Titiangate: Conservative party caught vandalising Wikipedia

By Nate Lanxon on 12 February 2009, 11:46am

The Tory party has been caught cocking its leg on the lamp-post of Internet ethics -- it has admitted to editing Wikipedia in an effort to big up its leader David Cameron, and embarrass Prime Minister Gordon Brown, after a daft argument in Parliament between the pair over the age of the Renaissaince artist Titian, says the BBC.

During Prime Minister's Questions -- a half-hour Q&A session between MPs and the Prime Minister, which occurs every Wednesday in the House of Commons -- Cameron jabbed at Brown's claims that the Italian painter was aged 90 years when he died, when he was "in fact" aged 86. Heavens above! Any idiot knows Titian's date of passing. You didn't? Well, you're almost certainly a total moron.

We jest, we jest. You see, it should be noted that although the year of Titian's death is widely understood to be 1576, the year of his birth has never been confirmed.

That didn't stop one "over-eager" member of Tory staff, however, who promptly edited Wikipedia's entry for Titian to 'prove' Cameron was correct, and Brown was wrong. They were found out when the IP address of the editor was found to be registered to Conservative Party headquarters. Ooh, the scoundrels in politics these days. Little rogues.

The Wikipedia entry now ages him at '87/88' when he died, proving them both wrong. Take that, political integrity.