This tragedy should spur a meaningful debate about the empathy that liberal democracies require
The death of Sir David Amess, after allegedly being stabbed several times at his Essex constituency surgery on Friday, is shocking. This is the 10th time an MP has been killed or attacked since 1979. Only five years ago a far-right sympathiser shot and stabbed the Labour MP Jo Cox as she made her way to her constituency surgery in West Yorkshire a week before the EU referendum. Her murder was the first assassination of a British MP since the death of Conservative MP Ian Gow in 1990. Sir David was a decent, hard-working Conservative with rightwing views and friends across the Commons. His death is a bleak moment for the country, and Britain will be poorer without him. A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of murder. In a democracy, politicians must be accountable and available to voters. No one deserves to be killed while working for their constituents.
Surgeries give voters more direct contact with their representatives than in many other countries. After a Muslim extremist attacked a Labour MP in 2010, security was tightened. Perhaps not enough. Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has said that parliament will discuss how to keep MPs safe. Sir David’s death must also spur a meaningful debate about the empathy that liberal democracies require. The facts leading to his death are yet to be established by the court but for too many elected representatives, death threats are seen as a grim but unavoidable part of the job. That this continues is a sign that our political system itself is unwell. The rising tide of anger feels like an inevitable consequence of our hyperpartisan age. The internet has led to people’s political affiliations increasingly determining what information they absorb. Pre-web this was probably the other way around. MPs endure personal abuse on social media, are sent needlessly aggressive emails and have to endure physical intimidation. Female MPs and those from ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by the wave of toxicity. Rage is distorted, often by feelings of impotence about matters that do not lie within the province of politicians at all.
