00:00Politics has always involved disagreement but growing numbers of public figures say hostility
00:06is now moving far beyond robust debate. Threatening messages, abuse and intimidation
00:13have become a routine part of political life for some.
00:17There are 650 MPs. If one gets attacked it's statistically unusual because of course if there
00:23are 650 people in the general population they don't necessarily get attacked. But hey, being an MP
00:29is to put yourself in the sort of the public spotlight and of course MPs they say controversial
00:34things at times which is their right to do and it's their privilege and of course we respect it.
00:39But of course the fact that MPs get attacked for their views again nothing new. Of course if we
00:44even go back to the 1970s of course you know during the sort of the height of the troubles in
00:49all Ireland
00:49and in fact there was at least one MP that I can remember and that was Aerie Neve who was
00:55actually
00:55blown up in the House of Parliament by the Irish National Liberation Army but hey that that was
01:01you know that's the context of that. But of course come another sort of 50 years on politics has become
01:09a sort of much more sort of difficult business to be in if I may say so because of course
01:14I should refer
01:15to Lord Hennessy the great sort of you know wisdom of like a sort of political commentary who says that
01:23we become less kind to one another. Anne Whiddicombe was found dead at a home after suffering serious
01:29injuries. Police launched a murder investigation and counter-terrorism officers later took the lead
01:36after new information emerged. Her death follows the murders of Joe Cox in 2016 and Sir David Amos
01:43in 2021 both of whom were attacked while carrying out constituency work. But certainly as far as
01:51politicians are concerned they are seen to be sort of in the sort of the crosshairs and of course I
01:55think most particularly where we sort of saw this in sort of bucket loads was during the sort of the
02:00the debate leading up to the EU referendum which was held 10 years ago and of course that's where
02:06sort of Joe Cox was murdered by a right-wing nationalist but of course right-wing left-wing as I
02:12say we have this
02:13this extremities in politics whereas of course the sort of the the common ground which of course is
02:18normally in the centre and dare I say most most people the vast majority are sort of you know
02:23people they just want our MPs to sort of to be voted in and to say what they do and
02:27to make the
02:28world a better place. MPs remain unusually accessible public figures they hold local surgeries attend
02:35community events and regularly meet people without the protection given to many senior international
02:40politicians. Parliament has already examined growing abuse and intimidation warning that threats can
02:47silence debate and discourage people from standing for election. Social media is frequently blamed for
02:54amplifying anger and placing users inside political echo chambers although researchers caution that
03:02polarisation has several causes. And of course we can't discount the sort of the influence of social
03:09media people go on to social media and they go on to whatever app parts of that that they wish
03:14but of
03:15course what often happens is people who have fairly extreme views we see this in sort of America in
03:19particular but it's happening in this country they go on into the sort of or go into the what was
03:23known as
03:24echo chambers to hear the sort of the views of people who are like-minded uh the days when we'd
03:29all sit down and
03:29watch the sort of the national news and we get us if you like a very balanced view from the
03:34sort of
03:34the news that seems to have gone people don't sort of watch news in real time and of course they
03:39believe things and of course we saw that in Covid lots of sort of rumours about what uh people
03:43that the vaccine was supposed to do or even the fact that Covid doesn't even exist but of course that
03:48comes from sort of as I say these people at the sort of the extremities who believe in all kinds
03:53of
03:53ludicrous things but of course if people are sort of um feeding on that diet then of course they're not
03:57getting
03:58sort of a much more balanced view then that becomes problematic and perhaps what we're seeing as I say
04:02is sort of the ramification that how we control social media uh because of course it's a worldwide
04:07phenomenon not necessarily based in the UK is problematic and as I say we see in America and
04:13of course under sort of Donald Trump and we saw sort of um you know pretty dreadful acts uh when
04:17Biden
04:18was elected and Donald Trump you know to refuse to believe that that existed and then of course we get
04:23into a situation where people sort of yet they do not sort of believe the facts in front of them
04:27they
04:27think there's some sort of conspiracy so if these are dangerous times and hopefully they will pass and
04:32we'll sort of go back to a much more sort of sedate formal politics although I sort of fear that
04:37that
04:37that's probably sort of more I'm saying that more in hope than expectation security arrangements are now
04:43being reviewed again including protection for politicians working away from parliament and support for
04:50former MPs who may remain prominent public figures the challenge is to improve safety without cutting
04:57elective representatives off from the communities they serve the investigation into and Whittycombe's
05:04death remains active and until its findings are established claims about motive or responsibility
05:10must be treated with considerable care
Comments