There are two thoughts that flow from this insistence that, for the sake of their fragile mental health, Members of Parliament should quit Twitter and certain other forms of social media:
MPs should quit social media to protect their mental health, the parliamentary health watchdog has said. The Parliamentary Health and Wellbeing Service has said that politicians being active on Twitter is the “equivalent of dipping their private parts in honey and exposing them to angry bees”.
The comments, which were reported in the Spectator, came after wellbeing staff became increasingly about MPs’ mental health, as they are increasingly criticised for the actions on Twitter.
The first being a certain surprise at the idea that there is anyone looking out for the mental health of MPs. Our own assumption has always been that any form of sanity test would lead to an empty chamber.
The second is, well, what are those MPs doing there anyway? Rather the point of being one is to represent the Great British Public. And if you’re of a mental fragility that you cannot deal with the Great British Public in all their vituperative glory then why did you bother to stand for election in the first place? Perhaps something both more useful and more peaceful would be better suited to your talents – race marshall at the shelled gastropods regattas perhaps?
They should stop, not because they are fragile but because it is a big opportunity to make a fool of yourself. In other news, people should stop being stupid. In most cases, that’s all they need to do to achieve success. Or at least stop doing stupid things, which is not quite the same.
And people say that Trump should stop tweeting — the practice by which he wrests the agenda away from the East Coast newspapers and networks and makes the nation discuss what he wants rather than what they want. These advocates are the same ones who always advise a popular Republican to shut up and seek respectability — as defined by their adversaries: the surrender wing.
What is being done to him, his cabinet, family, lawyers, and campaign aides, is new evidence that the profession of politics already self-selects for thick skin.
They demand that more MPs be more like “real” people, deal with shopping, have children in school, watch TV, talk to each other, gossip about current affairs – and at the same time condemn MPs that do things that “real” people do – deal with shopping, have children in school, watch TV, talk to each other, gossip about current affairs.