Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LONDON, April 30 (UPI) -- A member of the British Parliament stirred controversy with a Twitter posting that jokingly blamed the swine flu on a "Britain's Got Talent" singer. Sion Simon, Labor Party member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington and the country's minister for further education, joked on Twitter that the swine flu outbreak was tied to Susan Boyle's performance on "Britain's Got Talent," The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday. Advertisement "I'm not saying Susan Boyle caused swine flu. I'm just saying that nobody had swine flu, she sang on TV, people got swine flu," Simon wrote in his posting. The posting was derided as insensitive as it coincided with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announcing that two more Britons had been diagnosed with swine flu, the Telegraph reported. Simon's post wasn't the first time a Twitter posting has stirred controversy. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, was fined $25,000 by the NBA for using his Twitter page to criticize the referees in a game the team lost to the Denver Nuggets. "How do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground?" wrote Cuban, who is believed to be the first person penalized by a sports league for Twitter comments. Advertisement
