Politics should be passionate but not personal
By Tim Farron
Politics exploded into life for 2025 with a barrage of ‘tweets’ by Elon Musk attacking the Prime Minister and the Safeguarding Minister, over an historic inquiry into predominantly Asian grooming gangs and the systematic sexual abuse of white girls. The circumstances are truly horrific. There were dreadful failings over decades by those in authority. Aspects were first uncovered back in 2003 by The Times and consistently pursued by that paper and others over the following 12 years. There have been subsequent inquiries whose recommendations have yet to be implemented.
We should absolutely be angry about the depths of wickedness and injustice that took place, both by the abuse perpetrators and those who covered it up. We should also be clear that this did not include Keir Starmer, who as Director of Public Prosecutions did much to ensure that these cases were pursued.
As we saw with the Smyth scandal, abuse is not limited to particular ethnicities or social backgrounds. It should be confronted and rooted out wherever and whenever it happens.
But the reignition of the issue exhibits the worst of our political debate. The Prime Minister rightly accused some of those posting on X of “spreading lies and misinformation” and “whipping up intimidation and threats of violence”. Social media has real power to intensify anger and hatred, especially in the hands of someone as influential as Musk, and it can have devastating consequences. We mustn’t forget that two of our MPs have been murdered by extremists.
As a committed Tweeter on X myself, I regularly make my views known on US politics. So why am I concerned about Musk’s comments about the UK? Well for a start he has rather more followers than I do (211 million in fact), and he chooses to use his influence to spread conspiracy theories. He treats his interventions in politics as a game. Secondly, he will shortly become a key political player in Donald Trump’s new government – although to be fair it’s unclear how far Trump supports his output.
Musk embodies the power of words to make a difference, for good or ill. Political agendas are often set by those who shout the loudest. This can be beneficial when exposing injustices. But it can be hugely harmful when used to promote misinformation based on half-truths or lies. When issues of deep concern are obscured by political point-scoring, they cause damage by distracting from truth and the concrete pursuit of justice.
Passionate debate is the lifeblood of politics. But personal attacks from both sides, labelling opponents as far right agitators or ‘rape genocide apologists’ insidiously deepen our divisions – they are designed to generate red mist and displace respectful discussion. When people are quick not only to demonise the motives of their political opponents, but to put them beyond the pale as human beings, trust is truly broken.
We can all be guilty of an angry or provocative comment on X when we are fired up – I hold up my own hands. And sometimes what we say, however carefully, will inevitably cause offence. But this does not mean we should deliberately set out to agitate. There is a difference between speaking truth and spreading disinformation, between free speech and inflammatory speech.
The result of this poisoned ‘debate’ is to divide us into tribes: ‘us’ versus ‘them’; a theme of human storytelling from ancient myths to the Star Wars franchise. It satisfies us to understand the world in terms of good and bad. We gather in our tribes to reassure each other that we are right and ‘they’ are wrong. It helps us to feel like we belong.
This tribalism leads us to view other humans as fundamentally different to ourselves. Whether through colour, race, language or politics, it gets easier to believe they are ‘other’ than us, and somehow less deserving of respect and compassion. Tribalism can lead us to treat people not in our tribe as responsible for every wickedness and failure.
But Christians should not be drawn into these battles. Jesus rejected the notion of ‘us and them’. He announced that he had come to save the whole world, and challenged us to love our neighbour as ourself. Our neighbour means everyone, and our starting point for how to treat others is to recognize that we are all equal, at a lofty level, created in God’s image.
There are important debates around the extent and limits of freedom of speech versus protecting individuals from intimidation. But how we behave towards one another comes down to individual choices. It is about responsibility and civility. It is about valuing each other’s humanity, respecting opposing views and remembering how to disagree well.
A lot of the self-appointed free speech warriors on social media also claim to be Christians, and lots of them probably are. It’s worth remembering then that the Bible says very little about defending our own rights and freedoms, and a great deal about our duties to one another.
In football, a player can be sent off the pitch for using ‘offensive, insulting or abusive language’. If a footballer attacks another player rather than the ball, they are disciplined. This is an accepted approach to a game where passions run high. So why are the standards applied on the sports field somehow lost in real life?
Those of us in the public eye must model a more respectful form of political debate. We need to get past the discourse of insults and triumphalism, and to humanise rather than demonise our opponents.
Indeed, we should seek common ground with our opponents. Most of us want to see justice done, and we must recognise that people will take different approaches to achieve this end. If we believe in the equality and fundamental dignity of every person, we have a responsibility to seek to understand their beliefs and to treat them – and their motives – with respect.
We must remember that we are not at war with one another. The vast majority of those in public life want to make a positive difference to society. There should be no ‘us’ versus ‘them’. We are all ‘us’; we are all human beings made in the image of God, and we should treat one another as we wish to be treated. Laws must be enforced, and justice must be sought, but we must pursue this with civility and humanity. Nobody is exempt from this call: from the keyboard warriors right up to the owner of X himself.
Tim Farron has been the Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005 and served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party from 2015 to 2017. Tim is also the host of Premier’s ‘A Mucky Business’ podcast, which unpacks the murky world of politics and encourages believers around the UK to engage prayerfully.
He is the author of A Mucky Business: Why Christians should get involved in politics.”