Technology | 2010.02.16
Excuses, excuses ... David Wright is not the first to explain away a misdemeanour
The Labour whip says his \'scum-sucking\' tweet has been tinkered with. How did others respond to controversial technological revelations?
David Wright MP
David Wright, a Labour whip and MP for Telford, faced a vicious Tory backlash when he appeared to tweet "you can put lipstick on a scum-sucking pig but it is still a scum-sucking pig", referring to a Conservative advertising campaign.After taking the tweet down and apologising, he told the Daily Telegraph: "Somebody has tinkered with my tweet. I never said \'scum sucking\'."
His Twitter feed now reads: "What a commotion today. Looks like my tweets have been tinkered with. I will keep you posted." We wait with baited breath.
Ashley Cole
When glamour model Sonia Wild came forward with erotic photos and texts from footballer Ashley Cole, the England defender\'s excuse was a complicated one.
He said that he had taken the photos, in which he posed in nothing but a pair of white pants, privately and for his own amusement. He had, he claimed, forgotten to delete them before giving the phone away to his friend Jay Wynters, who then passed the phone on to another friend who had sent Wild the photos as a joke.
He told reporters: "I can\'t believe I gave a phone away that still had stuff in its memory." If even he can\'t believe it, spare a thought for the rest of us.
Stewart Jackson MP
During the height of the expenses scandal Conservative MP Stewart Jackson was revealed to have claimed £304 for maintenance work on his house\'s swimming pool. He offered this defence: "The pool came with the house and I needed to know how to run it. Once I was shown that one time, there were no more claims. I take care of the pool myself. I believe this represents \'value for money\' for the taxpayer." He later repaid the £304.
Rachael Bell
In 2007, 17-year-old Rachael Bell held one of the most disastrous house parties ever; hundreds of strangers turned up, police sealed off the street and her family\'s Durham home suffered £20,000 of damage.
Neighbours were so furious they were seen chasing partygoers with golf clubs, while her mother later told Sky News: "I want people prosecuted for what has been done."
Bell\'s excuse? Internet hackers. She told newspapers and police that friends had hacked into her MySpace account and inserted incriminating (and confusing) messages such as: "Let\'s trash the average family-sized house disco party."
This claim was later undermined when, in the wake of the scandal, a message ascribed to her appeared on MySpace reading: "haaa ... well i hope u liked the party ... was fuckin wild like!!!! hmmm another lol???xx"
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The makers of the ever-controversial Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar Games, found themselves in hot water when it was revealed that they had programmed a sexually explicit mini-game into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Though the mini-game, known as Hot Coffee, wasn\'t normally accessible to players, tiny modifications to the game\'s coding allowed users to access it.
Rockstar originally accused the hackers of reverse-engineering and then significantly altering the game in order to insert the controversial Hot Coffee segment, but were later forced to admit that they had created the explicit material entirely on their own.
Kerry Katona
Former Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona seemed to explain dropping out of a self-imposed fitness camp last month with the tweet: "I had to leave cos I found out that me and Mark are having another baby! Yep!! We are dead shocked but OVER THE MOON!"
When her agents issued a denial the very next day it seemed clear this had been a hoax, but this didn\'t stop Katona playing along and posing for photographers with her hands on her back as if heavily pregnant.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/[...]ht-twitter-excuses-ashley-cole
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