IMAGINE for a moment that on your way to work tomorrow you are suddenly confronted by a braying mob, shouting obscenities at you.

Imagine that you receive online threats to harm and even kill you but, worse still, that members of your family are subjected to the same vile abuse and intimidation.

Imagine, having suffered all this, that one day your worst fears are realised; a colleague is stabbed to death.

Such a scenario would seem incredible to most people in their daily lives but this atmosphere of violence and intimidation is now, sadly, the reality for our politicians.

On Friday, as the good citizens of Southend remembered in silence their now former MP, Sir David Amess, his accused murderer appeared at the Old Bailey with a trial set for March.

It’s been suggested that the killing was not a spur-of-the-moment thing; the 25-year-old had been plotting to kill an MP for two years.

Islamic extremism is suspected but, thus far, we do not know if the echo chamber of vitriol that often is social media played any significant part.

Yet, due, in large part, to what we see on our computer screens and mobile phones, Britain’s political discourse has become coarsened and, to many, toxic.

Soon after Sir David’s tragic death, Labour MP Chris Bryant told the police he had received a death threat. His offence? Urging people to be kinder to each other in light of the Essex killing. A man was arrested. He is 76.

Mr Bryant, who represents Rhondda, bemoaned how abuse levels were higher now than at any time during his 20 years at Westminster but he was admirably defiant. "I'm passionate about wanting to change the world and no-one is going to stop me.”

On Tuesday, just days after Sir David’s alleged murder, footage emerged of Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, being surrounded and barracked by anti-lockdown protesters as he walked down a street in London.

During this sad week at Westminster when heartfelt tributes were paid to Sir David, we learned of some of the things MPs have faced.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Trade Secretary, revealed how she had received a threat to burn down her house with her children inside. Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, said he had received at least three threats on “life and limb” in the past two years; the latest was an acid attack.

Kirsty Blackman, the SNP MP for Aberdeen North, told of the repeated ordeal she had endured. Three men have been prosecuted for abusing her; one “travelled from the south of England to Aberdeen where he was intercepted by police”.

Her Nationalist colleague Joanna Cherry recalled how one time, so threatening became a constituent’s behaviour at her weekly surgery, she and her office manager, fearing for their lives, pushed all the furniture against the door while they waited for the police to arrive.

In 2017, research found Labour’s Diane Abbott had suffered the worst level of harassment, attracting nearly half of all the abusive tweets sent to female MPs.

The ex-Shadow Home Secretary explained: “The reason people can be so abusive and make these violent threats is they have end-to-end anonymity,” arguing tech companies should hold their names and addresses to enable the police to investigate.

In the Commons, Sir David’s friend and party colleague, Mark Francois, lashed out at the founders of Facebook and Twitter, telling MPs: “If the social media companies don't want to help us drain the Twitter swamp, then let's compel them to do it by law because they've had more than enough chances to do it voluntarily.”

He called for the Government’s forthcoming Online Safety Bill to be turned into “David’s Law” and explained while people in public life should face legitimate criticism, they should “no longer be vilified or their families[be] subject to the most horrendous abuse,” especially from people who hide behind a cloak of anonymity.

Later, prodded by Keir Starmer, Boris Johnson suggested social media bosses would face “criminal sanctions with tough sentences” if they allowed “foul content” to appear on their platforms.

Yesterday, Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, pledged to bring in sweeping reforms to boost legislation, saying online hate had “poisoned public life”.

She said for those in the public eye, particularly women, death threats and online abuse were the “backdrop to your daily life; it’s a dark, foreboding cloud that follows you everywhere you go”.

Dorries herself revealed she had faced horrific abuse, including one person “saying they wanted to see me trapped in a burning car and watch ‘the flames melt the flesh on my face’”.

In the last few years men have been jailed for threatening to rape, kill and even car-bomb female MPs and, of course, in 2016, one was imprisoned for life for murdering Jo Cox. The 41-year-old mother-of-two was stabbed and shot multiple times.

On Wednesday, Priti Patel announced intelligence officers had upgraded the threat level for politicians to “substantial,” meaning, like the national guidance, an attack was now “likely”.

This came just hours after a man was arrested outside the Commons on suspicion of a public order offence after a mock gallows was erected by anti-vaxers.

On Friday, the Home Secretary further announced MPs could avail themselves of the offer of posting a security guard at their surgeries to protect them from a “small minority of hostile individuals”.

Westminster is already a fortress with metal barriers and armed police. We surely don’t want constituency surgeries to go the same way. I have to admit to being fearful about what the next General Election campaign will look like.

Yet our democracy must remain open, where politicians and voters can interact freely without the fear of being abused or harmed.

Sadly, if things continue in the way they are going, then it seems inevitable more and more good people who could enter politics, for all the right reasons, to serve their communities and country, will simply refuse to do so.

The bullies will win and we’ll all be the poorer for it.