Vigil for Sir David Amess in Kings Lynn
Residents are invited to the Market Place from 2pm to pay their respects
Last updated 23rd Oct 2021
A vigil to remember Sir David Amess is being held in Kings Lynn this afternoon (23 October).
The 69-year-old was killed on Friday 15 October, as he met with constituents in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex.
We're all invite to the town's market place to pay our respects and light candles to reflect on recent events from 2pm.
Councillor Jo Rust, who co-organised the event says steps need to be taken to de-toxify our politics:
"It has become too angry and by extension too violent. We see it during Prime Minister's Questions, the hostile attitude between all the political parties. Sometimes, we see it at local council level as well. It's really important that we use language which is appropriate".
She also told us that in spite of recent events, elected officials must be allowed to carry on doing their job as normal:
"I go into people's homes to see them and to try and help them. I don't want that to stop and I'm sure that my colleagues at the borough and county council feel the same. We don't want there to be a disconnect between ourselves and the people we are elected to represent"
"People know where I live and have my telephone number. I don't think there's a need to do anything differently. Being perfectly honest, I've had the same telephone number for a long, long time. The calls I've had that aren't very nice have been few and far between. Although there is always that worry, I don't think it would be necessary to take any steps".
She concluded saying that politics isn't the most glamorous or attractive job, but we vitally need people to still get involved in it:
"I sometimes wonder why some people want to go into politics. You get blamed for a lot of things, sometimes it feel frustrating because you can't achieve what you thought you could, when you went into it. But we do need people to be elected, who are going to speak up for the people in their community".