pwa wrote:There is a long history, almost a tradition, of people abusing politicians. At its most harmless it can amount to heckling and humorous banter. The question is, where do we draw the line between the acceptable and the unacceptable.
JRM had protesters turn up on the doorstep of his home and tell one of his small children that some people don't like his daddy. That crossed two lines, I think. Firstly, protesting at someone's home is not acceptable to me. It is intimidating and invasive. Worse still is involving someone's child.
With Anna Soubry the Nazi chant, while unjustified, daft and rude, was not a particular worry for me. It wasn't good and I oppose it, but it was just offensive heckling. It made the protesters look bad. But the shouting at her as she returned to Parliament brought the protesters oppressively close. When someone shouts at you close up it is intimidation. That crossed a line for me. It was threatening.
You are right, but what is worrying is the way they choose their targets, they are all women or ethnic minorities..... This is associated with one MP because it was such a public display of aggression, misogyny, that it worked for the media. There are multiple others that have not been recorded in the same way and these are also coming to light.
They have broken in to radio stations, blocked roads, broken in to the Labour Party, again using intimidation racist and sexist threats.
We could also look at the links of this group with "Liberty defenders" an ultra right wing group with anti-Islamic policies, also associated with Nick Griffin Members of this group are also active on anti-Muslim far right websites.
What needs to be bone in mind is whether this is actually about Brexit at all, or whether it is about the nastier racist element amongst the supporters of brexit using this to forward their xenophobic hatred........ Ironically one of the key policies of Nazism
It is noted that others are taking steps. The "Leader" has now had his Facebook rantings closed down and PayPal has frozen he's donation account