General Election 2015: Milifandom vs Cameronettes – who is winning the social media battle? (Answer: It’s much less tight than the real thing)
Something is happening on Twitter…. are politicians becoming… cool?
Possibly. It seems to have started with one Labour-loving AS level student's ambition yesterday to launch a campaign fighting the view that Ed Miliband's image is a problem.
https://twitter.com/twcuddleston/status/590583801698463744
Her plan was good. Almost too good:
https://twitter.com/Sidra_h92/status/590797834745675776
https://twitter.com/alexshilling/status/590793495692124160
https://twitter.com/twcuddleston/status/590795472962527234
https://twitter.com/twcuddleston/status/590805244206047232
https://twitter.com/cmgirlwhowaited/status/590805525031432192
Lots of people love him – but not everyone can spell his surname:
https://twitter.com/BRlGHTEYES/status/590861242027249665
Miliband replied… but his response was lacking the sort of enthusiasm normally demonstrated by teen crushes with a rather stiff-upper-lip tweet. Still the fans seemed happy.
https://twitter.com/Ed_Miliband/status/590807774482698240
https://twitter.com/MrsHudsonsHair/status/590807840790601728
https://twitter.com/UncannyVal/status/590807939201556480
Hers is not the only account to be proclaiming the Miliband is crazy/sexy/cool line.
The Twitter account @CoolEdMiliband was launched in the last week and is quickly building up steam.
https://twitter.com/cooledmiliband/status/590854986910855169
https://twitter.com/cooledmiliband/status/590646668510494720
https://twitter.com/cooledmiliband/status/589547499209232386
Apparently even Miliband's wife is unsure what to say about his rapid rise to teen hearthrob status:
https://twitter.com/BBCNormanS/status/590871190484480001
Still, the Conservatives and their supporters were keen to get in on the action. A Twitter account called the Cameronettes has been set up with a picture of the Prime Minister being accosted by a rather high profile boyband.
https://twitter.com/Cameronettes/status/590769846851395585
This led to the rise of another hashtag obsessing about one of our publicly elected officials.
https://twitter.com/NicolaNoodles/status/590886853785608193
This time it was apparently an even younger teenager – but not everyone was buying it.
https://twitter.com/mattleys/status/590814477710397441
https://twitter.com/samparkercouk/status/590814527786250240
https://twitter.com/dexychik/status/590815345100902400
https://twitter.com/foodorwarmth/status/590882646575702016
But the originator insisted they were genuine:
https://twitter.com/Cameronettes/status/590772028124307457
Some of the Cameronettes were more keen on reminding the electorate of Miliband's less flattering public appearances.
https://twitter.com/jimmyshashin/status/590878395946442752
In fact it looks like the #Cameronettes has just spawned a rise in anti-Tory tweets:
https://twitter.com/Okwonga/status/590828192711180288
https://twitter.com/VTO2015/status/590861249388380161
https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/590851949303615489
https://twitter.com/George0sborne/status/590878096678596608
https://twitter.com/ParvaPower/status/590877628896301057
https://twitter.com/BestoftheMail/status/590858905577750528
https://twitter.com/StandardsDave/status/590800292377206784
https://twitter.com/BethanyBlack/status/590841934727512065
https://twitter.com/jimmyshashin/status/590882728775659520
So who wins in the battle of the Milifandom vs the Cameronettes? Well this one at least appears to be more of a convincing victory for the Labour leader than May 7th is likely to turn out.
https://twitter.com/iantendo/status/590883591875387392