he cited the experience of the former bristol conservative mp, charlotte leslie. me victims of this particular abuse. their entire oil heating supply was drained into their garden by somebody who had an objection to charlotte's particular position on fracking, which was a slightly ironic way of dealing with an environmental consideration. but, nonetheless, it caused enormous distress, as did the scratching of "tory scum" in her elderly parents' car. labour's diane abbott said abuse had been turbo—charged by the use of the internet. 30 years ago, when i first became an mp, if you wanted to attack an mp, you had to write a letter — usually in green ink — you had to put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and you had to walk to the post box. now they press a button and you read vile abuse which, 30 years ago, people would have been frightened to even write down. so i accept that male politicians get abuse too, but i hope the one thing we can agree on in this chamber is that it's much worse for women. we are not talking here about a bit of political banter. we're not