THERE are many things that can be said about the recent general election, but the last election is remarkable because of the amount of abuse handed out to candidates of all parties.

This, happily, is not something that happened in Wyre Forest. But that is not the case in other constituencies around the country and this phenomenon has been growing for some time.

Politics is about putting forward ideas for the common good, then arguing and challenging those ideas to get the best for our society. It is never simple because, to use a recent example, promising £100 billion to pay off student debt will result in us all – non-graduates included – having to pay more tax, so where is the fairness or benefit to society? There are arguments on both sides of that debate, but whilst it is wholly healthy to have those ideas challenged, it is utterly wrong to take issue with the individual putting them forward.

This personal intolerance has been on the build for some time. Labour MPs are facing deselection for having independent views on their leadership. That is bad, but what is far worse is the online trolling of female Labour MPs and in one case, marches against a Labour MP by the hard-left wing of her local association in London.

This hatefulness spread during the election and there are reports of candidates (and activists) of all parties being abused in the streets, being the target of online abuse and having their posters daubed with vile slogans.

This is now such a big issue that there was a debate in Parliament scheduled on Monday to discuss it. However, this was kyboshed, and Labour forced the debate out by holding an emergency debate on parliamentary scheduling.

At its most modest, this type of intolerance starts with individuals no longer challenging politicians to their arguments, but calling for their resignation because they disagree with them. At the other end it results in MPs being murdered, like Jo Cox last year.

Why does this matter? Because politicians are not some weird bunch of geeks obsessed with bossing people around: They are ordinary members of a community, chosen democratically by that community, to represent the interests of that community. Encourage more people to come forward and you get good politicians. Treat them with vile intolerance and you end up with bad politics and bad outcomes, the good too frightened to come forward.