Of course, killing anyone, MP or not, is terrible. That he was doing so at his surgery is doubly tragic, because, like Jo Cox who was killed at hers, it can only make MPs more wary of going to surgeries at all, which will reduce their links to their constituents further. This is tragic whichever party the MP is a member of and we need to look again at how to protect them when they are meeting constituents.

I will, however, hold off talk of 'nutters'. We don't know enough about the perpetrator yet, and it may turn out that 'despairing' is a better fit. I don't excuse, but I would still like to understand what the assailant's state was.