MP David Amess

It's been confirmed in the last few minutes the Sir David has tragically died.

Murdered in a church whilst talking to his constituents.

God rest his soul.

What's becoming of our country?😔

It is terrible news. An affront
on democracy and a tragedy for David Amess's family. There can be no excuse made for the perpetrator's actions and he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. Which he undoubtedly will.

What a terrible thing to happen. Condolences to his family and friends. It must make public figures rather nervous quite rightly. I hope something will happen to make such meetings safer for public figures.

Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after being stabbed multiple times at his constituency surgery in Essex.

Police said a 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after the attack at a church in Leigh-on-Sea.

They recovered a knife and are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. A counter terrorism team will lead the investigation.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has asked all police forces to review security arrangements for MPs "with immediate effect", a Home Office spokesman said.

Sir David, 69, had been an MP since 1983 and was married with five children. He is the second serving MP to be killed in the past five years, following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016.

The investigation into the attack will be led by the Metropolitan Police's specialist Counter Terrorism Command, who will determine whether it was a terrorist incident.

A government source told the BBC the man arrested is a British national who, according to initial inquiries, is of Somali heritage.

Sir David, who represented Southend West, was holding a constituency surgery - where voters can meet their MP and discuss concerns - at Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North.

Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said they received reports of a stabbing shortly after 12:05 BST and within minutes, officers found Sir David with multiple injuries.

Police and paramedics "worked extremely hard" to save him but he died at the scene, Mr Harrington said.

Body guards for all MPs on public duty sounds a good idea someone suggested and I bet it's been suggested before.

We have a cultural change happening in England,just look at the stabbings in London.

There are thousands in the UK that literally hate Britain and our way of life.Hate.

Chances are this Somalian is an ISIS supporter.We all know that.

Yes, you’re right of course, it will cost. But two MPs in 5 years is an awful price to pay for their families and the lives lost. I guess in the end we just need more bobbies on the beat. But then does it transfer the danger to MPs back onto the police? A dreadful dilemma for those making the decisions.

We are living in a time of rapid cultural change.   You say England as though there are borders, but does the wired world have borders and how much cultural change is linked to technological advance? 

Studying in retrospect the Renaissance period, technological change did drive cultural change.  Printing presses meant mass produced bibles.  In English not just Latin.   

The British industrial revolution brought automation to farming, and cultural change in movement from a countryside way of life to flock to new industrial centres. 

We don’t just import great things and ideas from United States, we import a lot of bad habits too. In this modern wired world we share a social media sphere with the US. Clearly in the US the political language has been dialling up, and the same here in this country, Deputy Leader of Labour Party calling political opponents scum to fire up the supporter base (her words) about the same time a Tory MP joked about bombing the office of the Labour Party chair. 

The tendency to make generalisations about other groups (especially critical judgments, but even positive ones) - not just racial but also by age or politics or whatever - is dehumanising. It reduces the individual to a two-dimensional steroeotype, and actual prejudice, division and hatred is sometimes only one step behind ("wouldn't want to live next to one of those" “it’s my badge of honour I’ll never have one as a friend”).

The superimposition of generalised or supposed characteristics of a group onto an individual is discrimination. It is only a small stones throw away from worst things.  It’s the responsibility of all of us, not just political leaders to dial down such language. But particularly the leaders.

We can though, in a positive way, use chat rooms like this thread to listen to each others thoughts on it, chat, and form stronger perspectives on the good and the bad of the rapid cultural change.   

The filth arrested under the counter terrorism act has been named.

Ali Harbe Ali.