In July John Woodcock, a UK government adviser on political violence, wrote to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper warning of a potentially deadly new threat to MPs.
Writing on 13 July in the wake of the victory of four independent MP in that month’s general election, Woodcock (a former Labour MP who now sits as an independent peer in the House of Lords under the title Lord Walney) said there was a “concerted campaign by extremists to create a hostile atmosphere for MPs within their constituencies to compel them to cave into political demands”.
To drive home the gravity of the problem Woodcock added that the “conduct of the election campaign in many communities has underlined the gravity of the threat to our democracy”.
In an interview with the Guardian the next day Woodcock went further, identifying a particular pattern of abuse “created by aggressive pro-Palestine activists”.
Invoking the attempted murder of Donald Trump, Woodcock said the shooting was “a vivid reminder of the vulnerability of all politicians”. ….more
