The attempt on Donald Trump’s life proves one thing: the ballot must always come before the bullet

Political assassinations are never an acceptable path to effect change, writes former British foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan. We must use words to persuade those we disagree with of our views – not violence

Nobody, regardless of their views on Donald Trump’s career as a politician, should harbour thoughts of ‘if only’ (AP)

There is only one lesson to be learnt from yesterday’s despicable attempt on the life of former US president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania yesterday: killing politicians is always wrong. Whatever you may think of their politics, their party, or their temperament, a brutal act of violence is no substitute for civilised democracy.

In my 50 years of politics, those decades have been smattered with the sudden and dramatic news of assassination. I remember sitting in school assembly, as a 12-year-old, when our teacher told us that Robert F Kennedy had been assassinated during the course of his 1968 presidential campaign. This was the first time I became aware that something like that could happen. A few years later, in 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded while he was president.

There have been far too many such incidents, and far too many deaths: Anwar Sadat, prime minister of Egypt, in 1981; Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, in 1984; Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, in 1995; and my close friend Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan, in 2007 – all lost their lives in service to their respective countries, murdered in a cynical subversion of the democratic process.

We here in the UK are not immune either – in the past decade we have seen two MPs murdered on our own shores: Labour’s Jo Cox in 2016, and Conservative Party politician David Amess in 2021. The phenomenon is not limited to any one country, or party, or ideology, or outlook – it is as senseless and chaotic as the individual who carries out the deed.

Last night, in Pennsylvania, it was a close-run thing. If that bullet had veered just an inch to the right, a former president, and current presidential candidate, would likely be dead, and the world would look very different today.

Nobody, regardless of their views on Donald Trump’s career as a politician, should harbour thoughts of “if only”. Regardless of your personal views, political assassinations of this sort are never the solution. In order to preserve peace and order, the ballot must always come before the bullet.

We must use words and ideas to persuade those we disagree with of our views – not violence and coercion. A cross on a piece of paper has not only the power to change the world, but also to keep it safe and decent.

It is crucial that we reject violence in all its forms, and maintain peace and civility in our politics at all costs. We cannot allow fear to win. We cannot allow brutality to supplant democracy. Failure to uphold those ideals, and giving into baseness and fear, will cause the world to suffer overall.

Sir Alan Duncan was UK foreign minister from 2016 to 2019