DYSLEXIC Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne has hit out at “bullies” who pulled him up over his spelling on Twitter.
The self-made multimillionaire, who left school with no qualifications, hit out at his own followers, who he accused of bullying him over his dyslexia.
The row began when the 62-year-old Scot tweeted: “What is Obama saying?
What kind of speach [sic] is this? He is on BBC news talking around in circles”
Bannatyne called his critics “silly people” Photo:The Rambling Man & FelixstoweTV.co.uk
When fans commented on his misspelling of speech, Mr Bannatyne reacted with fury.
One follower, Matthew Steeples, wrote: “Spelling is very important Duncan. Don’t make mistakes.”
Another, Christian Egan, tweeted: “Spelling and grammar: the difference between knowing your s*** and knowing you’re s***!”
Bannatyne hit back: “Anyone picking up my spelling rather than debating the issue is an idiot. You know who you are.”
To one of his 495,508 followers, who said: “DuncanBannatyne #badspellingisapethateofmine ….”, he replied: “Spelling bullies who think they are superior because they were educated are silly people.”
To another who asking: “u had a bad day duncan? #grumpy” he said: “Nope I just don’t like bullies.”
When the tweeter wrote: “a life lesson: wealth doesn’t correlate with ability to spell!”
Mr Bannatyne responded: “Exactly the opposite, most successful entrepreneurs are dyslexic Never met a rich spelling snob.”
He retweeted one of his followers who sent him a message of support, saying: “I am sick of this twitter police…. Sad individuals Duncan x”
Mr Bannatyne ended his rant yesterday evening with: “Squabble amongst yourselves I am off for a round of golf Bye.”
Mr Bannatyne has spoken openly about his dyslexia in the past and had a similar row on Twitter last year when he was picked on for his misspelling of opinion and wrong use of there.
Tweeting at the time, he said: “”My children, like me are dyslexic & I tell them just to pity people like you.”
Other famous people with dyslexia include fellow entrepreneur Richard Branson, actress Keira Knightley and Scottish former racing driver Jackie Stewart.
A spokeswoman from Dyslexia Scotland said: “There are many respected entrepreneurs, musicians, actors, entertainers and scientists who are dyslexic. These difficulties often do not reflect an individual’s cognitive abilities and may not be typical of performance in other areas.”
Bannantyne caused outrage last year after offering his Twitter fans a cash reward for breaking the arms of a twitter follower who had sent his daughter an abusive message. He said: “I offer £25,000 reward for the capture of the coward who calls himself @YuriVasilyev_ Double if his arms are broken first’.
