I'm not a fan of Twitter - it's called that for a very good reason. It is nothing more than haiku for morons, for people who think their every waking thought is worthy of being condensed into 140 characters and broadcast for the their own pointless and vacuous self-publicity.

Yesterday afternoon, twitter was all a-twitter with posts about Jan Moir's Daily Mail column. I'm not a fan of the Daily Mail's comic for the professionaly outraged, so I followed the link from Constantly Furious's blog to see what all the panic was about.

You see Ms Moir had the temerity to suggest that Stephen Gately's death from "natural causes" - fluid in the lungs - was anything but natural. And to be fair she has a point.

The most revered rock and roll icons of the sixties and seventies all died unnaturally. A hell of a way to boost album sales, I'll admit but their untimely demise does lend a certain mystique to the legend. Buddy Holly died in an air crash along with Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, Stevie Ray Vaughn met the same fate but in a helicopter. Janis Joplin drank herself to death, Jim Morrison overdosed and Jimi Hendrix choked on his own vomit (the old fluid in the lungs thing).

But what has got the twitter twats all fired up is that as young Mr Gately is gay Ms Moir's suggestion that Mr Gately perhaps died somewhat unnaturally is therefore homophobia. A cloth-eared syllogism if ever I heard one. And letting the facts get in the way of a great twitter campaign, some of these cloth-eared, oh- I'm-so-offended-on someone else's behalf, anti anti-gay campaigners started ringing round the Daily Mail's advertisers telling them about the horrid thing Ms Moir was suggesting.

But let's look at the facts. Pulmonary edema isn't something that happens all of a sudden. Fluid builds up in the lungs over time and the condition is treatable. There is a condition known as flash pulmonary edema and is the result of a heart attack. Stephen Gately's autopsy results are given as "natural causes" due to "fluid in the lungs". That's a fairly open ended verdict from the coroner and is probably more about presenting a less sordid version of events in order to protect the Spanish tourist industry than anything else. Then again if you are known to suffer a congenital heart condition, then it is probably not a good idea to go an an all day drinking spree and then fall asleep on the sofa whilst your partner is in the next room having bum sex with a strange Bulgarian fella - as has been rumoured.

This same Bulgarian bloke is now hawking his story around the tabloids for a not inconsiderable amount of money. What odds Max Clifford appears stage right some time in the very near future. Natural causes?....Don't think so.