Murder of British MP Jo Cox -- will it decide the Brexit referendum?

Kyriakos

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In my view this deserves its own thread, it happened today, a british MP was shot three times and then stabbed on the face, apparently by a person who "One eyewitness told the BBC they heard her attacker shout "put Britain first" at least twice beforehand." (BBC quote, from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36550304)

BBC said:
Vote Leave and Remain have both suspended campaigning in the EU referendum in light of the attack.

Mrs Cox, 41, is the first sitting MP to be killed since 1990, when Ian Gow was the last in a string of politicians to die at the hands of Northern Irish terror groups.

The man taken into custody was arrested in Market Street, not far from Birstall Library where Mrs Cox was holding a constituency surgery. He has been named locally as Tommy Mair.

Dozens of Mrs Cox's friends and colleagues gathered later for a vigil at St Peter's Church in Birstall.

BBC said:
An MP has died after she was shot and stabbed in a "horrific" assault in her constituency, police have said.

Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, was left bleeding on the ground after the attack in Birstall, West Yorkshire. A man was arrested nearby.

One eyewitness told the BBC they heard her attacker shout "put Britain first" at least twice beforehand.

Tributes flooded in from politicians including David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Mrs Cox's husband Brendan said she would want people "to unite to fight against the hatred that killed her."

MP Jo Cox was a young woman who (afaik) recently was elected for the first time. Her death is obviously very tragic. An issue is why this death now seems to be a deciding factor in the referendum to happen in a few days (23rd of June), on whether Britain remains in the EU or leaves it.

From the BBC quote i read that both Remain and Leave campaigns stopped their campaigning as a direct result of this murder. But doesn't this taint the referendum beyond repair? This female MP's death is a horror, but not one which is logically to decide how people vote in a referendum which won't happen again (if it does happen again) for a decade or more.

-Do you think the media and politicians in Britain were way too happy to feed into this personal tragedy, as a bid to force a Remain outcome? Polls from the last days prior to this murder showed a win for Leave, while now the campaign has frozen.

I think that this is not good for a referendum. I also am very wary of how this killer happened to be so bizarrely persistent in trying to kill the MP given he shot her three times and then pulled out a knife to stab her on her face?! And "one eyewitness" says he heard him shouting "two times" the words "Britain first"? But this female MP was from middle England, white, young, native of the area, it makes next to zero sense to be 'patriotic' for 'Britain' and so go on to kill an english MP who would not be deciding any outcome of the campaign.
I hope we get some answers as to what exactly happened, and why. But i fear the referendum is effectively going to be a charade now.

And British treasury secretary makes it now very obvious he wants to market this murder as a result of the mentality people on the Leave side supposedly have:

BBC said:
British values will 'prevail' despite killing, says Osborne
Posted at 23:38 16 Jun

The attack on Jo Cox was an assault on the values of "freedom, liberty and justice", Chancellor George Osborne has said in an emotional speech at Mansion House, in the City of London.

People are free in this country to live their lives as they choose and express themselves without fear. Society will protect their right to do so and hold to account those who disregard our laws. Today's horrible events are an assault on all of these values. But we know that these values, no matter how they have been challenged in the past, have always prevailed, prevail today and they will always prevail. For they are the values of Great Britain, our great democracy.
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-36454645

________________________________

RIP Jo Cox.
 
I don't think so.

Unfortunately I can see this incident, as well as some others that may yet happen, being associated with the campaign. And later held by the losing side as a reason that (should the result be close, which seems likely) another referendum should be called a few years from now. Continuing uncertainty about the future is not something desirable.
 
Yes clearly the remain camp arranged a senseless murder to help win a referendum that they were already favourites to win...

I find the thread title somewhat offensive.
 
Yes clearly the remain camp arranged a senseless murder to help win a referendum that they were already favourites to win...

I find the thread title somewhat offensive.

That is your own projection. The OP claim is that the politicians were quick to market this murder in the way that supports their own little ends. Cameron is not the voice of freedom, nor is any Brexit supporter some bloodthirsty maniac against freedom. You are the one who speaks of anyone arranging the murder :rolleyes:
 
It lot depends on what media will do with this. I cant say, I do not follow British news closely and the main articles will be probably will be written tommorrow.

Last polls were showing 60% support for Brexit and some major tabloid openly supported it.
 
The title is impossible to prove, short of some strange voting patterns that are completely out of step with previous polls. I have no idea whether the witness is reliable, but this was clearly not the work of a rational person. Osborne appears to be laying it on a bit thick, but patriotic speeches are hardly known for their subtlety.

... some major tabloid openly supported it.

Naturally. The Daily Fail and the Daily Express have been presenting Europeans as the sum of all evil for decades now.
 
I also am very wary of how this killer happened to be so bizarrely persistent in trying to kill the MP given he shot her three times and then pulled out a knife to stab her on her face?! And "one eyewitness" says he heard him shouting "two times" the words "Britain first"? But this female MP was from middle England, white, young, native of the area, it makes next to zero sense to be 'patriotic' for 'Britain' and so go on to kill an english MP who would not be deciding any outcome of the campaign.

Britain First are a neonazi group not just a Brexit supporting group. They're obsessed with immigration and mosques and the like, and such groups don't tend to be big fans of centre left politicians. Remember that Breivik mostly killed white social democrats.

So basically the Brexit debate is mostly an outlet for such people to demonise immigration. They've also recently been talking about "militant direct action" and "training camps" and stalking elected officials.

We'll obviously wait and see where on the political-deranged spectrum this falls but sometimes politicians get murdered by fanatics and it doesn't seem a terribly big stretch to surmise that some weirdo fascist has been inspired by them to actually do something like this. Especially if she was in any way visibly active in supporting Syrian refugees or her muslim constituents or anti racist rallies.
 
Some years back, the BNP (the allegedly respectably racist party) commissioned someone who do a terrible rap, singing about the virtues of Britain and one of the lines was: "because Boudicca was white!"
 
A question, I'm sure, of interest to the police.

Do you think the media and politicians in Britain were way too happy to feed into this personal tragedy, as a bid to force a Remain outcome?

A bizarre conclusion, which certainly doesn't show in the live feed you linked to - nor in the decision to suspend campaigning period. The only political reactions were of disgust, and praise for the victim.

As for the media, they have their own logic, don't they? It's news. Shocking news.
 
The thread title was made by a pro-Brexit, anti-EU oriented person. That's all it shows, really.
 
The fact that anyone would even think of brutally murdering an innocent person for political gain is shameful, so assuming that other people would do it says far more about you than those unspecified others.
 
As the BBC put it: The UK political party Britain First, which boasts of its hatred of white left-wing politicians, has issued a video statement condemning the attack and says that it had no connection with the incident.

Whilst I believe them that they had nothing to do with this sad affair (there's absolutely no reason not to), this is like a fighting dog biting someone by accident and then the owner claiming that it wasn't their fault. If you campaign on a platform of white supremacy and hatred of the left-wing, you simply cannot be surprised if someone does something terrible in your name.
 
As the BBC put it: The UK political party Britain First, which boasts of its hatred of white left-wing politicians, has issued a video statement condemning the attack and says that it had no connection with the incident.

Whilst I believe them that they had nothing to do with this sad affair (there's absolutely no reason not to), this is like a fighting dog biting someone by accident and then the owner claiming that it wasn't their fault. If you campaign on a platform of white supremacy and hatred of the left-wing, you simply cannot be surprised if someone does something terrible in your name.

Anyone with passing familiarity with 20th century history shouldn't be surprised. All this means is "we weren't ready to start killing you...yet."
 
As the BBC put it: The UK political party Britain First, which boasts of its hatred of white left-wing politicians, has issued a video statement condemning the attack and says that it had no connection with the incident.

Whilst I believe them that they had nothing to do with this sad affair (there's absolutely no reason not to), this is like a fighting dog biting someone by accident and then the owner claiming that it wasn't their fault. If you campaign on a platform of white supremacy and hatred of the left-wing, you simply cannot be surprised if someone does something terrible in your name.

Pretty sure they're only condemning the attack because the victim was white
 
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