YOU’VE probably seen the video of Chris Whitty, the UK Government's chief medical advisor, being manhandled and harassed by a couple of men in a park, so I’d like to know what you think about it. Do you think it was appalling and unacceptable? Do you think it was just over-exuberance by a couple of guys who may have had a beer or three at lunchtime? Or do you – most controversially of all – think it could all be Scotland’s fault?

I ask these questions because the reactions to the incident have been wildly different. Tory ministers, for example, seem to think it was an appalling example of a breakdown of order; Clockwork Orange come true, basically. Boris Johnson said it was despicable and shocking. Priti Patel, the home secretary, said she was horrified. And Sajid Javid, the new health secretary, said he was appalled by the unacceptable behaviour (of the men in the park, not the guy whose job he’s just taken).

As for Mr Whitty himself, he seemed much more relaxed about the whole thing. As yet, he hasn’t made any public comment, but he reportedly doesn’t want to take the matter any further. He apparently thinks it was just a bit of schoolboy behaviour and wouldn’t even have told anyone about it had the video not spread online.

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I have to say, Mr Whitty’s reaction feels more convincing, firstly, because he was there, and secondly, because anyone who’s been out in public in Britain near an establishment that serves beer will have seen behaviour a bit like the two guys in the park. Obviously, what they did was unacceptable, but there’s a range of bad behaviour from showing off to shocking and this was closer to the first than the second. And if we’re supposed to be horrified and appalled at something relatively minor, as Tory ministers apparently were, what reaction are we supposed to have to something genuinely serious? Very horrified? Very, very appalled? The danger is reaction fatigue.

Of course, the incident in the park was not the first time Mr Whitty has been troubled in public, and the other incidents were more worrying. In the last few days, for example, demonstrators gathered at what they thought was his house and shouted “murderer”. He’s also been followed and yelled at by anti-vaccine activists. The question is whether public figures like Mr Whitty should have to endure being abused in this way or whether it’s a symptom of something more serious and we should do something about it.

Anna Soubry, the former MP, certainly think it’s more serious and we should probably listen to what she has to say because she too, as a prominent Remainer, was a victim of the kind of harassment Chris Whitty has suffered. Ms Soubry goes even further and says the kind of behaviour we’ve seen is a symptom of a deeper crisis.

“We live in a different country to the one we inhabited,” she said this week, “actually I would say from around the time of the Scottish referendum when you saw a different style of politics. We saw stuff happening in Scotland which was utterly unacceptable and not dealt with properly at the time.” She also suggested referendums, by their nature, divide people and have created a new and nasty atmosphere. “You’re either in or out,” she said, “there’s no subtlety in it; it puts people into different camps.”

In some ways, I question Ms Soubry’s theory about our post 2014-world: division, hatred and abuse existed in public life long before referendums. But it is interesting, isn’t it, that one’s reaction to Ms Soubry’s comments about the Scottish referendum probably depends on how one voted in it. Many of those who voted Yes say it was a happy jamboree but for many of those who voted No, it was all rather nasty and opened up divisions with friends and family which they may not have even known existed.

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So it’s maybe here that Ms Soubry has a point. I don’t think two guys harassed Chris Whitty in a park because of the Scottish referendum, but, encouraged by social media, we are more prone than we were to make a binary choice on every issue. Vaccine or anti-vaccine. Leave or Remain. And, indeed, Yes or No. Not everyone who makes a choice goes out and screams “liar” at a public figure. But the problem is everyone has to make a choice.

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