David Amess's murder: MPs and MSPs are just ordinary people like anyone else and increasing nastiness towards them is a real concern – Christine Grahame MSP

The brutal murder of Sir David Amess has shocked and saddened us all, no matter who we are or what our politics.
Former mayor Judith McMahon, left, is consoled by local woman Ruth Verrinder at St Michael and All Angels Church in Leigh-on-Sea following the murder of MP Sir David Amess (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)Former mayor Judith McMahon, left, is consoled by local woman Ruth Verrinder at St Michael and All Angels Church in Leigh-on-Sea following the murder of MP Sir David Amess (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Former mayor Judith McMahon, left, is consoled by local woman Ruth Verrinder at St Michael and All Angels Church in Leigh-on-Sea following the murder of MP Sir David Amess (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

For a man simply doing his job to be ruthlessly killed is beyond words and my thoughts and condolences are with his grief-stricken family.

You know, what you see on television at Westminster or the Scottish Parliament, at times robust, rowdy or plain rude, is not as it always is.

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On parliamentary committees, members from different parties sit cheek by jowl and often work collectively. MSPs form voluntary cross-party groups to work together on issues of common interest such as a committee I chair on animal welfare.

There, whether Labour, Conservative, SNP, Lib Dem or Green, we are bound together by our love and concern for all animals. In Parliament we also have a tearoom where in between debates and sometimes taking a breather from them, colleagues across parties will chat and banter with each other.

When an MSP takes ill, loses a loved one, we share our thoughts and best wishes. We are all, first and foremost, just ordinary people with all the ups and downs of everyone else.

I can think of colleagues across the Chamber who have become friends over the last 20 years, of colleagues whose funerals I have attended, and of watching each new intake to Parliament after perhaps a bruising election gradually thaw and share time with “opposition” members.

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We have so much in common and we all want a better life for our constituents though we have very different ways of seeking to achieve that.

Play the ball, not the man is my mantra. So, the outpouring of grief across the political spectrum was not for me unexpected.

Neither is the increasing nastiness towards politicians in general which can spill over, beyond sadly, from words to actions.

I do not know many politicians in my long political experience who have not been either gratuitously insulted, threatened, or even stalked and at times required police intervention.

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We keep it below the radar because the vast majority of our constituents, whether they like us or voted for us or not, are decent folk.

It helps I think if you avoid Twitter as I do because there is no doubt that the anonymity of online abuse and threats causes great distress to many colleagues.

Have I been warned with a hint of threat? Yes. Have I had to contact police? Yes. Do I have concerns? Yes. Shall I stop “open” public surgeries? No, and neither I suspect will most of my parliamentary colleagues.

Covid curtailed these (not threats and intimidation) but mine restart in Tesco in Galashiels and Peebles and elsewhere in Midlothian on subsequent Fridays of the month from this November (I will have a Perspex screen for Covid safety).

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At the heart of democracy and part of the duty and privilege of being an elected MSP is being available to constituents: to listen and learn about what matters to them and if we can, try to fix problems or at least give it our best.

Of course, my anxiety has increased but that will not deter me or my colleagues from what we value most: keeping in touch with our constituents.

Christine Grahame is SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale

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