Poison letters and why being nice won’t beat the hate mob
Friday morning, and i’m opening post. My son’s Match Of The day magazine, some online shopping for my daughter, the usual bills for me.
i open an envelope addressed to my husband. ‘Why did Jo Cox have to be murdered and not a Tory c*** like you that deserves to die? Lets (sic) hope you get an STi from one of your gay friends.’
i open another one: ‘ all Tories should die a horrible painful death because you’re all vermin.’ and another: ‘i presume your wife is partially sighted, what other excuse could she have for choosing such an ugly c***. Tory scumbag.’
and another, and another and more, all of which are too offensive for publication.
One by one, i photograph them on my phone so i can hand the originals to the police. i’m shaking a little. as the wife of a Conservative minister, i’m well used to abuse. But the language of these letters is not like anything i’ve had before. and whoever sent them has our home address.
Sunday,
and my husband is heading to party conference. a banner saying ‘ Hang the Tories’ has been strung across a bridge in Manchester, with two dinner-jacketed effigies dangling from it.
Outside the conference Boris Johnson is pelted with missiles. Later Jacob rees-Mogg engages a young anti-Tory protester. ‘Shame on you,’ cries the man. ‘Tories out!’
‘Hello,’ says JrM with characteristic courtesy. ‘What would you like to ask me?’ ‘ you’re not welcome here. Get out!’ the man replies. ‘What do you disagree with me about?’ JrM presses him. ‘ Everything. you are a despicable person,’ shouts the man.
and there you have the mood of the moment. a thoughtful, eloquent man faces down a mask of hatred, his basic civility met only by a teenage howl of rage.
Much of the talk at this week’s conference has centred around the need to get the young back onside. There’s chatter about getting ‘digital’ and social media campaigns. all a complete waste of time.
For a start, the young have never been onside. it was as de rigueur to hate the Tories when i was at university as it is now. Second, you can’t reason with ideology. and that is what those spittle- flecked Corbynistas, with their hammerand-sickle banners and pig masks, represent. Blind, dehumanising ideology. The politics of envy and loathing. you might as well fight pitchforks with a toothpick.
i’m not saying it’s not deeply worrying — after all it was aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who, when asked how Communism had caused the death of over 100 million people replied, quite simply, ‘ideology’.
it’s just that you can’t fight a mentality that thrives on propaganda and hate with reason.
it was ideology that drove nazism; it is ideology that drives islamism. and it is ideology that drives Corbynism. after all, both Corbyn and John Mcdonnell make no secret of their admiration for Karl Marx, a man who spawned a murderous cult and untold human suffering.
years ago, Theresa May described the Conservatives as the ‘nasty party’, but it’s nothing like that now. The Tory Party today is more socially liberal than ever before, more studiously attuned to the needs of the bottom 15 per cent of society, more inclusive, more tolerant and more open-minded. Compassionate conservatism, a government that works for everyone: this is the mantra of today’s party.
Which is exactly why it is struggling so hard to mount a credible challenge against Corbyn and the Left. Today’s Tories are too nice. ruth davidson is right when she says the party needs to ‘man up’.
Because this lot fight hard and they fight dirty. Because you can’t beat them with Labour-lite, conciliatory gestures. and because if the Tories lose, hate will triumph.