JK Rowling takes on Twitter trolls after row over 'anti-English' prejudice in the SNP, wins
'Now deluged with people applying to come and live under my stairs'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.JK Rowling has spent days defending her stance on Scotland and the SNP, but last night she took on her Twitter trolls and won.
Rowling caused a stir on Friday when she questioned an assertion made by The Herald’s political commentator Iain Macwhirter, who claimed that “any trace of ethnic nationalism, and anti-English sentiment, was expunged from the [SNP] in the 1970s”.
Rowling, who lives in Scotland and who last year donated £1m to the Better Together campaign ahead of the Scottish referendum, called this “quite a claim,” asking the journalist, “How many English incomers were polled before the making of that confident assertion?”.
Many took her stance to be stereotyping Scottish people as inherently anti-English, but Rowling said she was instead challenging Macwhirter’s ability to prove the claim that the party has zero prejudice within it.
Since the spat, she has been taking on her Twitter trolls with her usual humour, but when one user claimed Rowling is “trying to shove working class Scots under [her] imperial-austerity stairs,” where she “keeps a whole nation,” the author’s response was enough to shut the trolls down.
“Good God, I haven’t got the energy to feel victimised! It’s hard work keeping an entire nation under my stairs,” she replied.
“I need to hear from other Scottish people who aren’t under my stairs. My goal is total stair-based domination,” she continued after Scottish people began getting in touch to tell her they were not under her stairs.
“Now deluged with people applying to come and live under my stairs,” she added, before responding to questions of whether or not she felt bullied.
“No, I don’t feel bullied,” she wrote. “In the looking-glass world of Twitter, vitriol is so often the tribute inadequacy pays to articulacy,” before thanking the people who had sent her messages of support.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments