Twitter have released their top trends of 2013 and we’ve worked our way through the London figures.
Notable deaths including Margaret Thatcher, Iain Banks and James Gandolfini, were among the top trending stories of the year along with other less noticeably gloomy topics like celebrities Angelina Jolie and James Arthur.
While this year’s list doesn’t feature many London-centric topics, it captures the wide range of topics the capital’s Twitter community were most engaged with over the past year.
Top Trending News Stories
This year’s top London trend was the ongoing crisis in Syria.
With the civil war in Syria entering its third year, the issues around the political and humanitarian effort were major news stories in the UK for much of 2013, and will likely continue to be in 2014 and beyond.
After a deluge of Twitter tributes, the death of Scottish author Iain Banks came second on the list of the top trending news stories.
The third highest was the NHS, which has been dogged by controversies this year with a number of hospital scandals making headlines.
High Culture TV?
The BBC’s Question Time was the top trending TV program in 2013.
Surprisingly, the #bbcqt hashtag beat primetime entertainment programmes including The Voice UK, X Factor and The Apprentice.
| # |
London’s Top 10 |
| 1 | Syria |
| 2 | Iain Banks |
| 3 | NHS |
| 4 | #Thatcher |
| 5 | Angelina Jolie |
| 6 | Turkey |
| 7 | James Arthur |
| 8 | #Budget2013 |
| 9 | Richard III |
| 10 | James Gandolfini |
Talking About the Issues
Other top tweeted issues of 2013 included the Chancellor’s budget, the Turkish protests in London and Richard III’s bones in a car park in Leicester.
Political hot topics tweeted in 2013 included the Conservative Party conference, the EDL, UKIP and Labour MP Chris Bryant.
Any Surprises? Not a royal baby in sight.
The most surprising omission from the list is the birth and christening of the royal baby, Prince George. Despite all of Prince George’s press coverage, London’s tweeters were strangely quiet.
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