It’s only a comment. It’s only a joke. It’s only a milkshake. So the Left squawk each time someone drenches me with a drink, or a so-called comedian suggests people should throw battery acid at me on the BBC. It’s just a joke. If you’re a politician, it’s part of the job description, right?
Well, that is not true. The words deployed by the Left are, I believe, encouraging people. Rocks were thrown at me during the election campaign, and last night Donald Trump was shot. The favourite to be the next president mere millimetres away from death.
The “be-kind” brigade must now realise that their language has an impact. It has become commonplace among the media elite to view Trump as an authoritarian fascist – it is now so normal to hear that those of us on the Right, who care about our countries, are somehow authoritarian dictators. Take the last week – Biden has declared that Trump should be “in a bullseye” and that he is a “dictator”.
It’s not just in the US. David Aaronovitch, the former Times columnist, once tweeted – then deleted – that if he were Biden he’d “have Trump murdered”. He has since claimed that it was “clearly satirical but deliberately misinterpreted”. Yet the rot that it is somehow acceptable to demonise and marginalise elected figures, even in jest, in such inflammatory terms has become our normal – these aren’t words spoken by lonely men in their mother’s basement but by people in serious jobs, working in national institutions.
We don’t know the motives of the 20-year-old shooter. But we do know that as our political discourse becomes more febrile; and as the Left become more desperate to attack those of us who stand up for what we believe, the more violent it becomes. It shouldn’t be normal to throw cement, rocks or drinks at me. And yet, for many on the Left, the language of violence has become their last resort. And we’re now seeing the consequences.
Which is why, next week, I will be travelling to Milwaukee to the Republican Convention. I do so to support my friend, Donald Trump, as we head into the later stages of an era-defining election. He is the favourite to win – and after today’s heinous acts he will win – and I am determined to do all I can to ensure the UK’s special relationship with the US is as strong as it can be.
But I do so for something bigger. To stand shoulder to shoulder with Trump and the US to stand up for democracy. To say, loud and clear, that we can disagree vehemently, that we can debate, that we can thrash out of views. But that resorting to violence is entirely unacceptable, regardless of your views.
Trump had a very, very narrow miss. It is a miracle. I implore all of those on the Left to think very carefully about how they seek to play politics. Next time, it could be very, very different.