I was about to go to bed last night when news started to filter through about shots being fired at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The initial pictures showing a bleeding Donald Trump being taken from the stage by the Secret Service agents who had courageously got between him and the bullets that were being sent his way were incredibly disturbing.

Thankfully, he was ok, though he is bound to be shocked but two people died and two people are, at the time of writing, critically ill.

I was incredibly impressed by how calmly and articulately BBC reporter Gary O’Donaghue described what was going on while lying on the ground taking cover behind a car outside the rally.

It should go without saying that candidates and people should be able to conduct and participate in democracy in safety. Too often, we are seeing the opposite. In this country we have seen two MPs killed while carrying out their surgeries in the past 8 years.

In the recent election, Jess Phillips described in her victory speech the intimidation and harassment she and her campaigners had experienced. It’s a tough listen. Nobody should have to go through this.

She should have been accompanied by Jo Cox’s family on polling day, but she asked them not to come out of worry that it would be too traumatic for them to see what she was going through.

She went into more detail about the emotional impact on her on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast the day after the election.

I know how frightening this is. I and other activists were well used to being screamed at and threatened in the streets by Labour people who didn’t like that we were taking so many council seats off them in Chesterfield back in the 90s.  I remember one of our women activists being surrounded by thugs while out delivering leaflets on polling day. They told her it was illegal to do what she was doing and they were going to get the Police on her. I remember our agent having to ask the Police to keep an eye on the home of his elderly mother-in-law.

There is no excuse for any of this.

I have also been concerned at the attitude of some people to the likes of Nigel Farage being milkshaked.  It’s not ok to do this to another human being. It’s not funny. My rule is fairly simple. If you wouldn’t like it to happen to you, don’t do it to anyone else.

I can’t stand Nigel Farage. I think that his views are dangerous and damage marginalised groups of people. However, he should be challenged by reasonable and rational argument, not having milkshakes thrown at him.

Going back to the US, we can already see all sorts of conspiracy theories being spread online about last night’s events. We know from 6 January 2021 where this kind of thing can go and it will need politicians on all sides to take the temperature down.

We’ve seen all the other former Presidents and President Biden go out of their way to condemn the Pennsylvania attack and show genuine kindness to Donald Trump. That should be the norm.

Is it too much to hope that the former President might reflect on his own behaviour? After all, last year he mocked Paul Pelosi the husband of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives after he was subjected to a hammer attack by a politically motivated intruder at home. I suspect probably it is.  We’ll see.

It is almost certainly too much to hope that there would be some progress on limiting access to guns which would lead to an immediate improvement in public safety. Last year there were over 630 mass shootings in the US, not far off two a day.

It’s fair to say that this morning I am even more worried about the outlook in the US than I was yesterday.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings