UK Politics
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!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(
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Can't say for England, but in America there is such a thing as "fighting words". So what was said here?
If I say, "I will kill your wife and child in front of your fucking face!", you'll probably get away with beating my ass, hands in pockets or no.
I'm not really sure what the law is on it, but I've always presumed that self-defence only applies if someone is physically attacking you or is threatening you with a weapon.
But anyway, I guess this gives new meaning to being canvassed by your MP.
You are not wrong. Self-defence requires you to be able to show you had real reason to fear for yours, or someone else, safety.
So while a verble threat can apply. It needs to be backed up with some physically obvious danger. So hands in pockets etc would def make it hard to prove this MP felt truly threatened. And continuing to attack once the guy was on the ground, very hard.
But not a forgone conclusion. If we invent a history for idea telling
Just the fact this MP had an historical event of violence(according to another article shared). Means it is possible some statement was made that triggered fear, or the guy attacked was involved. Then it is entirely possible for a lawyer to argue the fear response was beyond rational. So the attack was self-defence due to the mental state of the perpetrator. Think PTSD like defence. It's not claiming innocence, just astringent circumstances.