In defence of Gemma Worrall, and her 'Barraco Barner' tweet

Meet Gemma Worrall, the latest unlikely worldwide star produced by social media. She is a 20-year-old beautician from Blackpool, now famous for tweeting ‘Why is our president Barraco Barner getting involved with Russia, scary.’ Cue 7,000 retweets, publicity from Australia to Brazil, and the inevitable vicious attacks. Haters have come thick and fast, she says, describing her as an ‘oxygen thief’ and worse. This morning’s press gets stuck in too. ‘Tweet about the Ukraine/Russia crisis is branded a new low for “dumb Britain”‘ sneers the Daily Mirror.

Really? It can be argued that this is a new high. I’d like to cite, in my defence, Ed Miliband. The sole redeeming feature of his confused Hugo Young lecture was his quoting a lesser-known Walt Whitman poem, The Prairie Grass Dividing:

‘Whitman talks about what makes for a successful democracy and says it is about a country where people can “look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and Governors, as to say, Who are you?”‘