Hatred should have no place in politics

The Daily Mail’s attack on Ralph Miliband shouldn’t surprise us. Their political leanings are obvious, so much so that they are an easy target to stereotype and ridicule. However, this doesn’t excuse the fact that hatred and vitriol should have no place in politics, but it is all too prominent on many levels.

Having read the Daily Mail article, any seriousness that I was prepared to afford to the piece was soon lost when it talked of Ed Miliband “bringing back socialism”. Socialism is hard to pin down to a single summation, and it can all too easily be lost in ambiguous buzzwords such as ‘social-ism’, ‘ethical socialism’ and ‘democratic socialism’, but if we are to broadly look at it in economic terms, such as the original Clause IV’s “common ownership of the means of production and exchange”, are the Mail seriously suggesting that Ed Miliband is a socialist? The main aim of the article seems to be to accuse Ed Miliband of being a socialist by association with his Marxist father, but how should the death of Miliband Snr in 1994 shape our views of Ed in 2013? It is a smear campaign, pure and simple.

I find it hard to believe that Ralph Miliband, having served in the Royal Navy, hated Britain. If he did, then so what? His Marxist views didn’t lead to an uprising in Britain, and to consider that Ed Miliband is sneakily creeping his way up the political ladder to impose his father’s views is not only one of Machiavellian proportions, but it is a scenario which sounds like a bad soap opera. That the Mail should include a picture of Ralph’s gravestone with the caption “grave socialist” (it was later taken down) is shameful. I’m not a fan of Miliband junior, but surely there are better and more tasteful ways to criticise him? For The Times columnist Danny Finkelstein’s irritance at the mocking use of “call me Dave” for the Prime Minister read “Red Ed”. Grown-up politics is a rare commodity. In America, Barack Obama is also ludicrously labelled as a socialist by his detractors. However, he’s also been called a terrorist, Hitler and so on. To quote Barack Obama from a State of the Union address in 2009, such quotes would be “laughable, if they weren’t so cynical and irresponsible”.

Hatred in politics surfaces in other areas, too. When seeing leaflets from protesters at the Conservative Party Conference with the words “Tory scum”, I couldn’t help but see the ‘egalitarian paradox’. I’m on the Left myself, but it seems to be a prevailing feature with certain people who lean to the Left to espouse the desire for greater equality and egalitarianism, yet when differing viewpoints arise the bile can emerge. I’m not condemning the right to protest, far from it, but are we really going to label members of the Conservative Party as ‘scum’? I remember when the BNP had a mini-surge in 2009, and people rightly took to the streets with the words “Hope, not hate”; it would be interesting to see if any of those same people gleefully hailed the “Tory scum” literature.

I’m fully aware that there are copious examples of hatred and bloodshed in politics around the world, and that the examples I’ve listed here pale in comparison. I don’t wish to degrade those examples, but my point is that as a seemingly tolerant country (which on the whole Britain is), we can do far better than resort to petty and hurtful antagonism. I’d of course prefer everyone to get along, but I’m not speaking out against conflict or confrontation in politics; we need scrutiny and criticism of our leaders. However, it shouldn’t descend into personal affronts. I’m no saint; if someone announces to me that they have Conservative political leanings, I’ll at least give them some good-natured stick. However, it would be quite another level for me to then pick a random far-right leader and try and associate someone close to that person with their views.

No party is squeaky clean when it comes to personal attacks. Indeed, no political end of the spectrum is squeaky clean, as you’ve seen in the examples above. Political swordfights are great for our democracy and often engaging; Prime Minister’s Questions, when it’s not engulfed by childlike conduct, has been a lively arena for many a generation, and has also been a great leveller of certain personalities. Furthermore, the General Election TV debates were a great way to put the political leaders on a platform and to test their mettle. When political debates descend into hatred and offensive repute, it is not only regrettable and irresponsible, but it is often a sign of someone desperately losing the argument.