The killing of British Conservative MP David Amess , who was stabbed to death in his constituency on October 15, is a deeply tragic moment ...
The killing of British Conservative MP David Amess, who was stabbed to death in his constituency on October 15, is a deeply tragic moment for democracy. What makes it even more devastating is that such a catastrophic failure is not without precedent or predictability. Labour MP Jo Cox was shot at her constituency surgery in 2016. Before her, another Labour MP, Stephen Timms, survived a stabbing in 2010. And Andrew Pennington, a Gloucestershire county councillor, died in a frenzied attack in 2001 while trying to protect local Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones.
This is to say nothing of the 2018 attack on the Palace of Westminster that left police officer Keith Palmer dead and MPs in a state of shock.
Beyond these critical junctures in the public debate about politicians’ safety, elected representatives must live with an increasingly insidious level of popular cynicism that threatens violence on an almost daily basis.
Between the divisive politics of Brexit and the growing polarisation of British party politics, MPs currently work in a low-trust, high-blame environment. Even before the existential angst and subsequent politicking of the Covid-19 pandemic, a recent Hansard Society Audit of political engagement concluded that “opinions of the systems of governing are at their lowest point in the 15-year Audit series –...
