbAqqStdOu
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@MrJohnNicolson) November 5, 2021
Although that particular tweet about O’Brien has been deleted, it’s also not the only time the Culture Secretary has called someone a “f*ckwit” on Twitter.
It seems Dorries also likes to call people knobs.
Either way, that wasn’t the only exchange to come out of the committee hearing, as Nicolson also challenged Dorries on why she had retweeted a post from far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who calls himself Tommy Robinson).
I asked the Culture Secretary why she had retweeted the racist Tommy Robinson. She told me that, in 2017, she didn’t know who he was... @OnlineSafetyCom pic.twitter.com/X1ViW29kfV
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@MrJohnNicolson) November 5, 2021
If Dorries didn’t know who Yaxley-Lennon was when she retweeted him on March 19, 2017, she can’t have been paying much attention. He became a prominent news figure long before that. Here he is being interviewed by Andrew Neil on the BBC in 2013 as just one example.
Either way, it would seem Twitter isn’t Dorries’ strongest point. She previously used the online platform to claim that Brexit had delivered “180,000 well-paid jobs” for Hartlepool - a town with a population of around half that number.
And she also went viral after complaining that that same Brexit deal would leave the UK with no MEPs…
Anyway here’s brexiter Nadine Dorries complaining that we won’t have any MEPs after Brexit pic.twitter.com/GmueMTK2b9
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) November 17, 2018
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel