Great night to be a twit

Last night and this morning, twitter confirmed itself as the best platform for up to the minute, insider accounts of developing news.

The Labor leadership spill vindicated, in a sense, all the time I’d previously wasted on twitter.

"@brianna_travers having twitter is so worth it on a night like tonight #spill"

It’s clearly a useful news source, not just for breaking news, but for the context provided by piecing together different updates.

Here’s a quick timeline of the key breaking news and inside sources.

7PM-10PM
CUhlmann Kevin Rudd’s leadership is under siege tonight from some of the Labor Party’s most influential factional warlords. Watch ABC News. NOW!

lyndalcurtis AWU definitely switched to Gillard. Other unions expected to follow. #spill

abcnews Breaking news: ABC political editor @CUhlmann says Kevin Rudd likely to be dumped as Prime Minister

latikambourke ‘Definitely on. Arbib backing Gillard. #spill’

10PM
leighsales Rudd press conference at 10.10pm

KarenMMiddleton Press conference room absolutely chockers. no sign of PM or deputy yet. #spill

_leo_s rudd says he will stand, gillard will challenge #spill

10:30PM
(Labor Senator for ACT)
KateLundy: I will be voting for Julia Gillard in the l'ship ballot. She will be an inspiring PM!

1AM
David_Speers cabinet source: it's all over, Gillard-Swan ticket has the numbers locked in

3AM
latikambourke Source: Gillard will win 'with an overwhelming majority.'

8AM
samanthamaiden Labor Mp text: it's Julia no ballot #spill

9AM
774melbourne Julia Gillard is elected unopposed with Wayne Swan as deputy

David_Speers Congrats @samanthamaiden on awesome scoop

..and within seconds there were token tongue-in-cheek updates, this was probably my favourite:

"@scottdools It'd be dope if Gillard made maternity leave crazy long and then got pregnant."

Here’s hoping for the next leadership spill.