Rory Stewart is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Defra and the MP for Penrith and the Borders. His Twitter handle is @RoryStewartUK. He has 24,500 Twitter followers (including me) and follows 590 Twitter accounts (not including me).
It’s sometimes amusing to stroll through someone’s Twitter follows. They are usually a varied bunch and may give you an insight into the follower’s thoughts – but who knows?! As befits any junior minister, Mr Stewart wisely follows David Cameron (@David_Cameron), Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) and George Osborne (@George_Osborne), as well as his boss Liz Truss (@trussliz). He also follows one agency closely associated with his own department, the Environment Agency (@EnvAgency), but not Natural England (@NaturalEngland) or the Forestry Commission (@ForestryCommEng – although he does follow a local FC staff member).
There are a lot of political journalists, lots of fellow Tory MPs (and a few from other sides of the debate) just as one might expect from an MP and there are lots of follows of accounts based in his constituency as one would expect from any MP (eg Cumbria County Council (@CumbriaCC), the ApplebyCreamery (@ApplebyCreamery), the Eden Brewery (@Edenbreweryltd), Penrith AFC (@penrithfc) and the Bampton cinema (I’d ditch them minister – they’ve gone very quiet)).
Mr Stewart’s ‘follows’ also include Ronan Keating (@ronanofficial), Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI), Alastair Campbell (@campbellclaret), Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais), Mark Steel (@mrmarksteel) and Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow). I follow two of them too – which two would you guess?
There is a distinct lack of Twitter interest from the minister in the natural environment. He follows his local wildlife trusts (@cumbriawildlife) but not @wildlifetrusts, @nationaltrust, @natures_voice or any other national wildlife NGO that I could spot. James Cooper of the Woodland Trust gets a follow (@JVCooper100) but otherwise conservationists are thin on the ground. Mr Stewart makes up for this by following three Countryside Alliance Twitter accounts (@CAupdates, @CAAwards, @CACampaigns), the Farmers Guardian (@FarmersGuardian), Farmers Weekly (@Farmersweekly), NFU (@NFUtweets) and CLA (@clatweets).
Having a look at who somebody follows on Twitter is a bit like looking at their bookshelves – you can’t tell that much from it, but you can tell something. My bookshelves have a few mistaken purchases, some books I meant to read but never have, some gifts from others (some very welcome and others less so) and a whole lot of books I love, need, or used to love or need. You’ll get an idea of who I am from my books and from my Twitter follows. If you’d like to look at my Twitter follows – feel free!
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Mark, thanks for that interesting analysis. Do you know what? You are beginning to get me thinking about Twitter. It’s quite likely I’ll have a look. That is if I can understand how to work it. (Blogs are still new to me).
So, if I can still be educated, surely that youngen Stewart can be too. I’m hopeful, because he’s highly intelligent; he’s a brilliant Arabist, with deep and independent thoughts about the Middle East. I always sit up and listen when he debates the troubles of that region.
Quite honestly, he’s in the wrong job. But, here’s something to get his attention: his all-time hero, Laurence of Arabia and one of his favourite books The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (sorry just name and book dropping.) And then, if only he could be met up with on those wild wet deserts, I’m sure his interesting face would light up about the tales hawks, falcons and harriers and indicators of wilderness….
It’s all a fantasy. But why not your wisdom versus his: something has got to click, especially if you can work in books, reading and the classical bit (I said classical, not class – I know, I would be very tempted.)
And then there’s Laurence’s military colleague, the mysterious spy and ornithologist, Richard Meinertzhagen who is mentioned in The Seven Pillars. But it’s probably best not to go into that world of sociopathy, psychopathy and subterfuge, albeit Stewart seems to thrive on stories like that.
I hope you get to peruse his bookshelves one day.
And if he’s interested in what spies get up to outside of their day jobs (not now, Moneypenny), then the natural history books of Maxwell Knight, a former ‘M’ should certainly find space on his shelves.
Still waiting for J. le Carre to pen ‘The Persistent Birdwatcher’; a tale of intrigue and derring-do – and linnets.
Obviously Mark’s the ‘Persistent Birdwatcher’ and perhaps Rory Stewart is ‘The Reluctant Englishman’.
Stewart should love James Bond then – named after the ornithologist who wrote Birds of the West Indies.
Is it possible, on the evidence of someone’s Twittering, to apply for a Citizen’s Section?
Very telling, who they follow, isn’t it? All CA and not even Natural England.
One of the real disappointments is that both Stewart and his boss the appalling Ms Truss follow the Countryside Areliars but not any of opposite view like RSPB.
Mike – He must be reluctant as he seems more Scots than English!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Stewart
If you read this above do you honestly think his CV shows he is the right man for his role in DEFRA! Why would a government place him in goal when he is a centre forward! With the Middle East yet again the centre of so much upset Rory should be deciding what is really needed out there.