A rich irony today on the BBC. Jacqui Smith, the former Home Secretary, popped up on Politics Live to talk about the important of civility in public life. She is the chair of trustees for the Jo Cox Foundation, which has today launched a civility commission to crack down on abuse in public life.
It was therefore slightly ironic that the onetime Labour MP chose to exhibit less than perfect standards when debating with her fellow panellist Isabel Oakeshott the merits of Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework. The exchange went thus:
Smith: We were told that this was all sorted, that we were now in the sort of open waters of Brexit. That clearly wasn’t the case…
Oakeshott: So you’re think of making it more difficult?
Smith: Oh Isabel, shut up!
So much for politeness in public life…
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