Following dozens of other global leaders, British Prime Minister David Cameron joined Twitter on Saturday. The British PM joined the micro blogging site with the account @David_Cameron, just a day before his Conservative political party starts its annual conference in Birmingham, U.K.
During the weekend, the prime minister amassed more than 88,000 followers at the time of writing on his newly-created personal account.
The news of David Cameron joining the Twitter was announced by Twitter U.K. on its blog. The blog also revealed that the Prime Minister became 370th member of the U.K. Parliament on the site — or more than half of Britain’s elected representatives.
In his inaugural tweet, Cameron said: “I’m starting Conference with this new Twitter feed about my role as Conservative Leader. I promise there won’t be ‘too many tweets”, referencing a comment he made on U.K. radio three years earlier that resulted in heavy criticism. In 2009, in an interview live on-air during the early morning breakfast show, Cameron who was then the leader of the opposition, commented “The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it — too many twits might make a t**t”.
Within minutes of posting his first tweet, Cameron received a lot of tweets, with some showing support while others with strong criticism.
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott noted in a tweet: “So of the 12 people @david_cameron is following, 100 percent are Tory politicians #diverse,” while political satirist, writer, and producer Simon Blackwell said that he: “Heard that @David_Cameron is definitely real, but the man running the country is a parody account.”
Also, a comedian, Josie Long, tweeted “I’m sorry to have to let you know like this, but everybody really dislikes you and disagrees with what you’re up to.”
“It’s cool that you’ve got time to kill, as well as the dreams of our young people, and the working class,” wrote a user called Jonno Turner
Some of the Other Political figures who have Twitter account’s are, Current leader of the opposition @Ed_Miliband has 165,000 followers; U.S. President @BarackObama has 20.6 million followers (sixth most popular Twitter account on the network by follower count), while an account posing as the British monarch, Parody account @Queen_UK, has more than 947,000 followers (more than the total followers of top 10 British politicians on Twitter combined).
David Cameron was educated at Britain’s most prestigious fee-paying school, Eton, and then went on to Oxford University. He regularly draws criticism for his privileged background, and austerity measures to tackle the budget deficit.
