Internet shitposters are out of the tree - and inside Westminster
DURING the grimmest period of Covid I took a call from my then news editor asking me to investigate reports that the local ice rink was to be used as an emergency morgue. The claim was one of many circulating during a time that was, much as now, rife with anxiety and fast-spreading rumours. As it turns out the ice rink story was entirely untrue, although I was able to confirm contingency planners had indeed earmarked a hangar at Birmingham Airport for a similar purpose. During the often chaotic weeks and months that came after I also had to investigate reports of army helicopters conducting flights over the borough, plans to bring the area into local lockdown and care workers without PPE using bin liners for protection. Some claims were true, others were partly factual but perhaps exaggerated or distorted and some proved entirely bogus. The job of any responsible reporter when alerted to a whisper on Twitter or an anonymous email is to establish quickly whether there's anything to