Institutions Struggle against Age of Unpeace

In the eventful years between 1822 and 1922, nearly 1 million British subjects died in war, but not a single member of Parliament died in a political assassination. After the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson by Irish republicans in 1922, there passed more than a half century before the next assassination of an MP: the murder of Airey Neave, also by Irish republicans, in 1979. Those were bloody years, too — nearly a half-million British dead in World War II, more than 1,000 dead in Korea, 1,200 in Indonesia, hundreds in Palestine and Malaya, and more in other, smaller conflicts.

With the stabbing murder of Conservative MP David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church on Friday, two MPs have been assassinated in five years. In 2016, it was Labour MP Jo Cox, shot and then stabbed by a man shouting “Britain first!” — a slogan with a familiar shape, and also the name of a rightist political organization in the United Kingdom.

About the Author

Kevin D. Williamson

Kevin D. Williamson is a former fellow at National Review Institute and a former roving correspondent for National Review.

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In the eventful years between 1822 and 1922, nearly 1 million British subjects died in war, but not a single member of Parliament died in a political assassination. After the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson by Irish republicans in 1922, there passed more than a half century before the next assassination of an MP: the murder of Airey Neave, also by Irish republicans, in 1979. Those were bloody years, too — nearly a half-million British dead in World War II, more than 1,000 dead in Korea, 1,200 in Indonesia, hundreds in Palestine and Malaya, and more in other, smaller conflicts.

With the stabbing murder of Conservative MP David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church on Friday, two MPs have been assassinated in five years. In 2016, it was Labour MP Jo Cox, shot and then stabbed by a man shouting “Britain first!” — a slogan with a familiar shape, and also the name of a rightist political organization in the United Kingdom.