Political Context

A lot has been said and written following the tragic murder of Labour MP Jo Cox on Thursday afternoon, with many moving and heartfelt tributes having been made from across the country by her friends and colleagues, with the eloquent and inspirational call from her husband to unite against political hatred standing out like a beacon despite him being in the the midst of a personal loss on a scale that is difficult to even comprehend. Like many who have been shocked by Jo's death, I never had the oppurtunity to meet her personally, however, it is clear that as someone who spent her life fighting not only for her constituents, but also for those in danger across the world who lacked the voice they so desperately needed, that politics has lost a true asset. This loss is made to seem even more stark by the current nature of politics, in which all elected representatives are assumed to be liars and crooks, irrespective of the hard work that they do or of the sincerity through which they act. I simply don't think this is fair on most MPs - and such a climate sadly means that politicians such as Jo Cox, who had a background in working for charities such as Oxfam and the NSPCC, and who also possessed a proven track record of serving and representing her constituents, are often dismissed, hated, and ignored until a tragedy such as Thursday's forces a degree of retrospection and rational defence of our elected representatives, something which I feel is a massive shame.

Following Thursday this point comes across almost like a truism, however, the argument as to whether instances of far right political violence ought to be linked to the increasingly hate-filled nature of political debate has proved to be a far more divisive issue. The claim that politics is degrading is of course one that shouldn't be used lightly, but I simply can't see how one could properly repudiate such accusations following recent developments. On the morning of Jo's murder, Nigel Farage unveiled a poster which featured an overlay of the words "Breaking Point" above a photograph of queueing Syrian refugees. Now, on a mere humanitarian level, irrespective of opinion regarding so called 'economic migration', this poster is absolutely disgusting. Farage is a mainstream political figure, yet on Thursday morning he was proudly stood in front of a photograph of refugees fleeing war, which also shockingly features a seemingly scared crying child on the billboard's right side, to aid his case for leaving the EU. This is pure political charlatinism, our obligation to take in refugees has nothing to do with our EU membership, and Farage knows this, Thursday's stunt was merely an expedient attempt to avoid sensible debate on immigration by reinforcing public fears about migrants clogging up housing and public services, it goes without saying that Farage's willingess to plumb such depths indicates that he has little concern for the very material effects such scaremongering could have upon these refugees themselves.

However, it is one thing to condemn these shameful political tactics, but another to imply that such tactics increase the liklihood of political attacks such as the one on Jo Cox. Some have gone as far as stating that to debate this to any extent, particularly so early into the investigation, is speculative and offensive, while others have quite clearly set out their stall that attempting to do so equates to using Jo Cox's death to political advantage. However, as others have already observed, the very nature of Thursday's attack, one carried out by an individual who we can assume with increasing certainty is a right wing extremist, against a pro-refugee politician, in the midst of a very bitter and at times overtly prejudicial debate regarding the EU, makes it unavoidably political. Of course it would be ideal to have all the facts on the table regarding the killer's motives, but that might be impossible even when investigations have concluded and he's locked up for the rest of his life.

Lack of certainty certainly hasn't stopped the press from giving their view as to the causes of this attack. The Sun and the Telegraph have both run front page stories either implying that the killer was a 'loner' and 'deranged', or that he was in the throes of serious mental health problems. It is easy to see why such outlets, particularly the former, adopt this line, for such a conclusion extricates Jo Cox's murder, and the neo-nazi views of her killer, from wider political developments, which, as exemplified by Farage's poster, have normalised  the demonisation of fellow human beings to an alarming extent. It would be very difficult to word an argument which linked the behaviour of mainstream political actors such as the Sun and UKIP with the rise of 'individual' violent right wing extremists without at least indirectly burdening them with some degree of responsibility for the resulting vioence. The image of a psychotic mental health patient, on the other hand, allows such introspection to be avoided. For a psychotic mental patient can be written off as totally irrational, and by extension their opinions can be deemed to exist in total isolation from real world developments, immune from the sorts of change in political culture which has led the UN's High Commissioner for human rights to compare the Sun's coverage of the refugee crisis to that embedded within Rwanda prior to the 1994 genocide. This isolationist view is totally unjustifiable, very few mental illnesses are characterised by total detachment from reality, and mental health illness isn't an excuse for crime. 25% of the public have some mental health concern, yet 25% of the population aren't murderers. This is an obvious point, and seems to apply particularly in this specific case considering the suspect was deemed lucid and fit for interview by police. Even if, as an aside, Owen Jones is right to highlight the hypocrisy of the likes of the Sun in being quick to blame mental health above ideology in this case, in contrast with their coverage of Lee Rigby's murder in 2013.

Such observations do not, of course, suggest that the Sun and UKIP are to blame in the very specific case of Jo Cox's murder. That would be unfair and unsupported, the left often canonizes Nordic countries such as Norway for their more mature approach to politics - yet Nordic political culture didn't prevent the attack carried out upon young members of Labour's sister party by Anders Behring Breivik in July 2011. On an individual level, each attack is clearly a result of numerous personal and environmental factors which render any clear causal relationship impossible. In light of this, implicating the leave campaign with Jo Cox's murder is likely to result in a degree of offense, for I'm sure that those at the Sun, along with the likes of Farage are just as shocked and saddened by this attack as anyone else, which is likely to be somewhat justified if it does indeed turn out that the perpetrator has held neo-nazi views for decades. Nevertheless, it is still the case that politics doesn't exist in a vacuum. All political actors ought to know that their arguments impact people. It appears that the prime consideration for most voters regarding this referendum is economic security for their families, which, for most people, according to Britain's leading economists is not negatively impacted by immigration (unlike leaving the EU). However, the overriding atmosphere across the country in the run up to June 23rd is not one regarding debate over economic policy, but one concerned with fear, fear that immigrants will block off their already tenuous access to vital public services, and fear that this will be made worse by Turkey's inevitable and imminent accession to the EU - a sense which exists irrepsective of the fact that Turkey almost certainly won't be an EU member state for at least 20-30 years. I don't think Farage or Boris Johnson seriously believe in any of these arguments, yet they serve as useful subterfuge for their real, less visceral reasons for favouring Brexit, which would provide a far less stable base from which to win a referendum.

So while it would be wrong to park responsibility for Jo Cox's murder at the door of the likes of Farage and the Sun, there should be no uncertainty that those who continue to politically fan the flames of fear will almost undoubtedly add to a political environment in which attacks such as the one upon Jo Cox become ever more likely. And I hope that if one positive comes out of Thursday's events, it's that the political class as a whole is forced to realise that the price of preaching hate over solidarity is far outweighed by any expedient political gains it may bring.