Hello, and welcome to our #piggate round-up – what?
You’ve not heard about #piggate yet?
No?
Ah, well this is awkward.
The thing is, this morning the Daily Mail – and this is all still allegations of course – posted a rather, er, bracing front page.
The short version is that they’re serialising a new book on David Cameron, by Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott, which contains some. . . interesting claims about the PM.
We’ll just leave this here for you to read. . .
There’s more detail on the initiation ceremony involving a pig’s head inside tomorrow’s Mail #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/tYEusrqi4L
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) September 20, 2015
Yes. Yes, we know. The visuals aren’t great, are they?
Obviously, it’s impossible at this stage to say if there’s anything in it, and i100 are reporting that Downing Street is refusing to comment.
But has that ever stopped Twitter? Of course it hasn’t. They’ve – sorry – gone ham, with jokes left, right and centre.
Even if the story turns out to be porkies, some of these puns are almost worth it:
I think my favourite hashtag so far is #baeofpigs
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) September 21, 2015
Don’t get distracted by “The Prosciutto Affair”, @Telegraph, remember – last week Corbyn didn’t sing a song. #baeofpigs
— Stephen Mangan (@StephenMangan) September 21, 2015
It will be interesting to see the PM’s response to all of this. Cameron usually tackles things head on, so to speak.
— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) September 21, 2015
Hundreds of people, eating bacon for breakfast & catching up on Twitter from late last night…suddenly losing their appetite. #Hameron
— marc blank-settle (@MarcSettle) September 21, 2015
Maybe Cameron is into West Ham after all.
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) September 20, 2015
Whoever squealed on Dave must be a real trotter #imHereAllWeek
— James Lyons (@STJamesl) September 20, 2015
The international news coverage is pretty great, too:
Somehow even better in French: pic.twitter.com/FTguxBoh9t
— Legal Bizzle (@LegalBizzle) September 21, 2015
Here’s Lib Dem leader Tim Farron:
I’ve never been more pleased to be a vegetarian.
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) September 20, 2015
But maybe most remarkable is poor Charlie Brooker, who – you may remember – used a similar story in his TV series Black Mirror.
Shit. Turns out Black Mirror is a documentary series.
— Charlie Brooker (@charltonbrooker) September 20, 2015
It’s almost eerie.
Perhaps the least prescient line from the script. pic.twitter.com/xrXZ3tsaW3
— Charlie Brooker (@charltonbrooker) September 20, 2015
Incredible, right? Anyway: glad we’re all up to speed. We’ll just leave you with this one to finish off. . .
Somewhere in Islington North, a bearded man smiles and rubs the lamp again. “One wish left!” he says, picking up a bacon sandwich. #piggate
— Gary Brannan (@gbrannanarchive) September 21, 2015