Moggmentum
Moggmentum (also known as #Cantcloggthemogg) is a 2017 online campaign and grassroots movement celebrating Jacob Rees-Mogg in a similar fashion to the objectively larger[1] 2015 phenomenon of Milifandom and Labour's Momentum.The campaign includes pressure for him to become the Conservative Party leader in the United Kingdom. The #Moggmentum movement has been seen as the first steps for the Conservative Party on social media (who traditionally have relied on the support of the dwindling power of media barons), lagging behind the Labour Party.[1]
History
In May 2017, During the 2017 election campaign Rees-Mogg posted a picture on Instagram of himself and his son standing outside a tattoo parlour that was displaying a Vote Labour poster alongside a poster reading "Keep sane and don't vote Tory", his picture was captioned: "We shall take our business elsewhere".[2][3] As a result #Moggmentum began to trend on Twitter.
In June 2017 #Moggmentum began to trend again as a result of Rees-Mogg interrupting Jeremy Corbyn during the queen's speech debate, an act that was criticised by Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow.[4] Following the speech a series of memes were created with Rees-Mogg as the subject.[5]A petition was started to make Rees-Mogg Prime Minister which gained 13,000 signatures over the next two days.[6]
On the 7 July 2017 Jacob Rees-Mogg gained significant publicity as the potential next Conservative Party leader when major news outlets began releasing articles about the subject, at the time Rees-Mogg had an opinion polling of 60% to take over as conservative party leader according to Pollstation[7] with Boris Johnson following with 12% of the votes. The same day betting odds were "slashed" from 50/1 to 16/1 by Oddschecker; this has been directly attributed to the campaign.[8][9]
Responses
On 3 July 2017, the BBC released a trending subject article on the movement and on the 5 July a two minute video was added to the BBC website summarising the phenomenon.[1][10] On 5 July The Sun referred to #Moggmentum as a "growing personality cult."[11]
References
- ^ a b c "Social media appeal of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg". BBC News.
- ^ "Instagram post by Jacob Rees-Mogg • May 31, 2017 at 8:11pm UTC". Instagram.
- ^ "Jacob Rees-Mogg's social media posts gain mass following as the local MP enters the digital age". Chew Valley Gazette. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
- ^ Ovens, Ruth (4 July 2017). "5 times Jacob Rees-Mogg became an internet star with #Moggmentum".
- ^ "#moggmentum: unlikely movement to make Jacob Rees-Mogg Prime Minister". 30 June 2017.
- ^ Ovens, Ruth (7 July 2017). "'Moggmentum' continues with North Somerset MP's Question Time appearance".
- ^ "Who Should be the Next Conservative Party Leader?".
- ^ Morrison, Caitlin (7 July 2017). "Odds slashed on Jacob Rees-Mogg to replace Theresa May as Tory leader".
- ^ "Jacob Rees-Mogg in "serious contention" to become the next leader of the Conservative party". 7 July 2017.
- ^ Trending, Hannah Henderson BBC. "Jacob Rees-Mogg: The Conservative MP who's an unlikely social media star". BBC News.
- ^ "Meet Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg who has welcomed his sixth child with an incredible name". 7 July 2017.
