You remember Ed Miliband, right? Ex-Labour Party leader, beat his brother to the job, flunked the 2015 general election?
Seemed like a nice guy, but faced a hostile right-leaning press who dubbed him Red Ed and repeatedly pictured him awkwardly eating a bacon sandwich. Maybe the ‘Ed Stone’ (above) didn’t help.
Well, that very same Ed Miliband is enjoying a renaissance thanks to Twitter, the social media platform that arguably did him few favours in his failed climb to power.
Sure, his teenage fanclub knew it all along. But there’s something about Ed that his new-found embrace of Twitter has revealed: a funny, ironic and smart politician with a penchant for snark and trolling that means you could confuse him for a millennial (he’s 47, technically Generation X).
His status as the political ‘King of Zing’ was cemented yesterday thanks to two powerful interventions.
And there was even some seconds.
Strong, sure. But probably not his best material. Here’s Ed Mil trolling the Daily Mail, and Twitter loving it.
Or when he broke some ‘fake news’ after ex-Tory Chancellor George Osborne revealed he had been appointed Editor of the London Evening Standard.
Osborne seems to be a recurring character on the @Ed_Miliband feed. This after Emmanuel Macron made it through to the French Presidential election final round.
Another theme Miliband circles back on is the daylight robbery by the Tories of some of his policies, which they warned would be a disaster.
This on his proposed crackdown on spiralling energy bills being lifted by the Government.
And again.
His review of Theresa May’s first Budget pulled no punches.
Maybe Mystic Ed saw the theft coming?
And when May U-turned over her Budget plan to increase National Insurance ...
He’s engaged in Trans-Atlantic trolling too ...
... repeatedly ...
... and reminding Trump of his own words just days earlier.
He’s even stepped to Trump’s Brit pal.
Miliband giving shade to post-Brexit promises also won massive props.
To put the tin on, there’s been top bants with a fellow unlikely Twitter boss.
