Twitter
Twitter is a very public place, and sometimes politicians say silly things there Reuters/Dado Ruvic

An unfortunate Conservative Party MP has become the target of jokes and ridicule on Twitter for asking: what exactly is a GIF? While most people were busy talking about the London Mayoral elections, in which Boris Johnson was succeeded by Labour's Sadiq Khan, some were busy enjoying a scene that was unfolding online between a Tory politician and the contemporary digital era.

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Nicholas Soames, conservative MP for Mid Sussex, was responding to a Twitter update by journalist Asa Bennett, who posted about the recent Brexit-based comments by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who claimed that if Britain leaves the EU it could 'put peace at risk'.

Bennett posted: "Cameron's latest Brexit speech, in a gif' with a video clip bearing the caption 'I've got a war in my mind'.

Then, in what one commenter has since branded "the most British tweet ever", Soames said: "terribly sorry to have to ask but what's a GIF please?" As you can imagine, the Twitterati couldn't believe its luck.

Some replies were serious – and duly attempted to explain the term to the Google-fearing politician.

Others...less so:

Some were just rude:

In the end however, maybe Soames has a point. "If you don't ask..." he wrote a day later. Now for the next lesson, we will be looking at how is it pronounced?

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