THE death of Sir David Amess and continued home working were topics discussed by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Guardian

Brendan Cox, widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, said that after the ‘horrific and senseless killing of David Amess’ huge amounts of pain came to the surface in our family.’

“If the attack were a one-off, the question could be easily dismissed. But, coming just five years after Jo was killed, and after attacks on Stephen Timms and Nigel Jones – people are less sure,” he said. “But what really makes many wonder is not just the horrific killings but the day-to-day brutality with which our political debate is conducted, from increasingly regular death threats to online abuse.”

He said David and Jo would have disagreed on much but would have come together over a ‘deep and abiding commitment to our democratic system.’

“It is that power of democracy to unite us that drives terrorists to want to attack it, and foreign states to want to undermine it.”

The Daily Mail

Dominic Lawson said Sir David was a ‘thoroughly good human being’.

“The point is that we should not be in the least surprised when a so-called ‘Right-winger’ turns out to be much more decent than many who would consider that very person’s politics to define him as wicked,” he said.

“The whole notion of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ is entirely divorced from the cares of voters, which are, as David Amess always understood, not about abstract notions of political affiliation but about how we actually behave.

“Or, as one of his Essex constituents told a reporter over a pint of beer in a pub: ‘He was a diamond geezer. And I ain’t even a blue.’ He added, which might be taken as a special token of respect: ‘They should hang whoever did this.’”

The Daily Express

Nick Ferrari said many people are increasingly spending month after month staying away from their offices or other places of work.

“Industry and government quietly hoped the effective full stop provided by the end of the school holidays and the children getting back behind their desks would also serve to be a way of winding down the WFH (working from home) culture and getting back in harness,” he said. “Those hopes have been dashed, and it seems across many sectors. Too many government departments have little more than a third of staff in the office and in many key areas this has a devastating effect.”

He said the DVLA is a prime example of where the practice is holding the country back.

“We learnt last week that around four out of 10 staff at its giant Swansea base are physically at their desks and this in part has played into the shortage of fuel and HGV drivers.

“The nation is emerging from Covid and the economy is starting to pick up. It’s time for us all to put in a shift.”