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For an “irrelevant blow-in”, Lyle Shelton sure has wokey Leftists all in a tizz.

News that the former Australian Christian Lobby director will replace Fred Nile in the NSW Senate sent the unhinged Left into apoplexy yesterday.

Chief proponent of diversity and inclusion and tolerance and love, the independent member for Sydney Alex Greenwich, warned that Shelton would feel “completely out of place” in the NSW Parliament.

“NSW and our Parliament values and celebrates the LGBTI community,” he said.

You have to love it when the same people who insist that Shelton doesn’t speak for Christians insist that they, on the other hand, speak for the entire State of New South Wales.

Greens MP Abigail Boyd, who detests mean-spirited people, reacted to news of Shelton’s arrival by tweeting: “Just when we thought the NSW Parliament couldn’t get any worse” which, naturally, was very mean-spirited.

NSW Labor MP Rose Jackson replied simply: “Oh no” — though it was unclear whether she was commenting on Shelton or just realising that she followed Abigail Boyd on twitter.

In response, Mr Shelton tweeted:

“Looking forward to having a coffee with future colleagues. I don’t bite.”

Which is exactly what you would expect a hateful bigot — by which we mean a Christian — to say.

Alister Lawrie, a policy manager at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, tweeted:

“Lyle Shelton to replace Fred Nile in NSW Parliament, from November 2021. That is a truly chilling sentence, especially for the LGBTI people of this state. The stuff of nightmares for anyone who is not a cisgender, endosex, heterosexual man.”

So Shelton is an “irrelevant blow in” and, at the exact same time, “the stuff of nightmares for anyone who is not a huh? what? er? man”.

Surely you are irrelevant. Or you are a nightmare. You can’t be both.

Jane Caro replied: “Awful news for women too” which, if you think about it, was a pretty funny reply.

Political journalist Malcolm Farr pointed out that Shelton had previously stood for the Nationals, Bernardi’s Conservatives and, more recently, had attempted to join the LNP.

“Lots of attempts, lot of knock backs,” he wrote.

In other words, Shelton has a demonstrated ability to bounce back from defeat and a determination unmatched by many others. It was hardly the blistering putdown Farr had imagined.

Political editor of The New Daily Josh Butler tried to make Shelton look like a failure and a fraud.

“Lyle Shelton (currently based in Brisbane) is being parachuted into the NSW upper house to replace Fred Nile” he wrote.

“Comes after an unsuccessful 2019 Senate run in Cory Bernardi’s Conservatives party plus a recent stint with QLD LNP. 3 parties in 2 years, and finally into political office.”

You’d almost think Shelton was the first politician on earth to taste defeat before enjoying success; Not to mention the first person in history to be parachuted into political office. You know, apart from Victoria Greens Senator Lydia Thorpe. And NSW Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi. And Federal Labor Senator Kristina Keneally… you get the idea.

Alex Greenwich, who led the same-sex marriage “Yes” campaign and who has opposed Fred Nile on just about every issue, tweeted:

“Letting a politically irrelevant blow-in fill your vacated shoes is a sad legacy to leave after 40 years in Parliament.”

I’m sure Fred Nile would have taken that on board if only he had been able to stop laughing at the notion that Alex Greenwich cared two hoots about his legacy.

Other tweeters variously described Shelton as “disgusting”, an “irrelevant zealot”, a “fascist”, a “complete knucklehead”, a “vile sh*tweasel”, “pond scum rising to the top” and “a political whore, prostituting himself out to parties, seeing who will leave the money on the side table” which sounded suspiciously like that particular tweeter knew a lot more about whoring than he did about Shelton.

Others warned that “this country is cooked”, “democracy is a myth” and that “you don’t have to be elected by the people under Morriscum’s Pentecostal Government”. That last one would have been retweeted 10,000 times if only the author had remembered to insert the word “Hillsong” in there.

In summary, reaction to news of Shelton’s impending arrival in the NSW Senate was, to steal a line from Macbeth, tweeted by idiots, full of sound and fury and signifying something — that they are indeed worried by an articulate, principled man who will stand for conservative Christian values.

Why else react with such venom?

Shelton should be encouraged.