Philip Collins - Sir David Amess's lesson for us is to learn to respect politicians again

THE killing of Sir David Amess at a constituency event at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea proves once again our tendency to wait too late before we praise.

The tributes to Sir David have been heartbreaking, both in their warmth and affection and because they have been necessary at all. The many testimonies of his constituents did justice to his devotion to the people of Southend, where he is a legendary figure. In the immediate aftermath of this senseless killing there has been a rush to take lessons. Most of them are premature. The lesson that Sir David has to teach us is that we need to learn to praise politics again.

Not enough is yet known about either the identity or the motivation of the alleged killer for hard conclusions to be drawn. The only thing we can say for sure is that politics is a maligned trade of which we need to take more care. It is commonplace, in this cynical age, to declare that politicians are all in it for themselves, that they never tell the truth and that the whole process is a conspiracy against the public good. It is harder to insist that none of these claims are even close to being true.