Twitter Masterclass: How to Tweet like Owen Jones!

Yes! You too can be a master of X with all the unjustified confidence of The Guardian's favourite student demonstrator

Owen had been travelling on a crowded Tube train for so long, his arm had stuck like that

I remember vividly the first time I ever came across Owen Jones. It was by reputation only (and in fact we have yet to meet in person, though we’ve passed each other at more than one party conference). I had read one journalist’s reference to him as “swivel -eyed” and in my confusion I thought he was talking about one of my parliamentary colleagues, Owen Smith! Well, it’s an easy mistake to make: Smith/Jones, what’s the difference?

So you can imagine the reaction of Owen Smith when one evening, as we passed through the voting lobbies, I asked him how he had managed to upset said journalist. He soon put me right (and in later years was to prove himself beyond reproach in the soundness of his political views).

But ever since then, young Jones has always been a part of the UK political firmament, thanks to his Guardian column and his expertise in communications, especially via YouTube. He is really rather good at that. His political views, on the other hand, leave me cold, as you might expect. But it’s not just that he’s always been a sucker for a far-Left policy or personality (he was a paid-up supporter of Jeremy Corbyn right up to the point when he wasn’t, before supporting him again. It’s a veritable roller-coaster when it comes to following Owen’s political trajectory). He’s also quite an abrasive chap when it comes to social media interactions.

He actually invited me out for a drink once when he thought that we would be in the same studio for a discussion on Scottish television, but it turned out he was in Edinburgh and I was in Glasgow, so that never happened. Which is a pity. I think I would have enjoyed that. I don’t think he’d invite me again.

He finally left the Labour Party in protest at the way Keir Starmer was leading the party, and no one can really blame him for that. He was not alone, if recent membership figures are to be believed. I’m just surprised he stayed for as long as he did. He’s in the Greens now, I think, and has urged the various factions that make up Jeremy Corbyn’s and Zarah Sultana’s new Your Party to join forces with old HypnoTits himself to try to avoid a Reform government.

Anyway, Owen is not one to allow anyone to hold an opposing opinion, especially those he views as Beyond The Pale, like former Labour MPs or. . . well, just former Labour MPs, I think. His favourite tactic is to repost something I’ve written on Twitter/X and to affect a “more in sorrow than in anger” tone with something along the lines of “How could this man ever have been a Labour MP?”

The thing is, he left the Labour Party because there were an awful lot of people in there with views like mine. But heigh-ho! The most recent fight he picked with me on Twitter is a very typical one and provides the template for anyone who fancies emulating Owen’s elegant social media style.

As I say, we’ve had our spats before so when he Tweeted something last night with which I actually agreed, I was impressed: