Backbytes: Tell us again, Dave, exactly what do too many tweets make?

Prime Minister tweets fake Iain Duncan Smith Twitter account to announce benefits cap rollout...

Back in 2009, Prime Minister David Cameron was adament that Twitter was not for him. "I'm not on Twitter. I think that politicians do have to think about what we say, and I think that the trouble with Twitter, the 'instantness' of it, is that too many tweets might make a tw*t".

Well, he certainly proved it this week when he copied in his good chum Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, into a tweet about welfare reform.

"We're rolling out a cap on Benefits today - @IDS_MP and I are determined to make work pay, and help the UK compete on the #GlobalRace."
- David Cameron (@David_Cameron) 15 July 2013

Except that the IDS_MP handle he'd copied in didn't belong to his Pimms-drinking tennis buddy, but was actually a spoof run by another user, who typically posts acerbic comments under the name of Skip_Licker, who responded:

"Chin chin Dave. Round mine for a Pimms later?"
Iain Duncan Smith MP (@IDS_MP) 15 July 2013

Cameron didn't respond. Typical spoof-IDS tweets include:

"My salary is £65,000 a year. After petrol, food and housing are deducted I'm only left with £65,000 a year. I deserve a pay rise."
- Iain Duncan Smith MP (@IDS_MP) 11 July 2013

"We think it's vital young working class children learn fractions. It will help them tremendously when they grow up and become drug dealers."
- Iain Duncan Smith MP (@IDS_MP) 8 July 2013

To be fair to Cameron, so well-judged was the IDS_MP handle that it has also provoked scores of angry responses from the earnest, easily enraged and very stupid. The Guardian even ran a "Can you tell the difference between the real Iain Duncan Smith and @IDS_MP?" quiz.