Ed Ball, the king of Twitter bantz (Picture: Reuters/Twitter/Ed Balls)

Ed Balls has had a long and varied career, but rather than his time as a cabinet minister or appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, he will probably be remembered for something quite simple – tweeting his own name.

Now Mr Balls has jumped at the chance to lightly poke fun of a police force in America for making the same mistake.

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You see, way back in 2011 Mr Balls sent out the now-famous tweet containing nothing but his own name, presumably the result of an attempted search for himself on Twitter.

Accepting his error, Ed left the offending tweet up, and now we celebrate ‘Ed Balls Day’ every year in commemoration of the tweet (seriously).




The DC Police Department tweeted ‘dcpolice’ yesterday, prompting the former MP to reply to the tweet with the same message. Then this delightful interaction took place.

dcpolice — DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) October 28, 2017

Thank you, Ed. — DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) October 28, 2017

You’re welcome, DCPolice — Ed Balls (@edballs) October 28, 2017

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Just like Mr Balls, the police department have decided to accept their flaw and haven’t deleted the tweet.

We can’t imagine the little burst of Twitter banter will damage US-UK relations that much, but it has once again reminded people of Ed Balls’ finest moment.

The 'Ed Balls' joke never gets old. It's funny every time. Every. Sodding. Time. — Chas Newkey-Burden (@allthatchas) October 28, 2017