Calm Yourselves

Angry politicians should learn from the stoicism of the jockey James Doyle and the judge Baroness Hale when it comes to handling abuse suggests Matthew Steeples

Whilst the British media have gone into uproar about the abusive language used in Parliament in the last couple of days, this morning The Guardian’s Chris Cook highlighted a lesser known form of anger – that of online trolling of jockeys on Twitter.

Writing about a video made by Great British Racing, Cook referenced comments by the Godolphin jockey James Doyle to the British sprinter Adam Gemili. In it, Doyle sensibly remarked of the criticism he gets on Twitter:

“I enjoy it. I think I was one of the early people to go on it and, whilst you do get a lot of abuse on there, I find it’s a pretty even spread, with abuse and praise.”

“Everyone’s different. I find it entertaining sometimes, especially when the comments are completely unjust. You just have to laugh at it and move on. I wouldn’t be one to start retaliating in any way.”

Elsewhere, Baroness Hale was asked about how “she keeps her cool when faced with a list of names she’s been called over the years.” Quoted in the Evening Standard, she responded: “I don’t set out to stir anything up.”

The likes of the shouty, finger pointing Jess Phillips MP and the “we are going to leave and we are going to win” Dominic Cummings should take note. The overflowing cesspit of politics such people have encouraged needs to be cleared out and our representatives need to learn to jolly well calm down.

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