Ministers and MPs have been told by parliamentary chairwoman Gerdi Verbeet to stop using the internet message service Twitter while attending debates, the Telegraaf reported on Thursday.

Instead, ministers and MPs should show good manners and concentrate on parliamentary proceedings, Verbeet said. She has written to senior civil servants urging them to get their ministers under control, the paper said.
Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen and defence minister Jack de Vries are both keen users of the service. Verhagen was famously ticked off by prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende for posting a photograph of a cabinet meeting as a Twitter message.
And Labour MP Paul Tang recently messaged that he thought the dress GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema was wearing was nicer than the debate ‘so far’, the Telegraaf reported.