William Hague put on the spot by internet allegations (From Bournemouth Echo)

William Hague put on the spot by internet allegations

8:30am Friday 3rd September 2010 in

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AS a demonstration of the power of the internet it couldn’t have been starker: the Foreign Secretary forced into denying online rumours he is gay, and revealing the heartbreak of his wife’s multiple miscarriages.

Even hardened Westminster correspondents were shocked by the intimate nature of William Hague’s rebuttal of allegations he had an improper relationship with a young male aide.

The BBC’s Nick Robinson said it was “one of the most extraordinary statements I have ever read from a senior politician”.

It is hard to disagree. Especially when you consider Robinson inhabits the section of the population which would have been reading for months about these allegations – and a thousand others – on blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Denying internet rumours has become part of the job for the well known. Only last month, England captain Steven Gerrard denied scurrilous lies circulating on the internet. Meanwhile, US presidential hopeful, Sarah Palin, denied internet gossip she has had a boob job. And, in what has become an almost yearly event, the Beckhams deny they are splitting up.

But how does this happen? Well, partly it’s because tittle-tattle which might only have gone round the pub or office can now be broadcast on Facebook, Twitter or internet forums, mostly by people who choose to remain anonymous.

This internet existence can produce the kind of gaffe committed by ex- England cricket captain, Kevin Pietersen, this week: tweeting his F-word-laden opinion of those who dropped him from the national squad. Or it can manifest itself as the comments on online stories in national and local papers.

Or it can result in the kind of allegations made about Hague on blog sites such as the one run by Guido Fawkes, aka Paul Staines, which made it (albeit in a diluted form) into the papers.

Head of digital media at the Echo, Nick Rowe, says this occurs because of the nature of the net itself. “It’s impossible to regulate,” he says. “It’s completely free and it’s impossible to stop people saying inappropriate things.”

Opinion can be passed off as fact, and because it is written carries more weight in the reader’s mind than something they overheard. Plus, anonymity allows people to say things they wouldn’t dream of normally. All the industry can do is ensure when people say inappropriate things, they are dealt with.

“Untrue allegations must be removed when we’re told about them and if someone has made an outrageous comment, they should be banned,” he added.

Former Bournemouth East MP, David Atkinson, retired before the internet era really snowballed but admits gossip was always part of politics. “There is, to this day, the Westminster village, which is rife with rumour, and journalists are a part of it,” he says.

However, he believes part of the problem is the larger numbers of staff used by politicians today.

“They have time on their hands because they’re never properly organised, so they spend it on the internet, or gossiping among themselves so it feeds on itself.”

However, given some stories which started as “rumours”, such as the alcoholism of former Liberal Dem leader Charles Kennedy and the internet gossip about John Prescott’s affair, turned out to be true, shouldn’t politicians just be more honest?

“No, because they’re also human,” says Mr Atkinson.

“Would anyone want their secrets to no longer be secret? When you’re in Westminster, where the aphrodisiac of power is, it makes you no longer be as sensible and careful as you should be, or so it seems to me.”