Obviously the human tragedy of the death of Jo Cox, a mother of young children, is rightly uppermost in our mind after today’s appalling murder. There has been much random killing lately that appears broadly “terrorist” in nature, including in Orlando and Tel Aviv, and the human stories are always tragic; every violent death carries a dreadful freight of grief and loss.
But the Jo Cox death has caused immediate and fierce debate as to whether it was “terrorism” or not. This follows closely a similar and interesting debate over the Orlando killings. The questions raised over Omar Mateen, who undoubtedly had mental health issues, and was himself perhaps gay, complicated the question of his motivation, beyond his own declaration of loyalty to ISIS. It is to the credit of the US political establishment that their reaction reflected this complexity, Trump aside.
There is however a stark contrast in the UK. On the one hand we have the treatment of the Leyton tube knife attack and of the murder of Lee Rigby, both of which were unequivocally presented as Islamic terrorist incidents despite the obvious mental health problems of the perpetrators. On the other we have the media treatment of the Jo Cox murder, which there is a reluctance to call out as right wing terrorism. That the man is reported as yelling “Britain First” is apparently much less relevant to terrorism than if he had shouted “Allahu Akbar”.
The investigation is not being led by the counter-terrorism police. Simply put, if Tommy Mair were a Muslim, it would be.
Similarly, when Gregoire Moutaux was arrested ten days ago returning from Ukraine to France for Euro 2016 armed with five Kalashnikovs, two anti-tank grenade launchers, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, 100 detonators, and twelve kilos of high explosive, the media storm would still not have abated today if he had been a Muslim. There was more publicity for the Muslim who owned some fertiliser in a garage, or the Islamic “liquid bomb” plot which owned no detonators, explosives or suspicious liquids, or the Islamic “ricin plot” which owned no ricin.
It is a fact that the only terrorist arrested in Britain in this century who actually possessed a viable bomb and intended to use it was named Ryan McGee. He was a soldier, had a swastika on his wall and intended to kill Muslims. He was convicted – but not of terrorism with which, not being a Muslim, he was never charged. Many Muslims on the other hand have been jailed for terrorism for internet fantasy or boasting which had nowhere near reached the stage of preparation McGee had attained.
Terrorism has not officially been redefined as a crime of violence committed by a Muslim, but it might as well be. Just as the “Prevent strategy” has not officially been redefined as the control of Muslims not fully signed up to neo-liberalism, but might as well be.
Nobody has more consistently opposed than me the appalling use of racism to divert the attention of ordinary people from the cause of their poverty, which simply put is the vast wealth gap to the burgeoning stinking rich. I abhor UKIP, I abhor right wing politics.
I hold that the fashionable slogan “it is not racist to be concerned about immigration” is a lie.
Yet I do not accept in the least the argument put forward by Alex Massie in the Spectator that it is the rhetoric of Johnson, Hannan and Farage that caused the climate in which Jo Cox was murdered. Massie’s article is being much applauded by the Remain camp across political parties. Yet the only place where emotions have been whipped into a frenzy by the referendum campaign is precisely in the right wing Conservative milieu that Massie inhabits. Indeed Massie’s article is precisely proof of that very fact; it is a vicious and underhand blow in the bitter internecine battle within the Tory party. However much I dislike Johnson, Gove et al, to claim they inspired the murder of Jo Cox is wrong. They couldn’t inspire a souffle to rise, let alone the masses. The referendum campaign is more likely to induce a catatonic state than rage. What Massie is doing is giving vent to the vile hatred of Conservatives for each other that is rending the Tory Party apart.
It should be applauded because it is good to see Tories tearing each other apart, but not because Massie is right.
In a move that shows the fuddy-duddies of the Spectator haven’t actually quite understood the internet yet, they have taken down Massie’s initial article and replaced it with a version in which the names of all the Tories he accuses are removed and the new article blames only Farage. The link I give above is to the original captured by archive.org.
It is sad that Jo Cox’s tragic death becomes discussed by everybody – myself included – in political terms so quickly. That does not mean that I, or even Mr Massie or the many mainstream media journalists involved, do not genuinely feel for her family. It seems to me very probable that Tommy Mair was motivated by hatred of immigrants when he reportedly shouted “Britain First” and killed Jo Cox. But that hatred of immigrants has been fostered over many years by the right wing in the UK – including virtually the entire Conservative Party, not just the Brexiteers. Stoking of racist emotion has been a deliberate long term ploy to provide a focus of blame for the victims in society of the consequences of neo-liberalism.
As I have argued so often, terrorism is unfortunately easy. Even a misfit like Thomas Mair can carry out a successful terrorist attack if they really want to do it. Almost everybody reading this blog could kill somebody tomorrow if they really wanted and were careless of their own life. That is why I have never believed the official nonsense about the thousands of totally unproductive Islamic terrorists we are harbouring, and the scores of plots the security services have brilliantly and secretly foiled. There is not more political death because fortunately the impulse to such killing is an extremely rare pathology.
Horrible things happen in a complicated and unfair world. Unless we see a truly revolutionary social change which fundamentally addresses the distribution of work, reward and wealth and the ownership of enterprises, societal coherence is going to continue to deteriorate. One brand of Tory versus another and Brexiteer versus Remainer are fluff, and not relevant to the current tragedy.
What I will label as the ‘anti-sceptics’ on this board still haven’t provided one ounce of evidence that what the security service loons and corrupt politicians said happened in Florida last weekend actually happened.
Give me the evidence and I’ll stop writing such long sentences.
Am I missing something here`? Jo Cox was known to be pro-immigration, from her maiden speech in the HOC, to her work trying to get admission to 3,000 child refugees from Syria, to being in the pro-EU Remain camp, and to addressing the immigration argument of those for BREXIT by say ““Over half of all migrants to Britain come from outside the EU,” ; She is then killed by a man with Neo Nazi/Racist links, shouting “Britain First”, which to me that usually means putting the welfare of British people before immigrants, so applying Occam’s Razor, it seems she was killed because the politicians & the media have made immigration such a big toxic issue, or am I really missing something ?
He was shouting “Britain First” ?
Now where did you get that from. Oh…. the media !
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3646408/Gas-fitter-insists-Jo-Cox-killer-DID-shout-Britain-shot-MP-Testimony-closest-witness-murder-provides-compelling-account-death.html
The Daily Mail said it. Well it must be true !
Type in “sweet sixteen” into the Daily Fail’s search box.
And then tell me if that “rag” is actually a newspaper.
Here’s Mr Tahir’s (an eye witness) launderette window.
http://www.lbc.co.uk/jo-cox-witness-says-no-one-shouted-britain-first-132375
Think I’ll go with Mr Tahir on this one.
No, the Mail like most newspapers & TV are reporting this, not saying it; the people saying it are at least two separate witnesses named Clarke Rothwell & Graeme Howard, there’s even a video clip of Clarke Rothwell saying it, you can see his lips move as he says it ! 😀
What is your motive in trying to deny that this was said ?
Interesting background on Clarke Rothwell and the enigmatic Graeme Howard here…
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/17/britain-first-eyewitness-bnp-member-list/
Also Interesting reaction on the referendum after the whole tragedy, maybe not what some were expecting…
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/17/usa-today-exclusive-eu-support-falls-jo-cox-murder/
You’re out of Luck Man ! Your man is posing with his buddies in photos on the Britain First site ! 😀
You’ve put your own shadow into my post there.
I find it interesting to note that the main witness to the incident who appears to be the sole traceable source of the “Britain First” meme is also a person with far right leaning. Co-incidence? Perhaps. But the fact that others at the scene deny they heard this suggests something else is going on here. The meme immediately spreads through the media to accompany the initial psychological impact of the story and lodge it emotionally in the mind far more effectively than if revealed at a later date.
Did Rothwell have knowledge of Mair through far right connections? If so this would become even more suspicious.Manipulation? Deeper agendas below the surface? Who knows, but it is always astute not to swallow the offerings of the mainstream whole and unexamined, as I’m sure you are well aware.
Indeed Right Wing Extremists can be deliberately nurtured/manufactured//used, just Islamic Extremists can. Whetever this was a specific planned operation, or just the self-planned inevitable result of the constant & deliberate widespread demonisation of immigrants, remains to be determined.
Macky.
First of all he didn’t shout Britain’s First.
Secondly it’s not anything to do with what the media have stated about immigration, it’s about what’s actually happening with immigration throughout the EU and hence the UK, and what would happen in the future if we were in fortunate enough to have two stay in the EU, which is what Jo Cox wanted. Obviously there is a lot more information than that but I hope that answers those questions you asked.
“it’s about what’s actually happening with immigration throughout the EU and hence the UK, ”
Which is what exactly ?
Well, he stands charged…..and will stand at Westminster Magistrates’ tomorrow.
“It is understood the special crimes and counter-terrorism unit at the Crown Prosecution Service was considering what charges should be brought against the suspect”.
I guess Craig was right.
We have moved from “mentally ill” person, all the way up to “act of terrorism”.
What’s the betting he “commits suicide” before the trial ?
You beat me to it.
@Macky
There are witnesses saying “there was noting said”.
And there are witnesses saying “it was said”.
The witness you refer to…actually said he heard something like a car back-fire (so we assume he wasn’t looking in the direction of the first shot), then turning he must have heard AND seen the second shot (and third, depending on what is written, but I’ll go with “other shot(s)”)
In that “turn”, he heard the “Britain First” or “Put Britain first” comment (as he can’t recall what was said.
You think that is a “reliable” witness ?
He could have heard anything. It is simply not conclusive.
The witness even questions himself on what he did or did not hear.
Let’s say the witness did not hear if he said “BRITAIN FIRST” or “PUT BRITAIN FIRST”, the fact there is a picture of Mr Mair holding a banner which states “BRITAIN FIRST” outside a Muslim stall, tell you everything you need to know.
Mental health issues my arse, He Is a extremist and terrorist. When are the media going to use these words to describe him?
Witness is/was a member of BNP – hostile to Britain First group
I am asked “What is your motive in trying to deny that this was said ?”
What’s the motive for the claim it was said ?
The motive is that decent people want this crime properly investigated
Mrs Cox, who was married with two children, was about to attend a constituency surgery when she was killed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36567005
So, it seems like James is right, according to the sister of Jo Cox, she was about to attend.
So she had left a car and was walking towards her meeting.
A fundraising campaign started on Friday by friends and family of Mrs Cox has already raised more than £220,000.
The funds will support three causes her husband, Brendan Cox, said were close to her heart, including the The Royal Voluntary Service, HOPE not hate and The White Helmets.
So these deluded idiots send money to The White Helmets,
a wing of al Nusra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front
Presumably when Parliament reassembles on Monday to give thanks for the life of Jo Cox,
they can also talk about the White Helmets and al Nusra and our involement in de-stabalizing SYRIA?
Oh dear James, look who is in this photo !;
http://www.britainfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/41.jpg
Doesn’t that chap in the middle with the cap look very much like Tommy Mair !!
Sure does to me.
Yes that appears to be the same man. Where was this photo?
Ah! On their webshite!!! There’s a video of the fat old numpties playing soldier on mount Snowden and doing fat guy self defence – he appears to be in that one as well.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1058822570929670&id=300455573433044&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fvideos.britainfirst.org%2Fvideo-britain-first-activist-training-camp-in-snowdonia%2F&_rdr
Well said, Craig.
What is terrorism? It seems to be a lethal Public Relations concept that has a covert funding source, and many busy & ‘surprising’ partners. Here’s a fairly accurate take on current ME terrrr. . . http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/confused-about-the-us-response-to-isis-in-syria-look-to-the-cias-relationship-with-saudi-arabia-a7087791.html
(There’s a vid about Jo in the middle of the article, re Aleppo, but I didn’t have the strength to watch it yet)
Words are important but the semantics are essential. Anti-semitism, genocide and Islamophobia are strained and chopped into convenient chunks for our choking pleasures. Sometimes a definition is better served by a description of what it isn’t, rather than what it is. For example, just as anti-semitism is called out for every critique of Israel, so too does Islamophobic rise like bile when any rational criticism of Muslims occurs.
WHAT ISLAMOPHOBIA ISN’T
Rational criticism of Islam or Muslims based on factual evidence is not intrinsically Islamophobia, just as criticism of the tenets or followers of other religions or ethnic groups does not necessarily indicate bigotry or prejudice.
Jo cox’s irrelvance of which she had little was destroyed with her llove and compassion by nutter. Very sad times.
You say “I hold that the fashionable slogan “it is not racist to be concerned about immigration” is a lie” .Well, I for one have to disagree with you. I believe everyone has a right to discuss population issues. And that includes immigration. For the most densely populated (larger) country in Europe, England, not to be able discuss one of the most pressing issues of our time – population and demographics, the ever increasing human press on our local resources and our planet and our incontinent and toxic use of the planet’s resources – would be patently absurd. It’s the rank refusal of politicians, the EU and business – i.e. those in power – to acknowledge that for many citizens, immigration is a personal and immediate issue in their communities, that make so many people really rather angry. They’re not being heard. It’s been a festering sore for many years, and this referendum has brought it out into the open. Yes, it’s not nice, it’s rancid, putrid in UKIP parts, but so is a boil before it can be lanced. For the most part, the UK has been pretty tolerant and welcoming of immigrants and their contribution to the UK society, but a distressed population find difficulty accepting this any more. That they are worn down by neoliberalism, zero hours contracts, out-sourcing, the withdrawal of government from compassion and the ever increasing divisions in our society is true, but then it’s not surprising that they kick out at whoever happens to be a convenient scapegoat, immigrants and the EU. In addition, there are enough horror stories about the fate of many immigrants to these shores, underpaid, overworked, poorly housed, and basically abused by the cynical, greedy and the corrupt, for so many to stop treating immigration as a sort of intellectual and ethical no-go area. It’s precisely this sort of negligence that’s causing all this trouble, and it’s totally predictable.
Wow ! Just now in Court;
“Asked his name the defendant in the dock says “My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”
Perfectly sane then.
“We shall not take anyone in”
HUNGARY tells EU it’s FULL and it doesn’t “NEED” immigration
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/680949/We-shall-not-take-anyone-in-Hungarian-ministers-hit-back-EU-migration-quotas
Quite a sensible attitude.
I just received an e-mail regarding Jo Cox from the Chief Global Officer of Change.org, which I will post here in case anyone is interested. Thanks.
——-
In the passing of my friend Jo Cox, we have lost one of the greatest activists and campaigners of our generation.
Jo’s life was one of service. Not lip-service, but true service. She was a humanitarian who campaigned for human rights in Darfur and Syria and a strategist who rethought child protection, world trade and education.
Jo brought out the best in everyone, even when she was being tough. She was quick to put people at ease, whether recruiting people to climb her beloved Scottish mountains (turning walkers into mountain-climbers by sheer force of her enthusiasm) or reaching across the aisle in Parliament, where she was admired by politicians of every hue. She could read the same humanity in the eyes of a Darfuri child, a Syrian refugee or a lonely octogenarian.
Jo spoke out against hatred and extremism in all its forms. She championed inclusion. In her oft-quoted maiden speech to the Commons, she declared: “While we celebrate our diversity … we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.”
She would want us now to channel her love for others, no matter their race, creed or ideology. And that is why I am writing to you today.
If you have been moved by Jo’s death and want to pay tribute to her work, her husband Brendan has suggested three causes you might wish to donate to.
Please go to http://bit.ly/JoCoxDonate to support the charities closest to Jo’s heart.
We will also be coming together on Wednesday, Jo’s 42nd birthday, at 4pm in Trafalgar Square in London, to honour Jo’s memory and all that she stood for.
We would love to see you there.
Thank you,
Gemma Mortensen
Chief Global Officer
Change.org
——-
It seems that we are not to be allowed to continue with discussing our referendum.
Parliament has been recalled on Monday to allow MPs to pay tribute, and the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Ukip have all said they would not contest Cox’s vacant seat of Batley and Spen at a byelection.
The EU referendum campaign was paused for a second day on Saturday, with both sides agreeing not to hold events until Sunday at the earliest.
Court case on Monday for the accused.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/18/thomas-mair-charged-with-of-mp-jo-cox
The eurozone is on the brink of another financial crisis – but leaving the EU would still plunge Britain into recession, the IMF said last night.
In its latest controversial intervention in the referendum campaign, the International Monetary Fund said the eurozone was in danger of being torn apart by political tensions.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3647683/IMF-issues-warning-saying-eurozone-weak-brink-collapse-insists-shouldn-t-vote-out.html#ixzz4BwQkSC00
So Chistine Lagarde, “who has no axe to grind” thinks that the EURO is going down the pan
but the UNITED KINGDOM, which is not part of the Eurozone, should not leave, cos it will fuck things up for them.
Well, I am convinced, let’s stay in
NOT
As the Labour party,
the Liberal Democrat party,
the Conservative party,
the Scottish Nation party,
and others, all desperately want us to REMAIn.
Do you think they have REMAIN in their minds
as they re-call Parliament on Monday?
These crooks are trying to disrupt our one chance of Democratic freedom.
You want to fight against neo-liberlas? Then please adopt ideas as your own – that goes for everyone.
– adopt bailoutswindle dot com ideas –
from Russia Today
On Friday, the EU extended for a year a ban on business dealings with Russia’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. The sanctions, prolonged until June 23, 2017, prohibit imports of products from Crimea, any investment there and cooperation in tourism services, as well as exports of some goods and services to the peninsula, Reuters reports. Next week, the EU is expected to extend until the end of 2016 its broader economic sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian conflict.
When Britain, France and others went to war with Russia in the Crimea, we were at war with Russia, not Ukraine,
so why does the E.U. think Crimea is part of Ukraine, rather than part of Russia.
Most of the inhabitants of Crimea speak Russian, are ethnically Russian and more importantly want to be unified with Russia.
So why does the E.U. turn its stupid face away from that reality, why do they support an extreme right wing regime in Ukraine, that is coincidentally ruining its own country.
I am surprized the E.U. has not yet engendered revolution in Belarus, after all it is quite close to the E.U.?
Because NATO covets the naval base at Sevastopol.
The death of Labour MP Jo Cox has led to a range of tributes from around the world including many from Syrians.
The plight of Syrian refugees was among the many causes for which Mrs Cox campaigned.
It was an issue for which she worked tirelessly as she routinely called for Britain to do more to help those caught up in Syria’s civil war.
Perhaps this is a reason why Syrians have expressed their grief, adding to the growing voices of those paying tributes on social media.
Shortly after the news broke, the White Helmets, a group of volunteers for the Syrian Civil Defence tweeted their sadness:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36560055
BBC Arabic social media producer Nader Ibrahim says: “Minutes after the sad news about Jo Cox was announced, Syrian activists took to social media to express their grief.
“This tweet by the white helmets, or the Syrian civil defence forces, is quite significant since they are literally on the ground operating inside.”
Extraordinary amount of grief
Ibrahim adds that the sadness expressed from people in Syria for a British MP is significant. He says: “It is quite surprising to see Syrians, from inside Syria, in a war-torn country, with limited access in a lot of its places to the outside world, tweeting and talking about a British MP who is half way across the world.
“This is especially because a lot of Syrians feel like they’ve been let down by the West and the international community for not taking enough action to stop the war in their country. So to see them mourning a western MP is quite a thing.”
I do really hope that the killing of our M.P.
is not allowed to derail the peoples referendum.
I get fed up of claims about ‘mental illness’ as a defence before these killers even go to trial. The charity Mind estimates that 1 in 4 of us will experience mental health issues each year. The vast, vast majority of people with mental health issues do not go out and kill someone and, perhaps more to the point, could not claim diminished responsibility with any credibility if they did. It is irresponsible to claim killers are mentally ill until that is proven; bandying it around as a defence stigmatises the vast majority of people with mental health issues who will not commit crimes.
Tommy Mair, as far as I can gather, might have suffered from depression. Depression – with the exception of severe cases of bipolar – is not the kind of mental health issue that diminishes responsibility. With no exceptions at all, it does not turn people into killers.
Here’s my own speculation. Tommy Mair’s real issue was that he was a not particularly intelligent right wing bigot who was incapable of ever holding down a job. He blamed his miserable existence on immigrants rather than his own inadequacy and when he couldn’t get a same day appointment for his depression he remembered all the vile racist stuff he heard and read, from the American neo-Nazis to the latest diatribe from Nigel Farage and he flipped.
Tommy Mair is the product of a vile political culture spearheaded by UKIP over the last 10 years and increasingly pandered to by mainstream politicians. Enough is enough, our tolerance of these bigots has to stop.
BRENDAN COX: I’LL CARRY ON FIGHT AGAINST THE RIGHT FOR JO
Jo Cox’s husband plans to continue with a project to build an alliance to combat the far-Right in Europe.
Charity campaigner Brendan Cox says he is determined to carry on with the work in memory of his wife but believes this will only succeed if lessons can be learned from why the Right has taken the initiative on the migration issue.
In a paper he wrote before his wife was killed, he argues that one of the problems is that those hostile to refugees are better at tapping into human emotions, including over wider economic insecurities.
‘In most cases, mainstream politicians are clueless on how to deal with the public debate. Petrified by the rise of the populists, they try to neuter them by taking their ground and aping their rhetoric. Far from closing down the debates, these steps legitimise their views… and pull the debate further to the extremes.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3648574/Vile-husband-scorned-Nigel-Farage-s-anti-immigration-poster-just-90-minutes-wife-s-death.html#ixzz4C0ppoQoV
Surely Mr. Cox should only be considering himself, his children and the fact his wife has been murdered.
Utter rubbish.
The only witness who claimed Thomas Mair yelled “Britain First” is listed as a member of BNP (see Wikipedia report).
Mair has well documented history of mental illness – but that is considered irrelevant because he is right-wing.
When you stack the numbers of right-wing vs muslim killings and related criminality, the right wing doesn’t even come close to that of muslim terrorists. The comparison is false.
And nobody even seems to be looking for possible connections to pro-EU forces who might have a stable of neo-Nazi useful idiots, cultivated & groomed for causes that align with their agendas. Germans could be behind this murder to defame the Leave camp as it is Germany who has most to lose from Brexit.
I certainly included the possibility, citing that MI6 has killed many Britons to serve its purposes.
And I wondered if the psychospooks even made Mair into a Manchurian Candidate.
Mair’s behavior reminds me of John Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman.
He killed for the loonies in the CIA who wanted to make sure that Crazy Ronnie got elected in 1980.
Of course, they didn’t get it arranged in time for it to influence the polling, but they still killed Lennon to kill the two troublesome birds with one stone.
And Chapman, as I recall, is still rotting away in prison because they don’t want him to ever recall for the public how he was set up.
Isn’t this just using one unsupported conspiracy theory to try and generate another one for an entirely unlinked event 36 years later?
No it isn’t.
Chapman was rushed into killing Lennon during the October surprise because former Governor Connally thought that Jimmy Carter has pulled off one of his own, as I have written extensively about.
It was led by Ted Shackley who had taken over the dirty business from William King Harvey, and went on to assassinate German politician Owe Barschal when he started making trouble over the East-West dimension of Iran’Contra.
And the shooting of Lennon so bothered Carter-stalker John Hinckley, Jr. that he tried to assassinate Pappy Bush for having done so, settling on killing the Reagan instead.
In talking about what is going on now just results in looking at what the America spooks did earlier.
They are addicted to settling political problems by mind control.
You are just addicted to explaining away anything that comes to mind.
I haven’t followed events very closely but I have had an uneasy feeling with the conflicting reports and the way sectors are apparently using the tragic death of Jo Cox for political and other reasons. Episode 140 here (may be still live not archived yet for listen again) has an interesting interview with Vanessa Beeley. The second segment discusses Jo and Brenden Cox’s histories that Vanessa has researched so far. I found it very interesting especially as I have had an uneasy feeling since the news broke with the conflicting reports etc. I had no idea Jo Cox was an advocate of a no fly zone over Syria. All in all a very enlightening discussion and facts to check.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/06/19/episode-140-sunday-wire-wicked-game-with-guests-vanessa-beeley-mike-robinson-basil-valentine/
there has also been some criticism that pro-EU campaigners are trying to make capital out of the tragedy.
Mr Cameron – who today used his Twitter feed to highlight a article praising ties with Brussels that was written by Mrs Cox days before her death – said: ‘First of all let me say how shocked I think the whole country’s been by this appalling murder.
‘Two children have lost their mother and a loving husband has lost his wife and my heart breaks when I think of them and what they’re going through.
‘I think the most important thing for the politicians is to remember what she was all about, which was service, community, tolerance – these are values we should all try to live by and promote in order to remember her.
‘I don’t think we know why exactly this happened or what the motivation was or the rest of it and we have to wait until the police investigation until we do that.
‘But I think what we do know is wherever we see intolerance, hatred, division, we should try to drive it out of our communities, out of our public life and we have to be careful that debates – yes they can be passionate – but we have to make sure they’re not based on those things.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3649378/Cameron-lashes-Farage-trying-frighten-voters-insists-politicians-shun-hatred-respect-memory-Jo-Cox.html#ixzz4C3LXY59h
Does anyone else think Mr. Cameron is milking the death of Jo Cox?
The UN’s refugee chief says a worrying “climate of xenophobia” has taken hold in Europe as the continent struggles with the biggest influx of migrants since World War II.
The number of refugees and displaced people rose to a record 65.3 milion at the end of 2015, compared with 59.5 million in 2014. According to the UN refugee agency it’s the first time that the threshold of 60 million has been crossed.
As conflict and persecution force growing numbers of people to flee, anti-migrant political sentiment has strained the will to resettle refugees.
http://www.france24.com/en/20160620-worrying-climate-xenophobia-europe-un-refugee-chief
Now some British M.P.s want many more migrants brought into the U.K.
So how many more would be enough or must there be no artificial limit?
A ‘right wing nutter’ who teaches immigrants English ? Very yes of course.
The remarks of his neighbour (the former nurse) are well worth a read.
PM Linking Vote Leave
To Jo Cox Death: Farage
http://news.sky.com/story/1714674/pm-linking-vote-leave-to-jo-cox-death-farage
As MPs prepare to gather to pay tribute to murdered Jo Cox,
Nigel Farage accuses the PM of using her death in the EU battle,
Mr Farage said: “The implications we are getting from the Prime Minister downwards is that the motives of this dangerous criminal man that behaved in this disgusting way, that his motives somehow were similar to the motives of the leave campaign and I completely reject that.”
I agree that Cameron is a disgusting individual, who will do anything whatsoever to get his own way and evade true democracy.
The E.U. is antidemocratic
Forgot to mention – I received an email from Avaaz last Thursday (!), attempting to make political capital from the events in Yorkshire.
@ John
The founders of Avaaz are Australians who are now at Purpose.com and if you read their biographical notes you will see that stated,.
Heimans and Madden http://www.purpose.com/team/
Also there is Tim Dixon, one of those who decided how the fund opened in Jo Cox’s memory would be shared three ways – RVS, Hope not Hate and White Helmets.
http://www.purpose.com/team/#s=Tim Dixon
https://twitter.com/dixontim
The fund stands at £939k
Is David Cameron lying over Turkey’s EU membership? The British Embassy has ‘dedicated teams’ working on plans for FIVE countries to join – despite the PM’s denials
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3650533/Is-David-Cameron-lying-Turkey-s-EU-membership-British-Embassy-dedicated-teams-working-plans-FIVE-countries-join-despite-PM-s-denials.html#ixzz4C8pVORte
Almost certainly, Cameron is lying.
Dedicated British embassy staff are actively working on plans for Turkey and four other countries to join the EU, it has emerged.
The revelations come despite David Cameron repeatedly denying Turkey would be allowed to enter the EU ‘anytime soon’ and last night he was mauled by a live TV audience as he refused three times to say he would use his veto to block the country joining.
UK taxpayers are already paying nearly £2billion to support the accession of the five EU candidate countries – Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
I do not know how any voter could believe a word Cameron spouts.
Craig gets a mention on this blog about the petition to have the referendum cancelled by the Liberal Democrats.
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/jo-coxbrexit-the-petition-every-brexiteer-has-been-expecting-gets-a-media-surge-allegedly/
I have never been much attracted by the principle of de mortuis nil nisi bonum. Especially as it is often very selectively applied. To Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, but not to Eric Honecker, for example. I am also highly sceptical about efforts to create secular saints.
Which brings me to the late Jo Cox MP, victim of a horrifying terrorist murder by a white racist. I am prepared to believe that she was an excellent constituency MP, highly committed to humanitarian causes and to gender equality. What gives me pause is reading that she and Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, as he put it in the Daily Telegraph, “went to see the Russian ambassador in London, to give him a rollicking about the terrible way his country has behaved in Syria”.
The Syrian tragedy was precipitated by the US government (on the advice of Hillary Clinton) deliberately stirring up sectarian hatreds in Syria, with a view to provoking a civil war capable of ousting Bashar Assad and weakening his allies Iran and Russia, whose naval base at Tartus would also have been jeopardised. Geopolitics came first, and humanitarian considerations nowhere. The consequent civil war, which has killed tens of thousands, devastated the county and created an acute refugee crisis, has been compounded by the supply to its local proxies of US-sourced arms by Wahhabist Gulf state allies of the USA, which has continued to deliver weapons to the region.
Under the circumstances, you might suppose that a visit by Jo Cox to the US embassy to deliver a “rollicking” to its ambassador for his country’s meddling in the affairs of yet another sovereign state, with consequential appalling human suffering, would have been in order. Sadly, no such visit appears to have been undertaken, and Jo Cox’s one-eyed perspective on the Syrian tragedy seems to have escaped the notice both of press obituarists and of the MPs who reconvened to mark her passing.
I fully agree,
these swine are spinning her death for all it is worth,
to their advantage.
The director of the Remain campaign has been accused of seeking to attack the Leave camp by “exploiting” the murder of Jo Cox.
A recording of Will Straw coaching pro-EU campaigners in a conference call and referring to the MP’s brutal murder has sparked uproar on social media.
Mr Straw, who says he was a close friend of Mrs Cox, says the Remain camp ought to criticise Brexit campaigners for “stirring division and resentment” in the wake of her death
I think there is a cabal of Parliamentarians who will stoop to any depth to steal this referendum.
They have proved that since the tragedy of of the Jo Cox killing.
Privately, the remain campaign believes that the death of Cox, a strong supporter of the EU who believed immigration had enriched British society,
will make it harder for their opponents to campaign as stridently as before on immigration issues.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/20/leaveeu-donor-arron-banks-defends-polling-jo-cox-killing
It is looking like the horrible killing of Jo Cox M.P.
will be what won it for Remain.
“Any depth” means anything. It might include causing a murder. I wouldn’t put it past them.
In the meantime, some people have made another kind of killing, with the rebound in the value of the pound sterling.
I have to disagree with the remark “Yet I do not accept in the least the argument put forward by Alex Massie in the Spectator that it is the rhetoric of Johnson, Hannan and Farage that caused the climate in which Jo Cox was murdered.” Massie made it clear that he does not blame these people directly for Jo Cox’s death. My brother, in a facebook posting, put it very well: “The murder of Jo Cox, the tone of the campaign, and the longer-term strategy of whipping up fear: all these are related, and they mark a moment of deep ignominy and disgrace for us as a nation. I feel we cannot only blame our politicians and media. Those of us who consume hate-filled media, vote for parties that celebrate greed and jingoism, and – dare I say it – those of us who fail to vote at all, also carry some share of responsibility. ” No man is an island: perhaps we all bear some responsibility for this tragedy, in some way.
And so it begins
A powerful committee of MPs is set to investigate the danger the political far right poses in the wake of the stabbing and shooting to death of Jo Cox.
The home affairs committee will discuss the issue next week and its chair, Labour MP Keith Vaz, said he was already aware some committee members wanted an inquiry.
Vaz said: “The rise of far-right extremism needs to be studied and acted on with much greater determination and members of the committee have asked that we do so urgently.” He added: “There are strong arguments as to why we should look at this issue.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/21/mps-investigate-far-right-wake-jo-cox-killing
Of course Keith Vaz is without a blemish on his character.
One lone wolf nutter
will be disrupting democracy
with the glee of many in Parliament.
What a sickening gang of people they are.
Well said, and exactly the point of the author of this piece to which I had linked to earlier;
https://www.byline.com/column/11/article/1109
Sorry but there’s alot in this article that demonises the leave campaign, but it was the remain campaign that within 24 hours of jo cox’s murder had already began to use it to push their own political agenda, as for the reports of the perpertrator shouting britain first, this has been denied by someone who closely witnesses the attack. Also your saying everyone concerned about uncontrolled imigration is a racist? Sorry but i have to disagree. The remain campaign have sunken to new depths over the last few weeks of their growing desparation, George Osbourne threatening us with an emergency tax regardless of that fact that even if we do choose to leave the e.u it will take a minimum two years before we are actually out. You talk about the growing gap between the poor and the disgustingly rich, yes it is these disgustingly rich who are pro remain, because it serves their best interests not because it’s in britains best interests.
I clicked this article hoping it would be something of interest but in all honesty this article is just more anti-brexit, anti-ukip propaganda.
“Also your saying everyone concerned about uncontrolled imigration is a racist?”
It’s also what the Host of this blog has said, and I do agree apart from the admission of the important addition of “is either a racist or is plain stupid”. This is because immigration is a complete real non-issue, and only has become such an issue of toxic concern because it has been deliberately whipped-up to become one. The UK is not full, nowhere like even near full, and all this nonsense about jobs, houses, NHS, general drain on resources, benefits, etc, are all very dangerous smokescreening shams deliberately put out by either by those with a racist agenda, or the feeble-minded who think that most of society’s problems are due to immigrant numbers, and they think so exactly because of believing the lies of the racists or the lies of those that are lining their pockets by profiting from the various resource problems like lack of affordable houses or running down services, etc.
There has always been immigration, most people living in the UK are descendants of immigrants, Britain had very little problem in absorbing many waves of immigration throughout the centuries, even the absorption of people from all over the globe as a consequence of having an Empire that spanned the globe.
What people tend to resent & mistakenly blame on “immigration”, is fundamentally the changing nature of life in the modern world, which has always affected societies, and people have always harked on about the lost past, the “good old days”, etc This makes as much sense as complaining about the inevitable continually progress of the modern world.
It looks like, in the death of Jo Cox, the security services have lost one of their own, a future mole, or sacificed a pawn. Aren’t most of the Oxbridge alumni recruited early, on the pre-cautionary principle, before some other ideology or allegiance buys/owns them head and heart? Certainly there is much that does not add up in this individual’s career, background and the contradictory causes she espoused.
Some ‘thought for the day’, woolly hand-waving generalities follow.
I think people who cry racism all the fucking time, as with those who cry anti-semitism with monotonous regularity, are just as bad and are contributing to, the very thing they purport to abhor and wish eliminated, but there are exceptions when enough is enough, where harm results, where it must be called out and exposed, and stopped, finally. There are far more covert racists/Xists out there than there are overt ones. I have no solution to this. Or even see it as a problem as such, but is just the way things and people are. No-one is perfect, but rubbing along amicably in spite of all too human flaws in each of us, I wouldn’t think impossible, and think is a worthwhile objective. Always remembering that too religious beliefs and with it ‘superiority’ of one religion over another are not intrinsic like biology, but is inculcated nonsense with learned hate of the other very much part of that othering of others and mental segregation, othering of self.
Jo Cox ‘died for her views’, her widower tells BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36590824
Brendan Cox: “She had very strong political views and I believe was she killed because of those views”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-36590032
Events are taking place around the world to mark the birthday of killed MP Jo Cox.
The Labour MP and mother of two was shot and stabbed in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on Thursday.
Organisers said the events, on what would have been her 42nd birthday, would “show the world we have more in common than that which divides us”.
Tributes are planned in New York, Paris, London and in Mrs Cox’s Batley and Spen constituency.
This to me seems bizarre.
Organisers said on Facebook the aim was to “come together to celebrate Jo’s warmth, love, energy and passion… and her belief in the humanity of every person in every place, from Batley and Spen to Aleppo and Darayya”.
Tim Dixon, a friend of Mrs Cox who plans to attend the event in Trafalgar Square, said there were events planned worldwide, including those in Brussels, Oslo, Buenos Aires and Beirut.
“Jo symbolised something about this moment, where we are, that people want to come together and rise up in love over hate and hope over fear and I think there’s something that she’s touched very deeply in people’s hearts, that goes well beyond Britain,” he said.
Speakers at the London event will include Malala Yousafzai, who will highlight some of the causes Jo supported.
That will be preceded by a floating commemoration on the River Thames which will depart from the house boat community where Mrs Cox and her family lived.
A moment of silence will be observed at 16:25 BST in London and around the world, organisers said.
Anyone else think
this is a little over the top?
I would expect that Vote REMAIN is orchestrating this
to attempt to divert democracy.
Yvette Cooper is sent family death threats if she does not stop with The Remain Propoganda
2 of the beneficiaries of Joe Cox death are the Zionist cover charity of Hope not Hate (Exposed by Gilad Atzmon) and the other supposed charity The White Helmets which is an NGO front for anti-Assad action – their website Home page has a window open so you can sign a petion to the UN asking for a no fly zone over Syria like Libya! Watch this video from UK Column news that exposes them :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkFyDPcwPY White Helmets One . The white Helmets are being put forward for the Noble peace Prize and there is an anti petition to stop this. Obama got the Noble which is a joke and Jo Cox worked for his campaign – how deeply embedded was she with the Soros foundation and these sinister NGOs which she had worked for herself with her husband. This is a political hit/PYSOP and her husband has instead of grieving privately with his very young children has been out pushing the pro remain angle and visiting parliament with them – something smells bad here!
More on the white helmets and the campaign to attack Syria via a no fly zone by Rick Sterling from 2015.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/04/seven-steps-of-highly-effective-manipulators/
I should imagine he was saying death to traitors Britain first as he did in court he’s been photographed at Britain first event
A provisional trial date has been set for the man accused of murdering MP Jo Cox.
The Batley and Spen MP, 41, was shot and stabbed in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on 16 June.
Thomas Mair, 52, was told by an Old Bailey judge that a provisional trial had been fixed for 14 November.
He is also charged with grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon.
Mrs Cox was attacked shortly before she was due to hold a constituency surgery.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-36605499
Mr Mair, from Birstall, appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink from Belmarsh Prison.
He only spoke to confirm his name.
A plea and case management hearing is due to take place in October.
I wonder if we will ever know why she was killed?
Utterly strange.
Blur’s Damon Albarn
“To my mind, democracy has failed us,” he said.
“Democracy has failed us because it was ill-informed. I just want all of you to know that when you leave here we can change that decision. It is possible.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36619539
TWAT