To think those that are campaigning to deselect MP's are bullies

[LovelyBranches]

There's been a number of these type of campaigns popping up and I absolutely hate the undertone. MP's in the Labour Party were given a free vote on Syria action and were free to vote how they wished. Surely if we were to deselect MP's who defied the party position, ignored the Whip or voted against public popular opinion then Corbyn would have been deselected a long time ago. Surely the point of the democratic system that we have, is that every 4/5 years everyone gets a chance to vote to keep their local MP. Deselecting after a vote seems undemocratic to me.

Also sad to see how much grief Women politicians in particular are getting. The bullying that Stella Creasy has been subjected to is shameful.

The abuse my local MP is getting is beyond the pail. I actually feel ashamed of my town right now for it.

Well if any parliamentary representative of mine had been so crass as to vote in favour of bombing Syria, I too would be calling him/her names and campaigning for their deselection. Sorry but people who are quite happy to bomb children should not be so sensitive when it comes to their "feelings".

Do something that makes people upset and angry, and then wonder why they express their anger at you in words?! If you get upset about people questioning your vote in parliament, then maybe you are in the wrong job.

I wish some labour MPs would put the same time & effort into fighting the tories and standing up for their constituents as they do to stabbing Corbyn in the back (and abstaining!)! He was elected with huge backing of party members; the PLP need to remember it's not all about them, and then wonder why they are deselected!

Honestly, all this crying about "bullying" - it's embarrassing, and does an inservice to true victims of bullying.

LovelyBranches I agree that the fact that a particular group shouts loudest doesn't mean it has the most support. However I believe the Labour Party membership is against air strikes (by a margin of 3 to 1 if press reports are to be believed) so those who voted in favour are objectively out of step with many or most of their local party members. That shouldn't mean automatic deselection or being subjected to abuse, of course.

As for Twitter, there are ways of dealing with genuine abuse - for less serious incidents, reporting and/or blocking, while for serious abuse including threats of violence there are legal remedies.

All MPs get a fair number of "robust" attacks on Twitter and I do think that Labour MPs can be a bit thinner skinned than their Tory counterparts (for eg, ex Tory party chairman Grant Schapps who resigned from the government recently was pursued with particular tenacity by some very "robust" left wing bloggers; I can't stand the man, but at least he didn't go whining to the media about "bullying").

If the behaviour of activists is illegal (and some of it sounds as if it may well have crossed over the line), then report it to the police. No one should have to put up with harrassment and being barricaded in their homes.

If it's some berk on Twitter, block and ignore. I hate Twitter with a violent passion and have no idea why some saddos spend all day haunting people on it

Everything else - lobbying is not BULLYING FFS. There are emotions running high on this issue and frankly, people ought to be able to protest and make their voice heard. People don't want the 'transactional' Labour Party any more where they knock on your door every 5 years for your vote then you never hear hide nor hair from them again; people want a conversation. Some are just louder and bolshier than others

But MPs are not supposed to only represent one small group of people, they are supposed to represent their constituents....all of them

Are people who are "quite happy" for children to be slaughtered for being the wrong religion or turned into sex slaves allowed to be sensitive when it comes to their feelings, then?

Labour MP Jess Phillips has said a lot of the people who have sent her abussive messages aren't even registered Labour Party members. Some aren't even on the Electoral Roll!

This is what she said:

It's hard for me to write about this with my normal chippy manner. I float from chippy to combative with relative ease normally. This is not so easy. It is not light, it is not funny. In fact it is dark, twisty and serious.

No matter what the decision each MP made on this week's historic vote on Syria I am proud to be their colleague. I have watched MPs weep in the Commons, fret, argue and recoil. I had to shout "pack it in" to squabbles and negotiate different views over dinner. It hasn't been easy.

I voted against, let's just get that out of the way. So much clouded my judgement, so many factors at play switched my thinking. Some were very pleasant, some were complicated, some were utterly insulting. I'm not revelling in my decision, I'm living with it. I'm not pleased to see the hyperbolic back-slapping righteous tweets of some at the top of my party speaking of death tolls, and civilian losses. I don't like any language about this being blood on our hands or any such platitude. People will die no matter what decision was made. Feeling right won't stop the death toll. People will die at the hands of Daesh in the east and west regardless of our vote. I won't sleep sounder tonight feeling righteous any more than I did last night feeling worried.

Each and every MP made an impossible decision. It's not bravery, it's not noble, it is our job. We were elected to do it so other people didn't have to. Don't let's gloat about our decisions from any side please.

I received hundred of emails. Many from thoughtful constituents with well thought out kind intelligent words. I thank each and everyone. To those who lectured me by email about "our party" and the values it holds, just FYI I have the membership lists and most of you aren't on it. I suggest you might not want to directly copy and paste in future. Also another tip from some of the pressure group emails: I have the electoral register, if you can't be bothered to register to take part in our democracy I suggest leaning on me with your wise words about my hard-earned democratic position looks a bit silly. Half of one of the batches of framed emails I received speaking of "our party" are not just not members of our party, but they are not members of the electorate either. Own goal.

I will never forget this vote or this debate for the rest of my life. Many of those who campaigned on either side, shouted at their TVs, rang in to speak on local radio will move on. As events unfold opinions will change, people will shift and everyone will be satisfied at their new position. But my card is marked.

My husband was once asked which super power he would have if he could pick. He gave the utterly unbombastic answer "the power of hindsight". While I'm spying on you with the invisibility power that I picked, he will be resting on the laurels of never making a mistake. Mine is more fun in the short term but his eliminates a life of pain and hand-wringing. What a clever man he is.

Without this power I remain uncertain. What I am certain of is that those who are so certain that they are right are certainly not as clever or good as they think they are.
Jess Phillips is the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley

I'm fairly certain children don't live in oil fields.

Got to love lefty rhetoric

Wise words from Jess Phillips. There's little as scary as people who believe fully in their own rightness to the point they get angry with anyone who holds a different opinion. I can't see how anyone could regard either outcome as anything but the 'least worst' option.

No-one is forced to stand for election. To be an elected representative and to fight for your constituents is a an enormous privilege. People will want to lobby you on issues on which they feel strongly. That's part of the job. Death threats are not part of the job, and I agree that those should be deplored. But if you can't cope with forcefully-expressed views on contentious issues, from within your party or outside it, go and look for a different career.

Does a free vote mean free to vote with their own personal conscience, or does it mean free to vote in the manner that they feel best represents their own constituency?

Yanbu. A free vote should be a free vote with no come back because you dont follow party line.

The stuff bringing up Tony Benn and using him as a stick to beat Hilary Benn with is disgraceful.

And ridiculous quite frankly. I think he probably knew his father better and knew what he would think about the issue and whether he would approve or not and if he would be philosophical if he disagreed with his far better than a bunch of self-righteous Twitter arseholes and Alex Salmond.

I certainly can't see Tony Benn approving of castigating constituency workers, shouting abuse, making threats of violence or wheeling out slurs on dead relatives as reasonable behaviour.

But the very far left have always been really, really nasty. They talk toleration but they will only tolerate people who tow their party line. If far right activists behaved like they did they would be put in jail far faster.

This issue is about a country being bombed in our name.

I thought the debate was intelligent and measured. I personally disagree with the result but that's the way it goes sometimes.
But if constituents object to what their MP has done then I have no problem with their attempting to get them deselected.

We vote MPs in. They work for us. Getting in to power and ignoring your constituents is not something MPs should do lightly.

I don't particularly give a shit if an mp has a moral and political struggle to reach a decision. That's the very essence of their job isn't it?

I don't agree with hate mail or insults or threats.
But if I was massively pissed off that my mp felt to me to be voting against my strongly held beliefs why should I not try to get them removed? It's the way the whole 'represent your constituents' thing is supposed to work isn't it?

Lol at Hilary Benn - a seasoned and forceful politician - being upset at anyone saying 'your dad would turn in his grave'.

I really like Hilary Benn. I thought his dad was magnificent.
But pretending that he hasn't just done a massive u-turn and that his dad would be quite relaxed about that choice is a bit silly. His dad would be furious.

YANBU. It seems many don't understand the premise of democracy.

To make comments of the type made by the not so charming Alex Salmond ("birling in his grave") is tasteless and reflects on the speaker.

Of course I don't expect H Benn was weeping into his cornflakes over it.

Of course it was tasteless - it's Alex Salmond.
I'm just finding the whole tone of the thread quite amusing. Poor bullied MPs. people being mean about their dads.
They are known for being sensitive souls.

Tom Watson said this morning, about the group vocalising outside the office of Stella Creasy, that it's wrong to intimidate the staff. That's was fair point.

I think the membership of the Labour party has moved leftwards and some MPs will now be out of line with the views of the members in their area and may be deselected.
The way democracy works is that the MP for a party is chosen by the party members and at every election who the MP representing the members is reconsidered.
I think some right wing labour MPs will be replaced by those who are more representative of the membership if new Labour party members stay members.
No-one has a right to an MP's job for life.
Intimidation is wrong though.

2rebecca - the point is that the party (including loads of people who have paid £3) has moved leftwards, but voters seem not to have done so. The job of a representative MP is not to do what the party members want or even what the voters want (otherwise most MPs would be in favour of the death penalty), but to make their own minds up, and to face the voters every 5 years on the basis of their record.

I don't like the fact that lobbying only seems to be called bullying only when it's a female MP. Admittedly, it's aggressive, but it's only protesting and lobbying.

Also, I honestly believe that any MP who's prepared to vote for aggressive military action needs to acknowledge the consequences of their decision. The decision by Parliament WILL result in deismembered bodies and decapitated children.

The French bombed a hospital the other day, and there's no reason to believe our forty year old bombers will be any more precise, despite the current mythologising of Brimstone missiles.

I do think that the level of vitriol directed at some MPs does undermine the concept of a free vote. If there is a pressure group trying to get people thrown out of the party for not following what they think is the party line what is the point of having a free vote at all. You can have a free vote but you will lose your job if you don't follow the party line.

It is absolutely unacceptable to target an MP's staff or their family home. I see our local MP in the supermarket, shall I go and badger him outside of work just because I can?

Part of the reality of democracy is that you don't get what you want all the time because not everyone agrees with you.