James Kirkup James Kirkup

Corbyn wants a kinder politics. Try telling that to some of his fans

Jeremy Corbyn must be furious about his interview with Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour. Not because of the contents of that interview, because presumably he doesn’t mind people thinking he doesn’t have a clue how he’d fund his promise of state-provided childcare. After all, if he thought stuff like that was important, he’d have taken 30 seconds to read the brief about his own policy before announcing it, right?

No, I mean he must be furious about what happened after that interview, and happened to Emma. Within minutes, she was subjected to the full spectrum of abuse online from people unhappy about a journalist doing her job and asking a politician to explain one of his policies.

Some of that abuse focussed on her religion.  Some of it mentioned her family. Some it was published by people who say they are supporters of Mr Corbyn. None of it was pleasant. None of it was justified.

https://twitter.com/BeccyBee03/status/869537235569451008
This makes me angry and sad. Partly that’s because Emma is a former colleague of mine, a person I like and admire: I don’t like seeing her abused, even though I know she’s (sadly) had to become more than tough enough to take such things in her stride. Partly that’s because this is part of a nasty, corrosive trend in British politics, for which people of all parties bear some responsibility, towards actively and aggressively targeting journalists, in the apparent hope of deterring them from doing their job.

I imagine this will also make Mr Corbyn angry and sad too. He’s strongly opposed to this sort of personal vitriol. He told us so, after all. Here he is in 2015, telling the Labour Party conference he wanted a ‘kinder, gentler politics’ and urging people of all parties to:  

‘Cut out the personal abuse, cut out the cyber-bullying and especially the misogynistic abuse online and let’s get on with bringing real values back into politics.’

Sadly, Mr Corbyn’s words haven’t always been heeded.

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