On 6 May 1882 Lord Fredrick Cavendish arrived in Dublin to take up the post of Irish Chief Secretary following an emergency cabinet reshuffle. That very same afternoon he was knifed to death while walking in Phoenix Park with Thomas Henry Burke, the senior civil servant at Dublin Castle. Prime Minister William Gladstone went personally to deliver the news at midnight to Lord Frederick’s widow, his wife’s niece Lucy Cavendish.
The published diaries of Lady Fredrick Cavendish end at this point & I still remember fighting back the tears as I closed the book at nearly closing time in the library. So it is not just a heart of stone which makes me say that I think prime ministers have almost a duty to take the kind of risk that the security services consider too high. Too high for them perhaps, but if the terrorists really want to get to a prime minister they will find a way – it is impossible to to provide perfect protection. If not they will launch their ‘spectacular’ on other victims – innocent members of the population. The life of a politician should not be ostentatiously given a value which is so much higher in the minds of the security men.
The level of security which has become commonplace in recent years serves only to distance politician from people while at the same time making everybody feel nervous, tetchy or even guilty at the sight of weapons, which could kill us too, being openly carried in public places.
David Cameron is not the first prime minister to rebel. Gladstone did too – as shown by another anecdote from the Oxford Man
After the terrible assassination of the Late Lord Frederick Cavendish & Mr Burke, Mr Gladstone was constantly escorted by a detective from Scotland Yard & about half a dozen policemen. They were with him all the time, & took such excessive precautions that it was almost dangerous to look at him. Even the Duke of Westminster was stopped one evening in the park as he was on a visit to Hawarden. Now this excessive surveillance was not altogether relished by Mr Gladstone. One afternoon he got through his study window unobserved by the detectives, made his way through the park, & walked up to Buckley, a distance of four miles. As soon as it was known that he had left the Castle there was great consternation among the police. Diligent search was made in the Castle grounds & through the park, & no end of surmises were current. About six o’clock in the evening he leisurely returned to the Castle, & put all their troubles to an end.
That conclusion seems unlikely – no doubt disciplinary action was taken to punish this failure of the police to do their duty.
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