Lorraine Kelly: MP Jo Cox's murder and the alligator that snatched a two-year-old boy are two tragedies too many

When my daughter Rosie was a baby we had some fabulous holidays in Florida.

We stayed in a house near a lake and were told not to swim there because of the possibility of an alligator attack.

Tragically, last week, two-year-old Lane Graves was snatched by an alligator as he paddled in a lagoon near the Disney Floridian Hotel.

Grand Floridian Resort

His little dead body was discovered 17 hours later. He was drowned by the alligator, which is the way they tend to kill their prey.

You just cannot imagine what his parents have gone through. It all happened in under a minute.

Lots of British families holiday in Florida. We love the sun, the theme parks, the food and the relaxed way of life.

But we do tend to let our guard down when we are in holiday mode.

Disney has vowed to put up more warning signs and holidaymakers will need to be more vigilant.

Please take care out there.

I’ve always believed our politicians need to have a real passion for the job and also to have had experience of the outside world.

Jo Cox had both.

She had a career working for charity before she became an MP while she was also a mum of two.

So she knew what it was like to juggle a career and a family, to cope with working mum guilt and she had also witnessed suffering and need first-hand during her time with Oxfam.

All of this drove her to want to make the world a better place.

That’s why she stood as a Labour candidate in West Yorkshire last year and won the seat.

Jo was doing the job she loved when she was shot and stabbed to death this week.

All of us were united in shock and horror by this brutal senseless killing – one that has left a grieving husband, two little motherless children and friends and family utterly devastated by their loss.

Jo was exactly the kind of person you want to enter politics.

She was fiercely proud of being a local Yorkshire lass and was determined to do the very best for her constituents.

She wasn’t a career politician, but her intelligence and commitment marked her out as a rising star in the Labour Party.

Her family lived on a barge by the Thames and she travelled to work in Westminster down the river on a boat. I love that mixture of adventure and practicality.

Her husband is a truly remarkable man and just hours after Jo’s death he was able to issue a heart-rending tribute to his wife saying: “I and Jo’s friends and family are going to work every moment of our lives to love and nurture our kids and to fight against the hate that killed Jo.

“Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people.”

It’s clear her two small children will be surrounded by love, but they will also have to grow up without their mum and that is tragic.

I hope when they are older they will gain some comfort from all of the sympathy and tributes paid to Jo.

Without resorting to having our politicians constantly accompanied by armed security guards and working behind bullet-proof glass, there obviously has to be a rethink about sensible security.

One death doesn’t mean that all MPs and MSPs should be afraid for their lives, but the hate mail and threats on social media they often receive need to be taken more seriously.

Jo was apparently subject to more than her fair share of abuse and there were plans in place to upgrade her security.

Who knows whether this would have made any difference, but we do need to ensure our politicians are kept safer while also still being accessible to the public.

I don’t think Jo Cox was the kind of woman who would have wanted barriers built between politicians and the people they represent.

That would go against everything she stood for.

I still can’t quite believe this woman – who had so much to live for and so much to contribute to society – is no longer with us.

My sincere condolences go to her family and friends and everyone who loves her and who is suffering because she is no longer part of their lives.

Video: Another alligator has been spotted strolling through a golf course