There is something wrong with our political life

Once again I despair about our political life. Yesterday we saw the leader of Britain's opposition party being mobbed by a crowd who were shouting insults at him and repeating slurs and lies about him. These slurs and lies have been repeated by government politicians. The mob has been wound up. It goes to show how easily people who hate can be stirred up into taken violent action. We need to be careful that we don't fall into a populist hatred of one another.

It's my opinion that no-one should be shouted out or abused, be it a politician, medical officer, policeman, the man or woman in the street, your family member or friend.

I am on friendly terms with people who have political opinions which are diametrically opposed to mine and we handle those differences by showing respect for one another. Some of my best friends had opinions which were opposite to mine but one thing we had in common was that we had respect for one another and were opposed to abuse and mob rule.

I have been on a number of large demonstrations all of which were peaceful. I did not feel the need to shout abuse at anyone. When these demonstrations got near Downing Street  some of the crowd felt the need to shout at the Prime Minister, I didn't do this; the discourse could and should be better than that.

We need to be careful, the recent Balkans war saw politicians inciting the mobs to abuse people who were once their neighbours. We don't want Britain  to descend to that level or even worse.

It is time for all politicians to recognise the dangers of slurs and incitement to abuse , if only for their own self-preservation as the anger could be re-directed towards them.