Thursday 16 June 2016

Jo Cox MP

On Thursday 16-Jun-2016 Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered outside her constituency surgery in Yorkshire.

The incident happened at lunch time but the death announcement was not until late afternoon, presumably certain details had to be confirmed, people informed etc., Up till this time everyone had been posting shock, upset, support for her & family.

Then it began.

Both sides in the EU referendum started making references and comparisons to the incident with the event of 23-Jun-2016.

Lets be fair, it is not right to make political capital from someone's tragedy, people like David Cameron [remain] and Michael Gove [leave] have not said or done anything that can be used by others to promote actions that are cruel and devastating. The media have been given a bashing for the way the referendum has been reported and yet I have seen so many trying to give both side a fair chance, like the Daily Politics for example.

As time moves on other reports appear and the latest is he [the attacker] shouted a phrase before he struck and the phrase has been linked to a political movement. The next questions are political motivation or mental health issues, hardly likely to establish answers to these on the first day, so speculation is rife.

Then terrorism raises it’s ugly head  with statements like “You kill a person because they do not share your beliefs? Last time I heard about something like that, it was called terrorism”. These phrases can be very inflammatory and hide the real reasons behind the facts. I just do not understand how anyone can think someone's opinion about if we are to remain in the EU or leave the EU is worth more than their life.

Jo Cox was, by all accounts as I am not part of the Westminster bubble, a fine parliamentarian and a fine woman. She has been taken from her family and her constituents but her death takes something from all of us as well. Are our MPs going to become more insular then ever in future, will it become virtually impossible to see an MP without an armed guard, is this really how democracy will evolve to?

I hope not.

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