Fail: UK embassy apologises for 'burning White House' tweet

bizzaro · August 25, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28929626

UK embassy apologises for 'burning White House' tweet

The British embassy in Washington has apologised after tweeting a picture of a White House cake surrounded by sparklers, "commemorating" the burning of the building 200 years ago.

The US presidential residence was set on fire by British forces in 1814 during the "War of 1812" with the United States.

A number of Twitter users said the embassy's tweet was "in poor taste".

The embassy later said: "Apologies for earlier Tweet."

It added: "We meant to mark an event in history & celebrate our strong friendship today."

'Only sparklers!'
British troops led by Maj Gen Robert Ross, from Northern Ireland, attacked and burned public buildings including the Capitol, Washington Navy Yard and the president's mansion during the conflict.

It is the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a foreign power has captured and occupied Washington.

The offending tweet on Sunday read: "Commemorating the 200th anniversary of burning the White House. Only sparklers this time!"

The British embassy message, published on its official Twitter account, has been retweeted more than 4,000 times.

One user questioned: "Is this suppose [sic] to be funny"?

Another wrote: "I think this is in extremely POOR TASTE."

An apology was issued on the account two hours after the original message.

Made me laugh. lol

But the American lids are fuming :rant:

Muzumbu · August 25, 2014

Just a bit of banter

wm02 · August 25, 2014

I thought it was funny too.

rascal · August 25, 2014

Dear America, please don't bomb us for our government's mistake. Love, the British people.

moyeslovechild · August 25, 2014

people love to be outraged nowadays dont they? fookin social media...

Pat's Van · August 25, 2014

I like cake

Allezfan · August 25, 2014

rascal said:
Dear America, please don't bomb us for our government's mistake. Love, the British people.

If you're reading this America, I just want to say, before you start picking targets to bomb, I'm pretty sure Scotland has all the oil.

Tubey · August 25, 2014

Sooo this is apparently in bad taste, but celebrating the genocide of an entire people every year for Thanksgiving isn't...

Okiedokey.

Allezfan · August 25, 2014

Tubey said:
Sooo this is apparently in bad taste, but celebrating the genocide of an entire people every year for Thanksgiving isn't...

Okiedokey.

They're not celebrating the genocide, they're celebrating the everlasting peace and friendship they had with the people they then genocided.

It's like, how in this country, we celebrate Chamberlain's ground breaking 'peace in our time' treaty every year.

Moomin · August 25, 2014

Listen, we celebrate the attempted bombing of the houses of parliament every year. If we never burnt down the last white house you would not have this lovely one.

We done you a favour.

toffeestillidie · August 26, 2014

There were like 5 tweets that said it was in poor taste, compared to 3k favorites and 7k retweets, the people offended by this were just a vocal minority, and I bet most of them couldn't tell you the first thing about the War of 1812.