Twitter Habits of British Feline Civil Servants

The Twitter Habits of Britain’s Feline Civil Servants

Julie Still / Rutgers Univ / still@rutgers.edu / http://www.juliemstill.com

This is the basic handout information I provided at the MAPACA conference in Nov. 2017, and a related talk at the Westhampton Public Library in June, 2018

Larry the Cat, who lives at #10 Downing Street, is such an important part of British culture that former Prime Minister David Cameron felt compelled to provide photographic proof to Parliament that he and Larry got along. Larry is frequently photographed, filmed, and “quoted” in the British press. The cat has a twitter feed with over 100,000 followers. His fellow government felines, Gladstone in the Treasury Office, Palmerston in the Foreign Office, and Evie in the Cabinet Office, also tweet. In contrast the American presidential pets, the British cats are considered civil servants and are “employed” as mousers. Their twitter feeds comment on political events and do not always agree with the official positions of their offices.

The Big Four (Westminster Cats)

cat / url (cat name, date started, twitter followers)

Larry https://twitter.com/number10cat (Larry, 2/11, 179,000+)

Palmerston https://twitter.com/DiploMog (Palmerston official, 2/16, 61,000+)

Palmerston https://twitter.com/PalmerstonFOCat (Palmerston, unofficial, 4/16 23,000+)

Gladstone https://twitter.com/TreasuryMog (Gladstone, 10/16, 24,000+)

Evie https://twitter.com/HMCabinetCat (Evie 7/16, 23,000+)

Evie and Ossie https://twitter.com/CabOfficeMogs (Evie and Ossie 12/16, 4,000+)

Other Political Animals

Nemo Macron (First Dog of France) https://twitter.com/macronnemo?lang=en

Embassy cat (Julian Assange) https://twitter.com/embassycat?lang=en

Marlon Bundo (Mike Pence’s rabbit) https://twitter.com/realmarlonbundo