Can anything be learnt from Sir David Amess’s tragic death?

‘We have more in common than that which divides us’ was the rallying call after the murder of Jo Cox, but nothing changed in the end, writes Marie Le Conte. Can we do better this time?

‘I wish I could say yes but, in my heart of hearts, I cannot bring myself to be optimistic’ (Getty)

We cannot always stop terrible things from happening but, at the very least, we can try to ensure that some good comes out of them eventually. Sir David Amess was stabbed to death on Friday and since then, the question has been: how can we change things for the better? Can something – anything – be learnt from this tragedy?

Because we still have little information on the motivation for the killing, our collective attention has turned to the coarseness of our political discourse and the venom constantly being spewed on social media. “We have more in common than that which divides us” was the rallying call after the murder of Jo Cox, but nothing changed in the end. Can we do better this time?

I wish I could say yes, but in my heart of hearts I cannot bring myself to be optimistic about this. I believe people are sincere when they are calling for more kindness and compassion to be brought into the political sphere; I just believe in entropy even more.