James Forsyth James Forsyth

The problem with ‘David’s law’

[Getty Images]

Two members of parliament have been killed in the past five and a half years. This, one long-serving MP laments, is the kind of statistic you would expect in a failing state.

One of the shocking things about Sir David Amess’s murder is that many MPs weren’t surprised by it. Parliamentarians are acutely aware that when they are away from the Palace of Westminster, with its armed guards and security scanners, they are a soft target. Their job requires them to mix with the public and that involves a certain level of risk. One senior Tory MP points to how during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, MPs who were thought to be in particular danger were offered a firearm for personal protection, and argues that an offer like this should be extended to all MPs today. Few would go this far, but the comment reveals how much concern there is about the situation.

Whenever a killing is investigated as an act of terror there is always a tendency to declare that any change to how things are done would be a victory for terrorism. While a few MPs have called for changes to how constituency surgeries are held, many more want them to carry on as they were.

Given the circumstances, the rethink of safety procedures for MPs should be a practical exercise, not a philosophical one. When in response to the IRA bombing campaign Margaret Thatcher put a gate across Downing Street, without which an IRA mortar would have killed the war cabinet in 1991, it was not a ‘victory’ for the terrorists but a prudent security measure. The same applies to the protective cars for US presidents: open-top vehicles were ditched after Kennedy’s assassination.

‘I thought we could rip this lot out and put in a heat pump.’

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