IN ONE of the angriest parliamentary episodes for many years, Boris Johnson, dragged back to the Commons by order of the court, rejected pleas to tone it down or risk violence of the sort which saw an MP murdered, saying: “I have never heard such humbug in all my life.”

In the same 48 hours, following the end of parliament’s unlawful prorogation, we saw a ‘senior’ but anonymous cabinet minister threaten the country with rioting if we are still in the EU on November 1.

And we saw the shadow education secretary subjected to a graphic and foul-mouthed death threat from a serving British soldier.

Rather drowned out in those frantic 48 hours were the contributions from less prominent MPs, including the Island’s Bob Seely, in a debate entitled ‘principles of democracy and the rights of the electorate.’

His speech included this passage: “The last threat to my health and safety that had to be reported to the police was last week. I do not make a song and dance about it. I do not make out that I am a victim. I do not use it for political capital. I make sure my staff are okay, we report it to the police and we crack on. I take it as part of the job, but I do not become a diva about it.”

How utterly smug. He is a victim, and so is everyone else to whom this sort of stuff happens, and he should be making a song and dance about it.

Instead, by accusing others of hamming it up for political gain, he makes other victims more vulnerable by demeaning them and trivialising what is happening.

And here’s the real stand-out: “I do not become a diva about it.”

So in one misogynistic swipe, Mr Seely lumps together a succession of his brave female colleagues fighting a rising tide of political bullying and personal threats, and tells them, in effect, calm down dear, get over it, it’s normal.

Perhaps eventually we’ll get an apology — a shamefaced admission his words, and his whole tenor, were wildly ill-judged.

More likely, sadly, is that the strategy will continue to be that of the apparently unaccountable Dominic Cummings, who embarked on a victim-blaming spree together with a rag-bag of party line toe-ers, telling the divas, the girlie swots, the big girls’ blouses, that they’d better get on and ‘deliver Brexit’ if they didn’t want more of the same.

The number of crimes committed against MPs more than doubled in 2018 to 342, from 151 the year before.

In the week following Mr Seely’s remarks, one leading woman MP received five death threats, two police visits and over a thousand abusive messages, some proposing rape and lynching.

Belittling what is going on not only flies in the face of the facts, but also emboldens hate-mongers and the lunatic fringe who would cause actual physical harm to politicians they disagree with.

Words do have consequences and, in the case of words destined for Hansard, those uttering them really need to taste them properly before spitting them out.