I do love a lightbulb moment. About an hour ago, I was trying to dream up a vaguely satirical tweet about the extraordinary way in which J K Rowling is routinely rewarded by her adoring fans in the London media for bullying people on Twitter, and this - in all innocence - is what I came up with...
"In a parallel universe, Euan McColm is the darling of the London media for being beastly to a billionaire SNP-supporting children's author."
But within only a few minutes, I had started wondering if McColm is in fact quite as unconnected as I thought to Rowling's latest antics, and more specifically to the misogynistic tweeter "Brian Spanner" that she once expressed such touching support for. First of all, it became clear from a tweet in December that Stephen "centre-right socialist" Daisley is a mate of Spanner's -
Stephen Daisley : "Oi, "@BrianSpanner1". You about for a coffee tomorrow?"
Secondly, I noticed that I was blocked by McColm on Twitter, even though I couldn't recall any particular trigger for that.
Thirdly, I noticed that I had blocked Spanner in November. I had no recollection of doing so, but when I looked up the relevant exchange (it was a Neil Lovatt spectacular) I couldn't help feeling there was a vague McColm-esque air to the whole thing. Could "Spanner" conceivably have retaliated by blocking me on another account?
Fourthly, Mark Jardine noticed that "Spanner" is the first person listed under the following names : David Torrance, John Rentoul, Iain Martin, Alex Massie, Think Scotland and Euan McColm.
Fifthly, McGlashan noticed that a couple of weeks ago, Spanner randomly said "It is. Thanks." when someone pointed out that it was Euan McColm's birthday. J K Rowling directly responded to Spanner with the words "Happy birthday, Euan".
Of course none of this is remotely conclusive and I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent explanation.
* * *
UPDATE : A few more total coincidences have come to light - see HERE.
Classic britnat hypocrisy today. Yet, once again, it backfires upon them thanks to WOS, James and others. Not only are britnats hypocritical, they are also incredibly stupid.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's stupidity, or just arrogance.
DeleteThe ugly side of British Nationalism. Whoever the disgusting, vile, mysoginist Spanner is, it's clear that he's a member of the anti-indy britnat clique on twitter. There's no doubt that he's pally with all of them and they all know who he is.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine if it were a pro-indy clique behaving like this? It would be the front-page, top news story for weeks.
More media double standards.
The more I read about this twitter thing the more I am glad I am not part of it. It just seems a gossipy vehicle for a bunch of offensive moaners although I do like the tweets about cats. :)
ReplyDeleteLast night I spent a little while looking at the various tweets about the spat with an author and a politician and from the toing and froing some people keep strange friends that point to a clique called Scottish MSM reporters are behind the alleged offending twitter account.
me thinks,spanner thought,cybernats,id like a bit of that x 1000
ReplyDeleteUnionism is ugly no two ways about it.
ReplyDeleteThat was the conclusion I reached last night, although I was thrown a bit by his foul tweet to Maggie Curran, but then came his apology ..
ReplyDeleteThen I thought, why would I care?
They are beneath ordinary people's contempt.
Perhaps tris, she knows who they are.
DeleteJames another little snippet which might help. @BrianSpanner1 does love the "C" word and uses it constantly to degrade women. Now before I was blocked I did notice that a scrawny little punk hack employed by the Scotsman also favours that word very much. I wonder?
ReplyDeletewow just wow... I do not think you will be winning too many awards for journalism with this article which is no more than a gossip piece and well below your normal standard.
ReplyDeleteIf you had actually bothered to read the tweets you would have seen that the birthday thing was a running joke between several of them.
I am also struggling to see why you label BrianSpanner a misogynist as you can see from his timeline that he evidently does not hate women and he seems to have an 'equal opportunities' policy when dishing out abuse to either male or female ... or is it just a lazy smear to get one over on the other side. Would you label Stuart Cambell a misogynist as that is something that is thrown at him from time to time or is this a case of one rule for one... let me make it clear I think neither Stuart or Brian are misogynists.
Is this meant to be satire? Or do you really believe the crap you have just written?
DeleteI might have marginally more respect for that diatribe if you hadn't posted it anonymously. No, I don't think Stuart Campbell is a misogynist, and I'm always baffled by what people mean when they make that claim. You're only embarrassing yourself if you try to maintain the claim that Spanner's tweets weren't misogynistic - not even Rowling attempted that.
DeleteMaybe he's @BrianSpanner1?
DeleteYes I am anonymous and I am also a women and what I find infantile, sexist and patronizing is men telling me what I should be offended about. I want to be treated the same as anybody else. If Spanner had been tweeting vulgar comments to only women then you would have a point but he was not was he and it is obvious from his timeline that he does not hate women.
DeleteI'm trying to work out whether Anon is more likely to be Euan McColm than female.
DeleteMaybe it's Claire Robertson.
Deletehttp://www.thenational.scot/news/angry-twitter-users-claim-to-be-duped-by-fake-account-for-claire-said-to-be-man-aged-40.10289
There is a little more than just a running 'birthday joke'.
DeletePaste the link;
https://twitter.com/euanmccolm/status/679073419867119617
that's all I'm saying.
Anonymous,
DeleteAre you plural (Women) as well as dumb?
Spanner is a misogynist, plain and simple (even admitted by Rowling) - and your pathetic attempts at saying that he is not, leads one to the conclusion that you see nothing wrong with that - as long as he also swears at some men.
The C-Word he is so fond of, is one of the misogynists favourite terms and, in relation to a woman, is far, far more poisonous than to me, or any other man.
You are nothing but a sorry little Troll who is too afraid to post under their real name, because of the crap they post.
You are the lowest of political scum.
Just for accuracy, Among the people "Spanner" chose to follow, Euan McColm is the first of the 288 listed as "following" on Twtter. "Spanner" then followed Think Scotland and then the other Scottish political journos. Perhaps "Spanner" is a just a keen devotee of Scottish political journalism. Mark. https://twitter.com/BrianSpanner1/following?lang=en-gb
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you are defending Spanner.
DeleteHis is the real story here and he, without doubt, is a blatant, vicious misogynist who targets female Scottish politicians.
The Rowling spat is merely of secondary importance.
That she got upset and threatened McGarrie with her horde of lawyers is pretty pathetic, if it turns out that Spanner is indeed McColm who is a friend of hers.
This wee story could well end up with two high-profile Unionists getting the scrambled stuff all over the wee faces.
Keep digging James and I look forward to other contributions from your readers on here and elsewhere.
Not quite true.
DeleteMillionaire plagiarist uses her money and online hate mob to bully anybody who dares tell the truth about her. And the old media in Scotland go along with her every word and whine regardless of the truth even when it's smashed right in their faces.
That's a bigger story than a piece of slime who works for der sturmer playing his little wank games online.
Whoever tweets under the pseudonym Brian Spanner1 is a foul mouthed,bigoted woman hater.He/she/they is a disgusting embarrassment to Scotland and should be thoroughly ashamed.
ReplyDeletePersonally I do not do the Tweet thing and getting into allsorts of nonsense. However I would say the SNP Gov are more of an embarrassment considering they mouthed of about food banks and welfare. Now they have powers they will not use and are acting like latter day Thatcherites.
DeleteWind and pish, what new powers? The powers available, right now, to the Scottish Parliament; are the same powers your beloved "Labour" party had.
DeleteAnd what did they do? Gave Westminster a rebate of £1.5 billion, because they didn't have any idea what to do with it.
That is one of the many reasons "Labour" are history, no imagination nor attachment to the people they are supposed to represent.
As for any new powers forthcoming, a fiscal trap; openly admitted by Mundell.
Occam's Razor Anon.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read of his columns, Euan McColm is not capable of writing to the standard of Brian Spanner!!!
ReplyDeleteSince when was Euan McColm "popular"?
ReplyDeleteOe of the more sensible comments made on here this evening
DeleteWings over Scotland - Mr Stuart Campbell and I quote.
ReplyDelete“feminism is the most intolerant ideology currently operating in the UK, leaving ultra-radical Islam trailing a distant second and looking on angrily.”
http://wosland.podgamer.com/debate-feminist-style/
People in glass houses shouldn't thrown stones.
And people should not "quote" out of context.
DeleteIs that it? I've criticised radical feminism (the sort rooted in Marxism) as well. Does that make me a misogynist? It's a bit different from describing female politicians in the most offensive way imaginable.
Deletehttps://ahdinnaeken.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/wings-homosexuals-girls.jpg
DeleteIs that it? Oh no.
Actually, I'm glad you continued. Praying in aid that lunatic blog is the final confirmation of what we're dealing with here.
DeleteHave you ever read valenti over at the guardian? All men are rapists, all men are evil wife-beaters, child abusers, supporters of FGM etc etc.
DeleteDefend modern feminism if you can.
You are a Nut.
DeletePraying in aid of a lunatic? I just quoted a link to a website.
DeleteSo you deny he wrote those things?
"Praying in aid of a lunatic?"
DeleteMy precise words were "praying in aid that lunatic blog". It is a lunatic blog, and you did pray it in aid.
It is a lunatic blog.
DeleteJust cos you said so.......
And Wings over Scotland isnt?
Brian Spanner -
ReplyDeleteOn Roseanna Cunningham - "The change really has made her a bitter shovelled(?) old Cunt."
On Rosie Kane - "What a vile little Cunt that is".
On Margaret Curran - "Is she the victim of FGM? She is a torn faced Cunt."
On Elaine C Smith - "What a thirsty Cunt she is."
On Karen Marjoram - "Nationalist fruitcake Cunt."
On Leanne Wood - "You daft Nationalist Fuck."
Completely indefensible, misogynist moron.
I appreciate that it's important to establish what Spanner actually said, but I'd be grateful if people could asterisk out the most offensive words.
ReplyDeleteNot often I disagree with you, James - but I think that Spanner's actual words - already published on Twitter - should be seen here, in all their repugnant glory.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@JamesKelly - you for real? They are WORDS - just words
ReplyDeleteAnd Euan McColm is a man, just a man.
DeleteYou guys may have killed irony tonight, but at least poetry still lives.
Euan McColm is a pish-poor excuse for a man. FTFY!
DeleteSo who is Brian Spanner?
ReplyDeleteObviously a man of means if he can tweet so prolifically from 8-11 most days. Or he has an occupation that allows him to tweet constantly on Scottish political themes as part of the jib.
Obviously well connected in Scottish journalistic circles, writes like a journo (in his more lucid, less sweary moments) and thinks like a journo.
From a single photo in the depths on Brianspanner's twitter feed, in which he holds up a note to camera, it's possible to see the side of his head, and that he's a grey haired male - (although nothing more than that). So a grey haired man - could be any Scottish hack.
It's also possible to establish from his twitter and Vine feed that Mr Spanner holidayed at Ardnaseig Hotel near Oban on and around October 16th 2015. Perhaps a little bit of hard-earned R&R before heading up to the SNP conference in Aberdeen the following week? Doesn't help identify him any more though either.
It's coincidence of course that Mr Spanner's style of annotating pictures (mainly of SNP politicians) with MS Clipart speechbubbles is entirely identical to Euan Mccolm's MS clipart style of adding speechbubbles to pictures of SNP politicians. All entirely coincidence. Can't prove a thing with that.
Brian Spanner also has a bit of an obsession with a certain picture of David Meikle with an Israeli flag. Coincidence again of course that Euan Mccolm has a thing for exactly the same picture.
Whomever Brian Spanner is, he knows his stuff about keeping his identity guarded, and he's made it pretty impossible to conclusively prove whom he might be from what's publicly available.
Fifthly, McGlashan noticed that a couple of weeks ago, Spanner randomly said "It is. Thanks." when someone pointed out that it was Euan McColm's birthday. J K Rowling directly responded to Spanner with the words "Happy birthday, Euan".
ReplyDeleteThis exchange was followed by Hothersall saying: For God's sake Brian, get your login sorted (or words to that effect.) To remind his mate that he was on the 'anonymous' login. So even if it isn't EMcC, they DO know exactly who he is
In all honesty, in spite of all the indignant prostestations we've heard tonight about "hilarious birthday in-jokes", I do genuinely think it is McColm. Put it this way - if McColm set up a troll account on Twitter, he would tweet exactly like Brian Spanner.
DeleteAnd Spanner must be a journalist - he doesn't have that whole gang following him for no reason.
I don't know if Spanner is a journalist called Euan McColm,but he certainly is a thoroughly odious creep.
DeleteIs there a difference?
DeleteI also believe the disgusting, odious, abusive misogynist @BrianSpanner is Euan McColm and he uses the anonymous (he thought)label, to rid himself of all his nasty little hangups on Twitter.
DeleteHe and his MSM mates are now trying to to get McColm off the hook by pretending it has all been a joke. Some joke, if you were the target of one of his obnoxious tweets, like the one to Margaret Curran which was particularly loathsome, and which he has now apologised for, and has tried to remove from Twitter.
DeleteWhen you have a good picture it is worth using, again. Does "Spanners" nick ideas from McColm? Just sayin'. One month apart. Mark.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/BrianSpanner1/status/686555544065314816
and this
https://twitter.com/euanmccolm/status/673981742773084161
and this
https://twitter.com/euanmccolm/status/673980170198478850
The BrianSpanner1 picture is no longer available.
DeleteJ K Rowling is not a plagiarist. Her stories are highly original in the way they are told. More importantly, she has done so much to boost the reading habit of thousands of young people, including my kids.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in all respects other than her fiction, I vehemently disagree with her and I am depressed by how she can use her money and influence in favour of those who hold our society back from justice and progress.
"J K Rowling is not a plagiarist."
DeleteWell she certainly has plenty of lawyers saying so. Neil Gaiman may beg to differ, try reading the 'Books of Magic'.
That's really interesting. Also he wrote them before HP which has made me curious, thanks!
DeleteShe would not get a mention from the nat sis if she had supported independence.
ReplyDeleteNeither would she have supported Spanner! Next...
DeleteMorag, get the tea ready for your man coming in from work.
DeleteSpanner is the name of a minor character in Rowling's 'adult' book The Cuckoo's Calling. Published 2013.
ReplyDeleteIf McColm is Spanner we need to be more concerned about his mental health than we already may be, since he appears to regularly have conversations with himself on twitter.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/search?q=from%3ABrianSpanner1%20to%3Aeuanmccolm&src=typd&lang=en
I don't think Spanner is McColm - however, I'd bet on them knowing each other.
Rather than looking at who Spanner does follow, maybe we should be looking for who is missing from his twitter yoon collection, since he seems smart enough to have resisted the temptation to follow himself on twitter.
So who is capable of this sort of vileness and is not followed by or following Spanner?
There's your list of culprits.
Clare, you should be concerned about your own personal mental capacity getting involved with this shoite when the SNP are fooking the poor. Pull yer knickers up hen and switch on. It is never too late.
Deletepiss off you sexist arse
DeleteIt's all a big in-joke between the lot of them; https://twitter.com/BrianSpanner1/status/679073824609075200, J. K. and all.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible Mr Spanner is more than one person - with several of 'the circle' having access to the account and maybe competing over who can be most outrageous today... Makes sense of the login comment.
ReplyDeleteBy the sound of this thread 'Anonymous' IS the said Spanner AKA McColm.
ReplyDelete