Jo Cox MP murdered

Frank the tank

What are we coming to when this sort of thing happens.

According to an eye witness she was shot and stabbed by a man who immediately prior to the attack (appearantly) shouted "Britain first".

I just hope that's an end to the mindless violence.

R.I.P.

mamba80

Bought tears to my eyes when my GF was telling me what happened this evening, a young mum with 2 kids and a partner.

Why do so many of the good die young?

i sincerely hope this murder has nothing to do with this pointless vote.

ballysmate

mamba80 wrote:

Bought tears to my eyes when my GF was telling me what happened this evening, a young mum with 2 kids and a partner.

Why do so many of the good die young?

i sincerely hope this murder has nothing to do with this pointless vote.

Cameron's fault eh Mamba?

tangled_metal

Britain first? I wonder if it's related to her previous career working for Oxfam? As in charity should go to Britain not those evil foreigners? Or the Brexit thing. Either way there's no justification for it.

Such a waste. She was a new intake last year but she was getting noticed I think. I think I've seen her on tv a few times, perhaps even question time the well known route to cabinet positions for ambitious politicians. It would have been interesting how far in politics she could have got.

motogull

A sickening event. I can't imagine what her family are going through.

mallorcajeff

Terrible events and unfortunately the world gets more violent each day but we never saw the depravity that roams the uk streets as we do now. Sad times.
What a waste and yet we will now pay £500 a day to keep the ar5e alive till he either dies or is let out. Probably the latter.
If bang to rights guilty these people should be just put down and buried in an annoynous grave .

finchy

mallorcajeff wrote:

Terrible events and unfortunately the world gets more violent each day but we never saw the depravity that roams the uk streets as we do now. Sad times.
What a waste and yet we will now pay £500 a day to keep the ar5e alive till he either dies or is let out. Probably the latter.
If bang to rights guilty these people should be just put down and buried in an annoynous grave .

I think at times like this it's important to realise that the world is not becoming more violent. Violence is actually decreasing pretty much everywhere. Believing otherwise just means that the cowards and bullies win.

cycleclinic

It is a sad sympton I feel of the nastiness in politics. women get hate and threats on twitter from having opinions. MPs are treated and talked about like they are all on the take. The tabloid press is full of hate (well two papers are) and the public buy it. We have our selves to blame really but as always we try to blame others. When a speaker at an event is not liked by some there is a no platform protest.

I think we are witnessing the slow death of free speech. It worries me alot.

sungod

extremely sad

she was a good person, we need so many more like her, i feel for her family

Chris James

mallorcajeff wrote:

If bang to rights guilty these people should be just put down and buried in an annoynous grave .

From the reporting I have seen it is quite possible that the assailant was mentally ill.

Chris James

thecycleclinic wrote:

It is a sad sympton I feel of the nastiness in politics. women get hate and threats on twitter from having opinions. MPs are treated and talked about like they are all on the take.

This. You always hear about how politicians are all the same, from a privileged background and out for themselves, but the eulogies on the new last night showed Jo to be someone who cared about other people and died carrying out her civic duties to the people in the constituency in which she was born. It is very, very sad and difficult to take in really.

veronese68

I didn't know much about her but as has been said it sounds like she was one of the good ones that genuinely wanted to help change things for the better. I wish more people were like that. Very sad.

cycleclinic

she was like most MP's a decent person. Very sad and the attacker has a history of mental illness he may not be ill at the moment but if go and murder a nice person for no reason then you probably are ill. That does not excuse his actions.

Funny how the same papers who deride MP's regularly are full of praise this morning for Joe Cox. Say one thing when she is alive another now.

rick_chasey

Reports are a) he was lucid and b) he had Nazi and neo-Nazi regalia and literature at home.

Curious to see so many papers on the right focus on the mental side when the political side was equally speculative... I wonder why that would be?

His shout of "Britain first" seems to have been corroborated too.

If you keep telling everyone that people like Cox are "breaking Britain" eventually this kinda stuff can happen.

mamba80

Ballysmate wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

Bought tears to my eyes when my GF was telling me what happened this evening, a young mum with 2 kids and a partner.

Why do so many of the good die young?

i sincerely hope this murder has nothing to do with this pointless vote.

Cameron's fault eh Mamba?

the only person directly to blame is the guy who murdered her and that is not DC.

the fact that both sides have called a halt to campaigning and Parliament is being recalled, suggests that perhaps our political masters have realised this vote is causing deep division and hatred across our nation.

she seemed a genuinely nice person, who put her principles first, rare in this world and leaves behind a husband and 2 young children, leave it at that.

iPete

I thought this was quite a good piece on this awful event that touches on your discussion of blame.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/a-day-of-infamy/

cycleclinic

It should not have taken a murder for them to see that division, hatred and distrust. I myself did not feel hated but got very peeved hearing all the lie's. I was starting to really dislike britain for a short time. It should not take a murder to shake some sense into our leaders. If that is the case they are not leading.

DeVlaeminck

Look I think Farage's leave poster crosses the line but then I think some comments by In supporters suggesting fairly openly that if you think immigration is at damaging levels then you are xenophobic or even racist crosses the line too. It is no use one side using this murder, a murder committed by someone with a history of mental illness, for their own political ends. I really do think that Spectator article comes across as rather smug and self satisfied - very much what did you think would happen. This referendum is politics - we all wanted people to be more politically engaged didn't we ?

rick_chasey

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Look I think Farage's leave poster crosses the line but then I think some comments by In supporters suggesting fairly openly that if you think immigration is at damaging levels then you are xenophobic or even racist crosses the line too. It is no use one side using this murder, a murder committed by someone with a history of mental illness, for their own political ends. I really do think that Spectator article comes across as rather smug and self satisfied - very much what did you think would happen. This referendum is politics - we all wanted people to be more politically engaged didn't we ?

Doesn't happen in a vacuum.

pblakeney

I can't be the only one to have noticed the increase in offences committed by people with mental health problems.
Maybe we should concentrate on how to treat the root cause instead of picking holes in the more sensationalist issues.

DeVlaeminck

But that Spectator article doesn't just say nothing happens in a vacuum it apportions blame to one side of the debate.

rick_chasey

Given there are pictures going around of him with a bunch of other members with Britain First banners (who have been campaigning for Brexit), yeah I can see why that has happened.

There's only one side of the argument who is painting immigrants as some awful thing to happen to the UK. And that is the same side Britain First are on - who the murderer called out before killing one of the most outspoken MPs on helping Syrian refugees.

rick_chasey

Appreciate people are focuses on the mental health issues but reports say a) he was lucid and b) his history of mental health is not suggestive of paranoia or psychosis or anything like that.

DeVlaeminck

But the Out campaign isn't Britain First - Britain First is an irrelevance and just because they may support leaving the EU does not mean the huge majority who want out of the EU support Britain First - it's a bit like saying because Isis are Muslims that all Muslims are to blame for Isis - something I'm sure you'd object to - yet you are happy to make the equivalent argument when it suits you.

rick_chasey

I never said a lot of people supported Britain First.

I said the murderer sat on one side of the argument, and the victim the other.

Given a political party was mentioned during the attack, and given the victim was an MP, the political positioning of the two is relevant.

I get that you don't like the association of one side of the debate with the murder, but that unfortunately is the context.

I tend to agree with the general premise, if you keep saying stuff is broken, or MPs are self serving evil people, then eventually someone will believe it to the point of extremity.

Given the victim's vocal stance on immigration, and how central Brexiters have made that to their campaign, it's legitimate to consider a link.

DeVlaeminck

Implying that anyone that questions whether sustained record levels of immigration might have a downside is a racist in itself polarises the debate - I go back to my first post on this - while Farage crossed the line with that poster so have many on the In side of the argument and they are just as guilty in fuelling extremism as Farage is.

However in a democracy you have to allow people to have political debate without worrying how a mentally ill person with a long history of being attracted to extremist groups will react to it.

pblakeney

DeVlaeminck wrote:

But the Out campaign isn't Britain First - Britain First is an irrelevance and just because they may support leaving the EU does not mean the huge majority who want out of the EU support Britain First - it's a bit like saying because Isis are Muslims that all Muslims are to blame for Isis - something I'm sure you'd object to - yet you are happy to make the equivalent argument when it suits you.

Sorry Rick, but you have been called out on that one. Blame Britain First if you want, but Brexit has nothing to do with it. May as well blame DC for calling the referendum.

mamba80

PBlakeney wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

But the Out campaign isn't Britain First - Britain First is an irrelevance and just because they may support leaving the EU does not mean the huge majority who want out of the EU support Britain First - it's a bit like saying because Isis are Muslims that all Muslims are to blame for Isis - something I'm sure you'd object to - yet you are happy to make the equivalent argument when it suits you.

Sorry Rick, but you have been called out on that one. Blame Britain First if you want, but Brexit has nothing to do with it. May as well blame DC for calling the referendum.

As i said, the only person to blame is the guy who is now charged with her murder, however, calling a divisive referendum, that until DC called it, on an issue that didnt figure in peoples top 10 concerns, has unleashed a lot of previously hidden views.

Now, some might say that is great for democracy, but the tone of the debate has been nasty and bitter, would this guy have acted the way he did, had there not been this atmosphere?

to me, there is not a lot of difference between "Britain first" and "Take back Control" they imply pretty much the same thing.

rick_chasey

PBlakeney wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

But the Out campaign isn't Britain First - Britain First is an irrelevance and just because they may support leaving the EU does not mean the huge majority who want out of the EU support Britain First - it's a bit like saying because Isis are Muslims that all Muslims are to blame for Isis - something I'm sure you'd object to - yet you are happy to make the equivalent argument when it suits you.

Sorry Rick, but you have been called out on that one. Blame Britain First if you want, but Brexit has nothing to do with it. May as well blame DC for calling the referendum.

You don't think any of the rhetoric around migration both before and during the campaign has had an effect on this?

The guy was lucid.

slowmart

When the guy who shot Lennon was asked why he shot the Beatle he replied " the Beatles changed the world and I changed the Beatles".

You can't rationalise the actions of an irrational person and applying a political context to this murder is pointless.

rick_chasey

If the political discourse is extreme on issues, extreme things are more likely to happen.