JO COX, MP.

The murder of a Member of Parliament is a rare event, particularly as happened yesterday in Yorkshire. Indeed, other than murders in connection with declared Irish Nationalism, no sitting MP has been murdered since the assassination of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812.

The rarity of such an event serves only to add to the feelings of shock and horror. Jo Cox was a young woman who had only recently become an MP, and the full circumstances of her killing remain unclear; nonetheless, that she could have been shot and stabbed in broad daylight on a British street is frightening. Her constituency has lost a well respected representative and her family has suffered the loss of a daughter, wife and mother.

Amidst the outpouring of grief at this sad event, however, we must not lose sight of the fact that people are murdered almost every day and that the majority of these receive little attention. In the year to September 2015 there were actually 574 recorded murders in the England and Wales; few of these were even reported through national media, let alone afforded the lengthy coverage of yesterday's event, though they no doubt left families distraught and devastated.

Jo Cox's murder was shocking but it was not isolated. There have been suggestions that security arrangements for MPs may have to be reviewed and even that the way in which MPs relate to their constituents may need to be changed, but such moves would be a huge over-reaction. As public representatives, our MP's have to be easily accessible or our democracy, such as it is, is at risk. If MPs are to lock themselves away behind impenetrable layers of security, what about the rest of us ? How can the 500+ other murder victims every year protect themselves ?

There are lunatics out there and, sadly, we cannot always avoid their actions. Quite simply, life has risks.