The vocation of the politician is noble, said Aristotle, for its purpose is to work for the happiness of the people. British political life has suddenly and shockingly been brought face to face with this ancient truth by the tragic and violent death of the Member of Parliament for the West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen, Jo Cox. Elected only last year, this former policy director at Oxfam was diligently attending to the needs of her constituents in the village of Birstall when she was stabbed and shot in the street, and she died shortly afterwards. A man has been charged with her murder.

Until then relatively unknown outside Westminster, Jo Cox’s death and the subsequent attention to her life and work has made her, posthumously, among the most admired public figures in Britain. This is such an extreme contrast to the normal perception of politicians as venal and self-serving that the shock of her death may even have the capacity to alter the culture within which politics is conducted.