Do Politicians and other public figures need extra protection from weirdos.

Hmm.

ah i see they have already written themselves a grant for that, ... of course they have.

but yes. i suppose they do need extra protection.

anyone with a political or media profile will have higher 'weirdo in the bushes' odds.

the weirdo odds generally being proportional to the size of the individuals profile.

with anything political getting +5 weirdo points.

if you're a hot looking female politician then its got to be almost a certainty. you may as well just build the semen covered shrine behind your house in advance. just go buy a crucifix and a bucket of jizz before you sign up.

If you don't like any of the options on the menu you need to get into the kitchen and rustle something up yourself; that's how democracies work.

If I could agree with this post any more, I'd pull a muscle.

Giving out about politicians on social media is easy. Every politician I have met (and that's a lot), even the ones who I don't agree with and don't like, work hard. And almost all of them could make the same/better money in the private sector.

Every idiot that harrasses a politician in public makes it less likely that normal, everyday people will ever want to enter politics.

(Also, I dunno if anyone's actually seen Paddy Cosgrave in public recently but he doesn't scratch his arse without two giant bodyguards making sure it's safe, even in the States where no one knows or presumably cares who he is)

We've a country full of people who don't bother voting and still think they've a right to an opinion on politicians.

What kind of abuse is acceptable then? Would you be okay with this?

Yes we have more choice but whatever choice you pick is a bad choice, you can only hope that the useless person you pick isn't as useless as the other useless people. All abuse towards politicians is wrong but you can understand why so many are angry with Politicians.

That's actually how democracies do not work. Democracy does not work, but there are no other options at this time - especially none that people are willing to try and I am not sure how we would even go about that, vote? 😂.

As for the abuse. Abuse is not good in any form, whether it is politicians abusing their power or the public moneys, or the public abusing them for doing so. But I think many on this thread need to take a step back. There may be one story there that could be misconstrued as abuse, but the majority of them are at worst, name calling or protesting in what is considered by some, the wrong place at the wrong time. I do not believe throwing more money at them for added security would change either of those things. If anything, it could end up making things a lot worse. One over zealous security person is all it would take. It would not be the first time.

To be clear. We should not be giving them any more money for anything else any more. If they want more shit in their sandwich then let them sacrifice one of their other perks. Or use their own massive salaries.

Yep. Like throwing cow sh it at a minister

The address of a politician is on the ballot paper so it's hardly a secret. Maybe one day this will be changed or the address will be party HQ but for now there can be hardly be outrage over publishing the address of a politician. It was themselves who published it first to get on a ballot paper.

It shouldn't be on the ballot paper and often a lot of politicians put their office address on the ballot paper so it's actually unfair to new candidates.

Ha ha. Your man can’t even spell himself.

Helen McEntee’s father committed suicide partly because of the abuse he received online.

He didn’t?

Shane McEntee died by suicide on 21 December 2012, his death triggering a by-election. His brother, Gerry blamed cyberbullying through social media as a contributing factor in his suicide, and opposition politicians who had criticised him for comments he made about grant cuts to respite care. Fine Gael politician John Farrelly also suggested online abuse as a possible cause, but Helen McEntee has rejected this theory, since she had managed her father's social media presence and was not aware of any issues.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_McEntee