The brutal murder of Labour MP Jo Cox on the street of a northern town outside a library in the middle of the day one week before the Brexit referendum exposed huge cracks in our society. Jo was a committed European who had worked in Brussels in the EU institutions. She knew and understood the strengths and weaknesses of the world’s most ambitious peace project. She was also vocal about welcoming refugees to our shores. She represented the best of us.
Witnesses testified that during the attack Thomas Mair, her killer, had cried out “This is for Britain”, “keep Britain independent”, and “Britain first”. When police raided killer Mair’s house they found Nazi regalia and far-right books. He had searched the internet for information about the BNP, South African apartheid, the KKK, matricide, the Nazi Party and Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik.
Mair had links to British and American far-right political groups including the National Front, the EDF, and the US neo-Nazi organisation National Vanguard, and had attended far-right gatherings. The judge concluded that Mair wanted to advance white supremacy and exclusive nationalism most associated with Nazism and its modern forms.
I think it’s important that we remember Jo Cox at this 10 year anniversary and acknowledge the anti-migrant media frenzy whipped up by Farage and co in the run up to the referendum which likely helped to fuel Mair’s murderous intent. That same rhetoric is sadly present today and continues to poison our public discourse, threatening community cohesion.
We have a huge job to do to create a kinder, more compassionate and caring community and that should start with welcoming ‘the other’ and working with our nearest neighbours whether in our street or on the other side of the channel. As Jo Cox said, “We have more in common than that which divides us.
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