Joanne Cox was a 41-year old mother of two who was also a Labour Party MP in West Yorkshire. She was horrendously murdered yesterday by a man who stabbed and shot her repeatedly before kicking her as she lay dying.
Jo was firmly in favour of Britain remaining in the EU. Her alleged killer, who fits all the usual cliches of a loner who kept himself to himself, has now been discovered to have extremist right-wing political beliefs, as well as, it has to be said, mental health issues. Witnesses to Jo's death - which happened in the street outside a village library as she was leaving her regular 'surgery' with constituents - heard the killer shout 'Britain First!' as he attacked her. 'Britain First' is also the name of a small far-right nationalist, anti-Muslim party formed by people who didn't think the BNP were extreme enough - though, to be fair, there is no immediate evidence of a connection.
Ironically, the sort of people who build elaborate conspiracy theories about 9/11, 7/7 or Sandy Hook based on inaccurate early information are clamouring to denounce the 'Britain First!' claim as a typical example of the lies of the MSM.
I'm sad to report that British newspaper forums have been visited by some American '2nd Amendment' proponents gloating that British gun laws didn't prevent this tragedy from happening. Despite this, it appears that the weapon used in Jo's murder was either a vintage or reproduction flintlock pistol (perhaps more than one) or, even more disturbingly, a homemade gun built using plans provided by an American neo-Nazi group.
There has been an astonishing outpouring of emotion over this incident in the UK. I'm ashamed to say that I'd never heard of Jo before yesterday but at times I've felt almost overwhelmed by sadness at her death. She seems to have been a wonderful, compassionate person and the grief and shame at what happened to her is being very keenly felt in Britain. It feels like an attack, not just on her, but on the whole system of governance we take for granted, to the point of contempt. There has been a gradual fall in the level of respect for politicians in recent years due to a number of scandals, leading to them all being tarred with the same brush as being cynical, corrupt and self-serving. Allied with the increasingly heated and ugly debate over Brexit and you end up with a situation where, as one commentator said, you pump in enough poison and someone will get sick.
I've no doubt that this event will be spun by the usual people as a 'false flag' to turn public opinion against the idea of leaving the EU (if it hasn't already) but that's par for the course these days. There has already been a suspension of campaigning by both sides of the debate and an embarrassed realisation that it had all got a bit out of hand. If Jo's death leads to us growing up a bit and realising that, to paraphrase her, what unites us is more important than what divides us, than that will be some consolation. It won't be enough though. Not nearly enough.
