My top ten tweets of the last month (in lieu of writing anything new)
1) (May 31st, 40000 views)
At Theobalds Grove station, @LDNOverground contractors are currently installing signs WITH THE WRONG SPELLING pic.twitter.com/Hmkyqn3jLj
2) (May 9th, 15000 views)
We have a majority Conservative government, rather than a minority Conservative government, because of 900 voters in seven constituencies.
3) (May 9th, 6900 views)
London: LAB 44%, CON 35%, UKIP 8%, LIB DEM 8%, GREEN 5%
England outside London: LAB 30%, CON 42%, UKIP 15%, LIB DEM 8%, GREEN 4%
4) (May 8th, 2.00am, 6700 views)
It's time to read the Conservative manifesto again/more carefully/for the first time, because it may all be happening.
5) (May 7th, 10.48pm, 5000 views)
If the British electorate can do this with a general election, imagine what they could do with an EU referendum
6) (May 8th, 4.38am, 4531 views)
You'll miss the Liberal Democrats when they're no longer holding the Conservatives back.
9) (May 23rd, 4330 views)
The Wogan Coefficient is the number of rounds of voting before the UK's Eurovision fate becomes blindingly obvious. In most years WC < 5
Don't worry, I won't make a habit of this, but it's been a most unusual month. Top of the heap by some considerable distance is my photo of a London Overground spelling mistake. Maybe the fact I caught them in the act gave it traction, or maybe everyone's just a grammar pedant at heart. Whatever, my Theobolds Grove photo swiftly became my most viral tweet ever, currently at about 250 retweets, which is nothing for Stephen Fry but supersonic for me. It even graced the local TV news bulletins, specifically ITN for two seconds and the BBC for one. When even the Herts Mercury requested permission to publish it, I knew I'd peaked. "Teething problems," Boris called it, apparently.
The next six tweets all feature the General election, which is unusual because I don't normally tweet about politics. Maybe I should do more, because it gets a reaction, or maybe this was the British public in a hyper-concentrated bubble coming to terms with a new reality. A couple of those most popular tweets are from the small hours of the morning, for heaven's sake, when UK-based Twitter is usually utterly dead. But I think I'll hold back. It's awful when someone you used to respect suddenly comes out with a string of political opinions you vehemently disagree with, indeed sufficient to rapidly unfollow them. (#subtweet)
The remainder of my Top 10 is more eclectic. A comedy numberplate, a Eurovision voting reference and a report from the Boring Conference, now that's more like it. Whatever, I don't think I'll be increasing my Twitter output too much in response. Eight years after signing up I've still only just reached my 2500th tweet, which is peanuts compared to many other people's stream of consciousness reporting. If you want quantity over quality, best follow someone else.
