Attacking Democracy

We were all shocked and saddened by the brutal murder of Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend. Our condolences go out to his family, friends and constituents who lost a good and accessible constituency MP. As one commentator pointed out, his accessibility and dependability became his vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately, MPs are not alone in being targeted. Both their staffs and also local councillors are subject to harassment, abuse and worse, whether online or often in person. This approach is often stoked up by those who cannot win their arguments democratically either by evidence or appeal to our strong British liberal values. If we want to prevent more of these attacks, as in last five years we have also lost the Labour MP Jo Cox, we need to do more to call out and combat those who wish to do our democracy harm by attacking our elected representatives. We need to do more to encourage diversity and inclusivity in our representatives and this will not happen if their working conditions are so fraught with risk. I do hope that decency and competence win over, and those that want to go out and make the world a better place by non-violent and democratic means, whatever their political persuasions, triumph over those who peddle abuse and hate.

Councillor Luigi Gregori

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Noth West Hants