Tommy Robinson and the double standards of political violence

So it’s acceptable now to assault electoral candidates? That’s the pretty scary take-home message from the Tommy Robinson ‘milkshaking’ incidents. Journalists and even politicians have been going wild for the bloke in Warrington who threw his milkshake in Robinson’s face yesterday as he was out campaigning as an independent for the upcoming Euro elections. It’s the second time this week Robinson was milkshaked. It will no doubt become a trend. ‘Milkshake a fascist.’ Videos of the incidents have gone viral and even Tory MPs have cheered the strawberry-flavoured assaulters. Johnny Mercer said the attacks made him ‘#lovebritain’. He later apologised, perhaps realising it isn’t a good idea for a member of an increasingly unpopular party to green-light assaults on unpopular political figures. 

The celebration of these milkshakings is weird and worrying. It is surely a basic principle of democracy that individuals can campaign for office without fearing assault, whether it’s by Mugabe’s heavies in Zimbabwe, who frequently attacked electoral candidates, or by members of the public in England who have essentially been told by the media and even by Tory MPs that it is acceptable to attack a certain independent candidate.