Nothing new about MPs facing abuse

Widdecombe

DIANE ABBOTT wails that it is a “horrible, horrible world out there” and wants an inquiry into the hatred to which MPs are subjected on social media. She goes on to say that had she known it would be like this, she would have thought twice about running for Parliament. Well, if it is that bad Diane, there is nothing to prevent your standing down.

Ms Abbott goes on to whinge that “it kind of does get in your head” which is less than articulate for a Cambridge graduate and that “maybe stuff can happen”.

Oh, do man up, Diane. You do not have to look at social media. As long as the public can get in touch with you via email or a website as well as the old-fashioned means of letters and calls, there is no obligation to be on Facebook and Twitter.

Second, there have always been plenty of horrible people in the world. Once they had to settle down with pen and paper, obtain a stamp and post their vitriol so they didn’t bother, contenting themselves with sounding off in pubs.

NOW such people have an easy, instant means of venting their unpleasant feelings but both they and their sentiments have always been there.

also have had death threats and ill-wishes. I regarded them as an occupational hazard even when they purported to come from IRA sympathisers or groups such as Combat 18. I have received more abuse over my looks than I have had hot dinners. When I was converting to Catholicism, I got letters wishing me eternal damnation. When I was standing up for Section 28, I received a letter from a Cambridge medical student saying he hoped I died alone in pain and that he looked forward to hearing I had cancer.

This nastiness is not confined to parliamentarians. I had an abusive letter when appearing with Basil Brush in the Windsor pantomime.

Predictably Ms Abbott refers to the murder of Jo Cox but it was the dreadful exception which proves the rule and the rule is that public figures are targets for abuse but not much else. You do not say it is unsafe for children to go to school because a maniac ran amok in Dunblane and you cannot say it is unsafe for elected representatives to victim saw pictures of the former PM’s yacht on his walls at a time when he had not even got one; that he colluded with victims’ parents who committed some 16 murders. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Among the evidence that has come out is that contrary to some claims Sir Ted once owned a car. It was after he lost his official car as leader of the opposition and before it was reinstated in the face of the walk in public because a maniac ran amok in Batley and Spen.

When I entered Parliament there were war veterans on the green benches, men who had put their lives on the line for their country.

Whatever would they have thought of poor little Diane’s self-pitying moans?

POLICE CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

IRA campaign yet the allegations supposedly span 30 years.

However, we shall have an opportunity to judge for ourselves when the report is made public.

Meanwhile, there are two issues which worry me. The first is a suggestion that the findings may stay confidential. Oh no, Chief Constable, no man should be convicted in secret. The evidence must be as open to scrutiny as any