It’s time to ban these spiteful hard-Left trolls
Your front-page report on how Left-wing activists made threats of violence against a Conservative MP and his pregnant wife for having the temerity to heckle Jeremy Corbyn did not surprise me. However, what is deeply disturbing is that Corbyn appears to have tacitly encouraged his followers to believe they had his consent to launch a campaign of intimidation by stating that the MP should be ‘called out’.
This latest Americanism to enter our language is defined as ‘to draw public criticism to an individual’s actions or behaviour’. Corbyn must surely be aware that, given the far-Left’s track record of intimidation, they would respond to his request in the form of personal attacks.
To encourage another to commit a crime is an offence. If it is found that any leaders have incited their followers to make such threats, they must be prosecuted. Keeley-Jasmine Cavendish, London Following the hate messages to an MP and his wife by Labour supporters, many of whom are reputed to be Momentum members – and the fact that Mr Corbyn has distanced himself from such behaviour in a statement – should he not be proposing to Parliament that Momentum be classed as a banned organisation? Tom Charnley, Bryn-y-Baal, North Wales In our preoccupation with alleged Russian interference in British politics and elections, it seems we are ignoring the real malign influence, which is much nearer to home. Your headline that Corbyn’s trolls have been targeting the families of Tory MPs with violence and physical abuse is just a continuation of how they have been threatening moderate Labour members since Corbyn’s election as party leader. Roy Daniels, Luton The only way to stop such abuse is to make anonymity illegal or impossible in all media activity, including telephone calls.
The people who troll others would be deterred if they knew they would be easily identified, and nuisance phone calls would be greatly reduced if users were not allowed or able to withhold their identities or telephone numbers. Roger Lancaster, Downend, Bristol