Ann Widdecombe

It’s hard to hold anyone responsible for anything today in British politics. That’s because no sooner have the facts emerged than everybody in Westminster has played another game of musical chairs. If the word ‘amusing’ can be used in the same paragraph as ‘attempted beheading’ allow me one amusing example. Last month, a 30-year-old asylum seeker from Sudan allegedly attempted to behead a local man on the streets of Belfast. The attack was apparently caught on video. Everyone was geared up to make their points. The left was preparing to argue ‘So you’re saying all asylum seekers are beheaders, are you?’, while the right was gearing up to say: ‘We must hold people accountable.

Reason, David Hume noted, is a slave of the passions. Arguments, especially political crusades, are often rooted in emotional responses, with the evidence assembled to justify a position which is heartfelt but often wrongheaded. So it is with the cry, from politicians, for more steps to be taken to safeguard the personal security of politicians. The killing of Ann Widdecombe, like the deaths of Jo Cox and David Amess, has generated new demands for action, and legislation, to protect those in public life from risk and danger. The transparent nobility of Ann’s life and the grotesque tragedy of her death make it emotionally difficult to resist the call for strengthened perimeters around our politicians.