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When hatred of politicians deters good people from the job
There is a price to be paid for the doom loop of modern politics.
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Former US president Donald Trump being assisted by Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Janan Ganesh
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The last time a US president was almost assassinated, most of the rich world, while reviling the act, could hope it was peculiarly American. And so it is worth listing a few of the safety measures employed by British MPs in recent years. Mobile panic alarms. Stab-proof vests. Personal guards. An avoidance of planned events and inessential outings. A national police effort called Operation Bridger, now widened to protect elected representatives beyond Parliament.
A country where political violence was rare, at least outside the war-like context of the Troubles or the North Ireland conflict, has lost two MPs to murderers since 2016. Candidates in the recent French elections came under assault, too. The German interior minister cites an “escalation of anti-democratic violence”.
