Harassment in Public Life

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Amber Rudd]

That is a very interesting point. I believe that the coarsening of debate in the political environment has led to the acceleration of this, and I will certainly pass on that point to the Department for Education.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

I am beginning to think that it is almost impossible to mix politics with Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are just made for anonymous abuse, and they do not contribute to modern civilisation. They encourage people to instant outrage, because they have to react immediately, without any pause for reflective thought. There is just an automatic direction towards abusing somebody, rather than towards debating, discussing and, importantly, listening because these platforms are for the transmission not the receipt of ideas. To my mind, they do not enhance our democracy in any way at national level, but also, importantly, they do not do so in relation to local councillors at local level.

[Amber Rudd]

My hon. Friend makes such an important point. That is largely, but not exclusively, where a lot of the hate comes from. For my own part, I no longer look at my Twitter timeline, but I know that plenty of people, particularly younger people, live online and they should not be put off coming into public life because they would then be expected not to engage on Facebook or Twitter. We must have an environment in which such people can continue to engage in their normal communications and go into public life if they choose to do so.