The curious case of the owl in my Twitter timeline

So how did I get mixed up in an online fight over owls and Brexit with JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author? I pin the blame on Royal Mail, and its refusal to produce stamps to mark Britain leaving the European Union next year.

The Post Office printed stamps (depicting a Union-flag-coloured piece completing a jigsaw) marking Britain’s accession to the European Economic Community in January 1973. But Royal Mail refuses to mark the UK’S exit from the European Union in March next year, because its policy is “not to get involved in political matters”.

No wonder Brexiteers have questioned its priorities. Every year it prints 13 sets of commemorative stamps. So far this year it has produced stamps featuring characters from the television series Game of Thrones, and British flora and fauna – including, this week, British owls. So when I saw a photograph of one of the stamps (a long-eared owl) in Thursday’s Daily Telegraph, I tweeted: “Why do owls get the right to a commemorative stamp but Brexit doesn’t?” It was a rhetorical question, but that did not stop hundreds of Remainers chiming in.

Daniel Bell said it was “because owls aren’t racist”. Zizi Roberts thought it was “because owls are wise”. John Pugh said it was “because owls aren’t controversial and upset only mice” and for Richard Marks it was “because Brexit will be stopped and owls won’t”. Mark Alexander observed that “owls can look in all directions. Brexit just looks backwards”, while Amanda Stracey said it was “because Brexit is a divisive issue, not a marvel of nature”. Others pointed out that Labour had once strangely pledged, in 2014, that “everybody should have his own owl.”

Then JK Rowling appeared. “Stamps are too small,” she said, “to depict the fact that nostalgic jingoism, fearmongering, racism and flag-waving delusion narrowly won a referendum, thereby dividing the nation down the middle and ensuring long-term consequences for our society and economy, whereas owls are great.”

Ms Rowling has been a sharp critic of Brexit, but clearly introducing owls into the debate, which are famously used to deliver letters in her books, was a step too far. Perhaps she was upset that Brexit stamps might ruin her collecting album; her books and characters featured on Royal Mail stamps in 2007 and 2011.

Now things began to snowball. Jeremy Vine, the Radio 2 DJ, tweeted late on Thursday night: “Am I dreaming? Crockery flying between Christopher Hope and JK Rowling?” Pro-brexit journalists began to pitch in, such as Julia Hartley-brewer: “If only Remoaner JK Rowling liked democracy as much as I like Harry Potter.”

My original tweet has now attracted nearly 500 comments and was seen a staggering 321,000 times in just over 24 hours. I enjoyed the debate, but I have learnt a lesson: that while

17.4 million people believe Brexit will be a hoot, politics and owls tend not to mix. Brextwit, Brexitwoo!