Labour MP Jo Cox killed in shooting incident in West Yorkshire

To all the remainers who claim that remainers are not cashing in on this: daily star front page headline in massive font: MP dead after attack by Brexit gunman

I can only hope that this comes to haunt them.

Says someone who is racist and homophobic.

They really have hit a new low.

http://i.imgur.com/X2zAbCR.jpg

And in your topsy-turvy world, in which one can implicate someone in a murder by yelling their organisation's name before committing it, like some sort of conjurer, and in which this can be extended ad infinitum to anyone whom any implicated party has ever supported, this is enough to implicate UKIP in the killing.

I'd like to take this opportunity to state that I, as a Leave supporter, mourn and condemn this killing, but I don't feel a jot of responsibility for it, and I don't see why Nigel Farage or any member of the Tory right should either. None of them have, to my knowledge and presumably anyone else's (or we'd have seen it in the press today), condoned or encouraged this sort of behaviour, and all of them are perfectly entitled to express their discontent with a remote system of government that quietly, insidiously accrues powers to itself and keeps us from exercising sensible border controls without taking responsibility for whatever any nutter who shares one or two sentiments with them takes it entirely upon himself to do.

Now, if you have any evidence to present that Britain First has encouraged violence I'd be happy to see it. That could reasonably be taken to implicate the group in violence. But you haven't bothered with that. Equally, if you'd like to argue that they are a generally hateful bunch, I'm sure you could make quite a reasonable place. That is entirely different thing from claiming that they are in any way responsible for this killing. So far you've shown nothing at all to support that, and a big, Thornberry-esque picture of an undesirable-looking working class bloke certainly isn't sufficient in itself.

It has been reported, though I'm unsure what credence to give the reports, that the perpetrator shouted "Britain First" during the attack

Why are you bothering? According to her, when a right wing person commits an atrocity, it is inspiration from the right which is at fault. When a left wing person commits an atrocity, it is inspiration from the right as well. I'm not being facetious, this is literally what she thinks and you can check other threads to confirm this. There's no point in trying to make such people see sense. But it doesn't matter.

There is hatred and stoking up flames from all sorts of creatures. If this guy was influenced by a Paul Golding type then we must look at that seriously. All right-minded people are quick enough to consider apportioning some blame to Islamist scumbag imams and hate preachers when a Muslim commits terrorism when it's clear the influence was there so let's be consistent, apply the same principles and ask the difficult questions with honesty. If this was politically motivated, it is a terrorist attack. Let's have some integrity. FoS never had any in the first place but I urge you to recojsider. I can't stand that wretched horror Emily Thornberry at all by the way and I agree the person you're responding to is of the same cloth but don't let that cloud any judgments on the issue itself.

Kim.

fascist scum like you people are responsible for her death

Oh, I'm quite happy to call it a 'terrorist' attack. I just don't think anything turns on the point of whether we call it 'terrorism' or not. I feel the same way about shootings like Orlando. I'm also happy to concede that it was probably politically motivated; as I said earlier in the thread, I think he probably was mentally ill, but that doesn't mean he wasn't actuated by his political beliefs. I'm more concerned about how broadly people seem to be spreading responsibility for this specific attack on the basis of that motivation.

I think the Islamist preachers comparison is probably a fair one, although I think the point about them is that they're often setting out an explicitly violent anti-Western rhetoric. Perhaps I would consider them to be implicated in such an attack even if they didn't encourage violence directly, and so maybe I should take the argument in relation to Britain First more seriously, but, as I pointed out, no-one seems to have bothered to flesh out the connection beyond 'they aren't the biggest fans of immigration'. In any event, I don't think any of these reflects upon Nigel Farage or the Tory Party, whose immigration rhetoric I think has been perfectly civil.

They really have hit a new low.

I agree with you but I haven't seen many people actually blame UKIP or the Tories.

It's more to do with the increased aggressiveness and violence of both the hard right and hard left. The huge amounts of rape and death threats in the last year directed towards MPs has been telling.

Posted from TSR Mobile

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36550304

"Eyewitness Clarke Rothwell says he saw a man holding a gun and shouting "Britain first or put Britain first""

Hasn't it been retracted?

It does mostly seem to be FoS who is trying to make that connection.

I have seen some people talk about how this can be linked to the Leave campaign, though, and how that may make them think differently about the referendum, whereas to me allowing your opinion to be swayed either way by the deranged actions of this lone gunman would be mad in itself.

I broadly agree re the increasing aggressiveness on both extremes. It has become trite to comment on the rise of Trump and Sanders and Corbyn and such like recently. It could be that this is what drove this man to murder Jo Cox, but given that this shooting is still, thankfully, an anomaly, i wouldn't want to try to extrapolate too much from it.

Update — Suspected killer may have had “mental health problems”, in receipt of “psychotherapy and medication”

The suspected killer of MP Jo Cox has been named locally as Thomas Mair, who has featured in a number of local news reports in recent years as a mentally ill man who claimed to be benefitting from local voluntary opportunities.

An archived 2010 article about a country park which welcomed Mr. Mair from the Pathways Day Centre for adults with mental health problems to volunteer in building a “faith garden” reported Mr. Mair as saying: “I can honestly say it has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world.“Many people who suffer from mental illness are socially isolated and disconnected from society, feelings of worthlessness are also common mainly caused by long-term unemployment.“All these problems are alleviated by doing voluntary work.“Getting out of the house and meeting new people is a good thing, but more important in my view is doing physically demanding and useful labour.“When you have finished there is a feeling of achievement which is emotionally rewarding and psychologically fulfilling.“For people for whom full-time, paid employment is not possible for a variety of reasons, voluntary work offers a socially positive and therapeutic alternative.”

And again, the questions remains, how can a man labelled as a 'weirdo' get his hands on a gun.