MP Jo Cox has been murdered
Jun. 17th, 2016 01:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanMP Jo Cox, who campaigned tirelessly for refugees and against modern slavery, was murdered today by a man shouting “Britain First!”
I’m just in shock.
The guy stabbed her outside her constituency surgery. For those who don’t know what that means - she was a Member of Parliament, one of our elected representatives from the higher House, and she was doing one of the regular sessions MPs have where members of their constituency can meet them and ask for help.
Britain First isn’t really a slogan I’ve heard at all; it is, however, the name of a fringe political party with a boatload of racist and xenophobic ideas. They’re now denying all connection with the man who’s been arrested for the stabbing. I’m certain they didn’t want a white MP murdered and I’m hesitant to hold people responsible for those who agree with them… but come on now.
Britain First aren’t just, a la UKIP (UK Independence Party), a one-issue party happy to say shockingly bigoted things while they aim for political legitimacy. They have this vigilante wing called the Britain First Defence Force - I saw them when I worked round the corner from the East London Mosque. They show up in green uniforms and shout anti-Islam slogans wave crosses at people; they’ve forced their way into mosques and people’s homes. The party was founded by BNP (British National Party) members and has a bunch of crossover with the EDL (English Defence League), ie. the people who broke windows and attacked people during their “peaceful marches”. They’re heir to Mosley’s brownshirts.
Now a woman who was at the forefront of efforts to get our government to take in it fair share of Syrian refugees, who was part of the flotilla EU debate earlier this week, was murdered a week before the EU referendum. Britain First does not get to pretend that their toxic ideology was unrelated to this, that the murderer shouting the name of their party was some kind of coincidence.
Jo Cox used to be an aid worker and head of humanitarian campaigning for Oxfam; she was a rising star in the Labour Party and she was defending refugees and she would’ve been an even greater asset to Labour and to Britain going forward. She was a mother, and she was 41 years old.
I suspect in hindsight it’s going to seem obvious that things could go this way, given the ever-harder rhetoric around immigration and the EU and race (check out the newest poster created by Leave.EU, a campaigning group headed by the leader of our fourth-biggest party). But right now I’m just. So shocked.
I’m just in shock.
The guy stabbed her outside her constituency surgery. For those who don’t know what that means - she was a Member of Parliament, one of our elected representatives from the higher House, and she was doing one of the regular sessions MPs have where members of their constituency can meet them and ask for help.
Britain First isn’t really a slogan I’ve heard at all; it is, however, the name of a fringe political party with a boatload of racist and xenophobic ideas. They’re now denying all connection with the man who’s been arrested for the stabbing. I’m certain they didn’t want a white MP murdered and I’m hesitant to hold people responsible for those who agree with them… but come on now.
Britain First aren’t just, a la UKIP (UK Independence Party), a one-issue party happy to say shockingly bigoted things while they aim for political legitimacy. They have this vigilante wing called the Britain First Defence Force - I saw them when I worked round the corner from the East London Mosque. They show up in green uniforms and shout anti-Islam slogans wave crosses at people; they’ve forced their way into mosques and people’s homes. The party was founded by BNP (British National Party) members and has a bunch of crossover with the EDL (English Defence League), ie. the people who broke windows and attacked people during their “peaceful marches”. They’re heir to Mosley’s brownshirts.
Now a woman who was at the forefront of efforts to get our government to take in it fair share of Syrian refugees, who was part of the flotilla EU debate earlier this week, was murdered a week before the EU referendum. Britain First does not get to pretend that their toxic ideology was unrelated to this, that the murderer shouting the name of their party was some kind of coincidence.
Jo Cox used to be an aid worker and head of humanitarian campaigning for Oxfam; she was a rising star in the Labour Party and she was defending refugees and she would’ve been an even greater asset to Labour and to Britain going forward. She was a mother, and she was 41 years old.
I suspect in hindsight it’s going to seem obvious that things could go this way, given the ever-harder rhetoric around immigration and the EU and race (check out the newest poster created by Leave.EU, a campaigning group headed by the leader of our fourth-biggest party). But right now I’m just. So shocked.
