Simplificacion

FIGURE 23FARRON IS A COMMUNICATOR 24SEPTEMBER-31DECEMBER 2012 By 24 September 2012, at the end of the period being studied, Farron presents a Communicator. The high number of distinct mentions (4,602) indicates that he is having many small discussions regularly throughout the period. He still uses the in-reply-to function 29% of the time, which indicates that he is remaining spontaneous, and the low levels of hashtag, retweet and URL inclusion indicate that he is having discussions in the presence of their followers, but not amplifying them past this group. His discussions are personal and direct. He is engaged with the public during each part of the civic

participation process rather than encouraging them to do something else.

He Still Speaks, But Very Rarely

FIGURE 2424SEPTEMBER-31DECEMBER 2012 WITHOUT MENTIONS

He’s only a Speaker 4% (134 out of 3129 during the end of 2012) of the time compared to 38% of the time in the beginning of 2011. When he presents himself as a Speaker during this period, the tweets are void of personality, and read like press-releases. There is nothing of the engaging Farron performed in his personal engagements. He is not funny, angry, or discursive. He does, though encourage participation by including URLs. These are indicative of his Speaker tweets from this time period. Note the lack of personality or direct engagement.

27/09/2012 15:44 '228k will make sure no Cumbrian child is left behind' says MP http://t.co/63Qm1Rly

28/09/2012 10:38 Can I help in any way? My next advice surgery is tomorrow at Windermere Library from 10-11am. No appointment is necessary.

02/10/2012 11:16 Cumbrian village selected for broadband trial (From The Westmorland Gazette) http://t.co/22dsYEoN

02/10/2012 15:10 MP HAS ‘POSITIVE’ DISCUSSIONS WITH EDUCATION MINISTER OVER SCHOOLS FUNDING: South Lakes MP Tim Farron has today ... http://t.co/QUXRYcwH

Democratic Transparency: Tim Farron MP and Karl Turner MP Have a Barney

Farron’s Twitter behaviour has been described, thus far, as engaging and therefore democratically restorative, but he also restores democracy by being transparent in his dealings with the opposition. During this engagement, on the 18^th of November 2012, Farron engages angrily with an opposition-party MP, Karl Turner (Labour) of Kingston upon Hull East, on a Sunday evening from his Blackberry over a 20-minute period beginning at 10:12pm. It is important to note that this discussion began 24 minutes earlier, and that this fragment represents a 20-minute period in the middle of a longer exchange that goes on past 11pm.

18/11/2012 22:12 @KarlTurnerMP @Saggydaddy @afneil The feelings mutual.

Your party is illiberal and authoritarian. 92 days without trial, child detention.

18/11/2012 22:15 @KarlTurnerMP @borobarrister This comes from the party that cut the 10p tax rate, the derisory 75p pension increase.

18/11/2012 22:18 @KarlTurnerMP Have you been hitting the eggnog a little early? It appears so...

18/11/2012 22:19 @Arrest_Bankers @KarlTurnerMP @Saggydaddy @afneil Easy...Karl doesn't like people pointing out Labour's failures...

;)

At the beginning of this conversational fragment, Farron and Turner are clearly disagreeing, shamelessly and aggressively, in the presence of four citizens (@Saggydaddy, @afneil,

@borobarrister, and @Arrest_banker), over a policy position. Farron accuses Turner of tweeting-while-drunk, which has the teasing ambiguous nature of aggression that has yet to turn violent and recreates for the followers the tension of a looming bar-fight. Farron even recruits the followers as compatriots by pointing out Turner’s intellectual failings in a manner easy to describe as comradery. This choice presents Farron someone who will push the limit of aggressive talk, before softening the approach, to both avoid a discursively violent clash and to appear rational-but-angry.

But Farron doesn’t back down completely and continues to perform the discussion in confrontational terms. Consider the tone of his following tweets:

18/11/2012 22:22 @AFCRDMark @KarlTurnerMP @borobarrister It's only a matter of time... I'm still waiting for my answer about Iraq.

I'm not holding my breath

18/11/2012 22:23 @welsh_gas_doc @KarlTurnerMP Yeah that will never happen.

18/11/2012 22:25 @KarlTurnerMP @RetiringViolet Still no answer to my question though. Are you proud of Iraq? 92 day detention?

And locking children up?

18/11/2012 22:29 @KarlTurnerMP @retiringviolet Not what I asked as 'Shadow Attorney General' are you proud of 92 day detention or locking children up.

These tweets are rhetorical and confrontational, and in the context of the past comments about eggnog, are intended to draw Turner out in to the open with open-ended questions that would require Turner to speak for the Labour party, which has the effect of recruiting the Labour whip as an unwilling confederate to Farron’s (who is a Liberal Democrat) attack.

The message here is clear: would you like to defend the Labour position now, in public, and draw the ire of your whip?

And now Farron becomes even more aggressive, implying that Turner is a simpleton, unable to grasp the intellectual requirements of his job, before daring Turner to engage angrily (”do you need an atlas for Xmas?”)

18/11/2012 22:29 @KarlTurnerMP @retiringviolet I can ask a simpler question if that one is too hard. But I thought as justice was your area apparently...

18/11/2012 22:32 @KarlTurnerMP @retiringviolet It might come as a massive shock but Iraq is a different country! I know.. Do you need an atlas for Xmas?

Anyone following this exchange for evidence of closure would only need to wait a minute to find out if Turner could be drawn out into a petty response, and at 22:33, Turner responds with a childlike subject change, and an equally juvenile “double dare you?”

Turner even goes so far as to tag his final tweet with “Disgrace!”, a linguistic marker identical to that used by the current US President, Donald Trump.

18/11/2012 22:33 @timfarron @retiringviolet come on Timothy. Give us an answer on our

#NHS privatisation. Do it Timothy. Double dare you?

18/11/2012 22:33 @timfarron @KarlTurnerMP Mr Farron, your party has signed up to more illiberal policies since May 2010 than Labour ever did in 13 years!

The overall effect of Farron’s exchange on this Sunday evening was to behave as an angry, but rationally controlled, and deftly discursive political operator, and the small group involved (Turner, and seven citizens) subsequently has a new view of Farron as a person.

This exchange is rife with personality and authentic talk and consistent with a Communicator’s conversational behaviour.

18/11/2012 22:34 @rob9441 @brickystan @timfarron @saggydaddy @afneil I will never work with them. Disgrace!