Titian, the Tory and Wikipedia: a modern morality tale

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

The Conservative leader had found a weak spot in one of the prime minister's more esoteric recent political pronouncements when in Davos last month, Brown said he had much in common with the Italian Renaissance artist Titian who did his best work in his dotage and reached the age of 90.
...
"The prime minister never gets his facts right," said the Conservative leader. "You told us the other day you were like Titian aged 90. The fact is Titian died at 86."
...
Sharp-eyed observers noticed that at 12.34pm, Titian's biography on Wikipedia was edited to reduce his age. The original birth and death dates were set at 1485 and 1576, meaning Brown could have been correct, but they were changed to 1490 and 1572.

A quick search of the online encyclopedia's records showed that someone at the IP address 194.203.158.97 was behind the edit and a check with the internet register revealed that address is registered to Conservative central office.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/12/gordon-brown-david-cameron-titian

---

I don't know what's more embarrassing for Britain - that the PM compares himself to a great artist, that Cameron thinks that nitpicking about the artist's age is a worthwhile way to use Prime Minister's Questions, or that some party official thinks it's worth 'fixing the facts' on Wikipedia around this waste of time.

It's as if they're all still back in their student debating societies, looking for a point to score, and have a jolly good laugh about it over drinks with their cronies afterwards. Somehow, I think they have a few more important things to look at, at the moment.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Brown was almost right

he's just a a big tit.

Sharp-eyed observers............some people really should get a life.

[No Elephants]

2. In other words, Cons on both sides of the Pond are, well, cons.

[SpiralHawk]

4. And, at least stateside, the cons are in no way 'conservative'

they are radical borrow-and-spend greed gluttons who flushed America's economy down the crapper with their wild, profligate ways...

They (republicons) just like to use the word 'conservative' as a propaganda cover up...

[No Elephants]

7. They call themselves conservatives, then claim Bush was a liberal. I am not going to help

them with that lie.

[intaglio]

3. I seriously wish that the UK had some good politicians

Even someone of the calibre of John McCain would be an improvement! (and I am only half joking)

We need a new mass movement so that the Commons can move away from the "Gentlemans Club" it has become into a real parliament and the Lords has to be reformed into a proper 2nd chamber.

Chances? ZERO - meh

[struggle4progress]

6. The US may be holding a "buy a Republican, get one free" sale soon

Do feel free to pop by and grab up a few (offered "as-is," no returns)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00997/mccain-tongue_997139i.jpg
http://www.johnbgrimes.com.nyud.net:8090/blog/mccain-tongue.jpg
http://blog.oregonlive.com.nyud.net:8090/idahosportugal/2008/10/large_mccain%20tongue.jpg

[struggle4progress]

5. The "Titian incident" is now gloriously described on Cameron's wikipee page

[T_i_B]

8. Sadly, tampering with Wikipedia...

...is a bad habit that a number of politicians (or more usually their bag-carriers) have picked up in recent times.