To think May has brought this up on us

[Babycham1979]

Teresa May claims there's a divisive, hateful culture in politics. AIBU to think that she's directly contributed to this, both as Home Secretary and as PM. Race, sex, nationality, class, Brexit; she's almost single-handedly driven this agenda of hate...

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/05/theresa-may-calls-abuse-in-public-life-a-threat-to-democracy-online-social-media

Of course YABU. Have you not heard of Gordon and Tony?.......

I agree with Eve. It's at all levels of society. I definitely don't think it's going to be solved by finger pointing and saying 'It's not us, it's them.'

One party has consistently, aside from a short period post-war, based its ideology on social Darwinism.

They've waged war on everyone and are spitting chips that we don't respect them for it and we haven't turned on the foreigners that they imported to cement their position.

The legacy of Labour and the shit awful Gordon Brown (and weasily, vile, lying Blair) caused much of the problems.

Things certainly did not 'get better' when they were in power.

The legacy of Labour and the shit awful Gordon Brown (and weasily, vile, lying Blair)

Pretty much Tories weren't they?

The tories are no better, hence I hate them too.

Whether you agree with Brexit or not, it's surely inescapable that the whole campaign was, on both sides, incomparably divisive. This undoubtedly was the result of years of bad policy ; corporate welfare, deindustrialisation, poorly-managed immigration etc. But, and this is the point, isn't it now incumbent on our 'leaders' to rise above this?

Even Thatch saw fit to quote Francis of Assissi upon victory. The current shower are acting like squabbling, spoilt children, and it's no wonder the media and the populace are following their example.

I don’t think Blair and Brown stirred up hatred of others. We may have disagreed on some of their policies but in fact the EU wasn’t on their agenda. It’s always, since Tony Benn and Barbara Castle piped down on it, been a Conservative problem. It’s divided them for years but when the heirarchy did nothing about coming out of the EU, Farage stepped in. The result has caused widespread splits and differences of opinion.

Lots of popular opinion now has a voice via technology. That’s where more division is clearly voiced then anywhere else. Most people rub along in real life though.

Brexit and some of the language used around this, has made it acceptable for many people to express their racist views.
We are in the backlash. For some years gains were made in tackling racism, misogyny and the like. Now those who are against those gains are lashing back. Unfortunately it is a cycle that seems to have existed for a long time.

Pretty much Tories weren't they?

Nope.

Plus this isn't just an issue of those on the right. Those on the left have issues too, which is often forgotten.

Brexit was definitely not the event which made it ok to express racist views. As someone married to a Muslim of Middle Eastern origin, I can tell you that after 9/11 and 7/7 people in this country started to feel very comfortable openly expressing their anti Muslim and Arab views. Even supposedly educated people feel it's justifiable to make Islamaphobic remarks. My dcs and dh have been told to go back to their own country many times before Brexit. Of course on MN, for some people, Islamaphobia isn't racism.I don't think you can pin that on political leaders of either left or right. That started at grassroots level.

I don't blame Theresa May. Division goes back a long way- think Margaret Thatcher and successive governments economically abandoning the UK outside London and the South East, Tony Blair and his decision re the 8 accession countries in 2004, and finally Brexit, for which David Cameron and to an extent Jeremy Corbyn are responsible.

Disraeli 100% to blame for this.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are the ones mostly responsible. They oversaw wars which killed millions, unsustainable immigration, huge increases in the costs of housing and living and then the Tories continued what they started. This has caused so much polarity between the young and the older generations, the different races etc all so that Blair could become a greedy multi-millionaire.

Blair and Brown - huge increases in nhs and education funding? Oh yes, definitely a pair of rascals.

I’m having a good giggle about the ‘i blame....’

I blame mass education and enfranchisement - pesky people thinking everyone should have a vote/opinion. Oh and twitter.

What about Gladstone and his Madonna/whore complex?

It's mostly Twitter.

I blame Edward the Confessor. Confessing bastard!

That Pontius Pilate is the cause of all this. He was trouble, even when he was just a co-pilate