THE vicious murder of Jo Cox MP has invoked an outpouring of grief that a highly talented, vibrant woman has lost her life needlessly, due to one person’s fanaticism.

There have been many articles written in newspapers since her brutal slaying, and many people see her death as something of a catalyst for what is sorely needed, and that is respectful politics.

Over the years, many of us have seen robust debates by our elected representatives in both Westminster and in the devolved nations, but in recent years, things have taken a bullying, often sinister twist.

Rather than the well-scripted oratory of a fantastic speech by an individual MP taking on their opposite number with skill, MPs have often taken the easy route: the cheap jibe, the throwaway remark, the bullying tone and quite often, we have seen what appears to be hatred from some MPs who don’t have the language skills to take apart an opponent’s argument, but resort to anger and spite.

Voters see these displays in the House of Commons, read their newspapers, see the TV news and quite often see some MPs’ behaviour as now the norm for what is “acceptable politics.”

Language used can be sexist and inflammatory, with David Cameron telling Angela Eagle to “calm down, dear.”

People see the Prime Minister thinking it’s all right to talk to a female MP in those tones.

Sarah Champion MP wrote in an article how the opposition benches often make rude hand gestures when a female MP gets up to speak. These gestures are public and reinforce that this behaviour is somehow acceptable.

It was quite telling when Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader last September and asked for a different kind of politics at the first Prime Minister’s Question time: a more respectful, gentler kind of politics.

Jeremy obviously yearns for the days when we saw rational debate in Parliament and not name-calling and offensive remarks.

Many Labour MPs disagree with him and favour a robust challenging type of politics.

But after Cox’s murder, our MPs and elected representatives need to take a step back and look at their own behaviour and language.

Quite simply, they are elected to run the country and as public figures they signal what is acceptable behaviour to the nation.

The idea of working alongside opponents for a common outcome where possible should be more mainstream. Sometimes the common good must transcend party politics.

Female MPs and Assembly Members have been viciously targeted by online trolls on social media.

Indeed Cox had submitted complaints to the police in the months leading up to her death.

Rape and death threats should not be part and parcel of an MP’s workload.

Overworked police forces are desperately trying to tackle this online abuse, but are too stretched to be an adequate force to deal with these perpetrators harshly.

Our judicial system needs to review social media threats and take them seriously, and deal with them in a way that reflects their severity, making it clear that you cannot threaten to harm people and get away with it.

Respect and respectful politics works both ways. Higher standards in Parliament will earn respect from voters.

Voters have seen the expenses scandal in recent years and their respect for MPs went out of the window.

MPs have to realise they are accountable to voters, for it is we who placed them in the position to govern for us.

Some MPs look down their noses at voters, especially those in safe seats, in what amounts to contempt for the voting public.

So respect for their position must be earned. MPs cannot moan how voters treat them if they do not earn voters’ respect.

Likewise, voters must see how hard the majority of our MPs and Assembly Members work.

Often the easy thing to do is to point at an MP’s salary and say they get it easy and do nothing.

After having been a candidate myself at the recent Welsh elections, I know just how hard our elected representatives work.

Whether it be in London, Cardiff or Edinburgh, working Monday to Thursday, MPs and AMs return to their constituencies for a full three days of constituency meetings with people from their community, meetings with local organisations like fire brigades, local schools, heads of local government, as well as opening fetes or new buildings, dealing with urgent emergency issues for locals and numerous other constituency matters.

It really is a seven-day a week role with uncertain rest time. Living in north Wales, I am also acutely aware just how long MPs and AMs spend on the road or by train in travelling time between London, Cardiff and Edinburgh. It’s not easy.

Our politicians also need to know where to draw the line. The boundaries of respectful and accepted politics have been stretched to breaking point in recent years so the electorate now have very little idea of what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Our young people think what is happening now is the norm. Indeed one of my sons was 12 in 2010 and has just celebrated his 18th birthday.

When I showed him the recent Ukip poster that has been widely condemned across political parties for its simply unacceptable stance on refugees coming into the country, my son commented: “Well that’s what Ukip do.”

I was horrified by his laid-back response. He “expects” Ukip as a political party to promote these abhorrent extreme right-wing posters.

That simply shouldn’t be the way, but his generation have grown up with boundaries being pushed to the point where we have no boundaries any more.

I spoke to a young woman aged 21 the day after the death of Jo Cox, and she told me how she had seen the news on TV the night before.

In hushed tones she whispered: “I suppose a foreigner killed her.” I explained this wasn’t the case at all, but the expectation was there in her mind that nobody white and British could be responsible for this appalling act of murder.

Our media has a lot to answer for as well as our elected representatives.

If people are seeing headlines about “Refugees taking our jobs,” “Refugees taking our benefits” (they can’t do both at the same time is what I point out) and “Millions of refugees will come into the UK if we don’t vote Leave,” then no wonder people have a warped idea of what is going on in this country.

Isn’t it time we had a less excitable, more balanced, more respectful press? A media that doesn’t hound people, a media that is more accountable for its actions, a media that doesn’t think it’s acceptable to hack a murdered child’s phone, as in the case of Milly Dowler?

People want news, of course, but not at the expense of decency, with morals being thrown to the wind.

Jeremy Corbyn called and is still calling for a more respectful style of politics. Well, now is the time.