Most of us from time to time, think thoughts which we might keep to ourselves for the sake of being misunderstood, or perhaps because the thought will portray a lapse of judgement we would rather not disclose to others. It is impossible to avoid the occasional slip up and anyone on twitter who has never tweeted something they later regret is probably in a very small and select group. The success of UKIP shows that some of us are looking for political leaders who are more authentic than many of the spin doctor moulded front bench spokespeople from all of the Parties. However the extent to which some of this discourse is authentic rather than simply offensive for the sake of effect and in order to achieve publicity is very finely balanced. Michael Fabricant in that sense comes from the UKIP wing of the Conservative Party. He has always been a colourful character, something I personally recall from his time in Brighton in the 1980s. At that time I was aware of him because of his work within the Broadcasting industry where I worked briefly and at that time he was someone whose career I followed with a superficial interest. That interest came to an end when his Political work took over from Broadcasting.

Until a few weeks ago when Michael was sacked as deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party for tweeting about the resignation of Maria Miller I had seen very little of his communications, although he is very distinctive and I do spend a bit too much time watching the Parliament Channel. My view was and remains that he did not do anything wrong in his tweets about Ms Miller. I have written previously about my views on this matter and perhaps what was needed was a much stronger line with her from the party hierarchy when her claim for £5,800 for a house her parents lived in first came to light. The idea that one tweet which was saying no more than what most commentators had been saying for months, and in essence supported the decision of Maria Miller which was long overdue should lead to an apology and a sacking of the vice Chairman of the party suggested that there was some sense of internal discipline over social media within the Conservative Party. However that sense has dissipated just as quickly as the mist on the downs this Mid Summers day.

What Michael Fabricant tweeted yesterday regarding Yasmin Alibhai-Brown cannot in any sense be considered a momentary lapse of judgement, in the world that I inhabit. I can understand that he might find her irritating and might be unwilling to take part in a debate with her. I personally have red lines too and while I often disagree with YAB I would be more than happy to debate with her. However there are some others I would simply not have the patience to spend time in discussion with, yet no matter how irritating people are to me (and I am sure me to them), I cannot ever imagine articulating this irritation in terms of either my own ill health or indeed a physical attack on the person I find irritating in such specific terms as to suggest I would punch them in the throat. I don’t even understand how someone who can claim to be peace loving which I presume Fabricant does, can conceive of such actions even in a very dark moment. The failure of responsible humanity portrayed in his appalling tweet (and followed by his expressed desire to see the journalist deported) was then compounded by total inaction by the Conservative Party. Had Fabricant been a Police Officer, a Teacher, A Paramedic, a Doctor etc etc I am certain that there would be a clamour from Politicians for him to be disciplined by his professional body and probably sacked in due course. The problem is that Politicians only see themselves as professionals when it suits them.

If I was a resident of one of the small villages that makes up the Litchfield constituency I would want to see a great deal more from my MP than such a reluctant apology for using such threatening and calculated language. As someone who believes in what I consider to be British values but who lives nowhere near Litchfield I would expect a great deal more from any responsible national Political Party than that delivered by the Conservative Party so far. Sadly I don’t think there is much prospect of anything else from either and so our democracy suffers yet another cut, and dies a bit more.