Terrorist who murdered Jo Cox shouts: "Death to traitors" in court

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Fucking tool.

Let’s hope this dickhead’s tragic fuckwittage has put a dent in both Brexit and far-right douchebaggery in general.

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The media seems pretty focused on the rarity of this attack, but for a right winger to murder-protest shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone anywhere.

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Thanks to the expenses scandal and the way MPs are portrayed in news media as well as fictional dramas many Brits view MPs as little better than terrorists. It is annoying that the work Jo Cox was doing and had done isn’t at the forefront of news articles because that would give a lot of people some insight into the work and beliefs of a hard-working MP who genuinely wants to improve everyone elses lot rather than their own but it’s not really a surprise that we’re focusing on the mentally disturbed right-wing murderer instead considering the absolute shocking state of modern news outlets.

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Ideally I would have prefered the UK to remain, but at this point I think the even more important result would have been a firm commitment either way. Any answer to the British question.

Now I can see it already. The UK will narrowly vote to remain and for the rest of our lives we will hear how they didn’t really mean it and how a few percent who got emotional over the news story of the week ruined it for everyone.

In the words of Max Liebermann: I can’t even eat as much as I want to vomit.

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Two black guys with dubious mental health kill a soldier on the street in the name of Islam - right wing press calls it Islamic terrorism.

White guy with dubious mental health kills an MP on the street in the name of ‘Britain’ - right wing press calls it a mental health issue.

There are many people who have well-thought through reasons to vote to leave the EU this week and I respect them. But I have no respect for those Brexiters who happily embraced the demagogues who fed the population a constant diet of lies about the EU, who have accused politicians of ‘betrayal’ and of being traitors, and who have whipped up near hysteria towards Islam, foreigners, immigrants and refugees. Now those same fear mongers are scuttling to avoid any questioning of whether their fanatical rabble rousing has caused this tragedy.

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I don’t get this - Britain First directly threatens politicians, gives its members “self-defense” knife fight training, and someone shouting “Britain First!” stabs a politician and everyone ignores the connection? The extreme contortions the right - and the press - seem to be going through to deny the fact that he was at least inspired by the group are quite telling…

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Most of the newspapers (including the Murdoch press, to my surprise) do seem to be talking about the far right connections today.

I’m hoping that this ends Britain First. If that happens I might even start using Facebook to talk to my family again.

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… he refused to state his name, shouting “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain” instead…

I haven’t read a single account which claims there was any shouting whatsoever. He is reported to have said “My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain”, twice.

The story’s bad enough without exaggeration, Cory - if we can’t trust the absolute basics of your account, how can we judge whether anything else you say is a distortion?

I’m not criticising for the fun of it: this is genuine feedback.

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Political Assassination in the UK? I blame all those violent TV shows and Video Games from the US.

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I think this is meant sarcastically, but even then, I don’t get it. Could you further explain your comment?

Maybe sarcasm? Grand Theft Auto comes from Scotland after all.

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It’s the same thing I’ve been reading from other accounts; if it’s Cory’s mistake then it’s a mistake that many others unconnected with him are making. Cory wasn’t there, so we should take what he writes about it as grade B intelligence at best, same as we should with any other reporter in the same situation. It’s not honest criticism if you don’t direct it at anyone else who makes the same report.

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I have yet to meet any of them. The local Vote Leave group informed me that we had to leave because otherwise the Germans would invade and abolish our government. I asked why, and they said that the EU wanted to be federalist. So I said that the US was federalist and had state governments. And one of them said yes, US state governments had more power than EU governments and that was a reason for leaving the EU.
I then asked if any of them had visited the US or other EU countries other than as a tourist. Not one.

There are bad things about the EU; since I was involved in harmonisation in the late 80s/early 90s it has become more corporatist. The powers of the Parliament haven’t increased fast enough, but that is the fault of national government footdragging and people voting for fringe loony parties. But the solution of Leave seems to be that since they don’t like the wallpaper in the living room they should burn the house down. They seem to consist entirely of people (like Gove, Bone and Farage) to whom the word “negotiation” means “my way or the highway”.

Meanwhile they have racheted up rhetoric rather than coming up with analysis, and focussed almost entirely on demonising immigrants. Farage’s campaign has been despicable. And now somebody who by all accounts was worth ten of the lot of them put together has been killed as a result of their self interested grandstanding.

The only consolation is that our gun control laws may well have prevented a massacre. The terrorist managed to kill one person and severely wound another. With a gun like the one used at Orlando, it could have been far, far worse.

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:+1::+1::+1:

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The term Right Wing no longer seems sufficient. Why not be more to-the-point and say White Wing?

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The Murdoch press hasn’t changed. They are talking about “Nazis” - i.e. trying to deflect blame onto Germans by dog whistle.

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Because it tars the white people who aren’t Grade A xenophobic bigots with the same brush.

However, there is definite alliterative appeal in your proposed term that I’m having difficulty matching with my own possible alternatives.

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Nah. No more than “white supremacist” does. Similarly, when I hear Black Panther Party, I don’t assume every black person in the US is a member.

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Fingers crossed.