“Times change and we change with them.” That was the first tweet of Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP for North East Somerset, taking the hexameter phrase in its traditional Latin as a Reformation reinterpretation of words by the Roman poet Ovid. Twitter was quick to turn on this elaborate debut and the unlikely social media star`s Instagram success has yet to sway his new audience when confined to 140 characters.
In response to his tweet one user drew attention to the recent hype over the MP’s newborn child, whose name was announced via Instagram as Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher Rees-Mogg. He joins siblings Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam, Peter Theodore Alphege, Tom Wentworth Somerset Dunstan and Marie Anne Charlotte Emma.
Other critics simply pointed out the self-inflicted satire of an old Etonian showing off his classical education on social media.
Is that the name of the next baby?
— Snorkusmimi (@SnorkusMimi) July 15, 2017
#Moggmentum
Rees-Mogg is now credited as the Conservative Party`s first social media star after Labour gained a strong social media presence in 2015 through #Milifandom in support of then-leader Ed Miliband. Many of Jeremy Corbyn`s young supporters are believed to have been engaged through a similar process.
Rees-Mogg`s first success with social media was on Instagram when he posted a photograph of himself and his son standing outside a tattoo parlour with a poster reading “Keep sane. Don`t vote Tory.” His own caption read “We shall have to take our business elsewhere.”
Ready for Rees-Mogg
A petition dubbed “Ready for Rees-Mogg” was started the very day after Theresa May’s disastrous general election urging him to run for Conservative leader in the event that she steps down.
“We believe that Jacob Rees-Mogg is the person to lead the Conservative fightback and reignite Britain’s promise,” said the organisers of the petition.
“Our goal is to channel the enthusiasm and energy for Jacob and convert it into a movement capable of sending him to 10 Downing Street.” On July 17 they claimed that 20,000 people had signed the petition.
Straight-Talking Tory
Anne Sutherland, a Scottish Tory Party member and Brexit campaigner who helped to launch the Rees-Mogg campaign, wrote on the Conservative Home website that the MP’s appearance on Question Time on June 6 encapsulated his sudden rise to prominence.
That rise had prompted bookies to slash his odds of becoming the next Conservative leader from 66/1 to 10/1 although the man himself admits he is not taking the idea seriously. “Rees-Mogg is a superior orator with a wealth of knowledge behind him, giving him the unique ability to explain the most complex of issues,” Sutherland said.
“The simple truth is that people are fed up with generic, cookie-cutter politicians; the average politician just doesn’t cut it in the age of social media,” she said. “Rees-Mogg’s frank and consistent conservative politics, coupled with a unique and uncompromising character, has created a following like Jeremy Corbyn on the Left that no other politician is currently capable of building.”
Since first posting on Instagram on May 7, 48-year-old Rees-Mogg has accumulated more than 35,000 followers. His Twitter page was announced on Facebook on July 15 and already has more than 26,000 followers.
Rees-Mogg has so far been quite reserved with his new Twitter account by only following Annunziata Rees-Mogg, his journalist sister, and the official accounts of the UK Prime Minister and the Conservative Party.
On July 19 he deployed his self-deprecating humour to capitalise on a Private Eye satire (left) mocking his choice of children’s names titled “That Rees-Mogg baby name shortlist in full”. Instead of taking offence at suggestions such as Eton, Brooklyn and Griff, the MP simply noted that they were “helpful suggestions for next time.”
By Stewart Vickers
The post Politics: Look Out As #Moggmentum hits Twitter appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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