What the hell is going on?

Three days ago, a 41-year old Member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was attacked in the street of her constituency in Birstall, West Yorkshire when she was on her way to hold a constituency surgery.  She was a married mother of two small children, aged three and five, and had been the MP for Batley and Spen since 2015.

It appears that as she was arriving at the library where the surgery was to be held, she was approached by a man named as Thomas Mair who shot her three times and then attacked her with a large knife, stabbing her multiple times.  She was pronounced dead about fifty minutes after the attack.

So why did this happen?  It was alleged that the attacker shouted “Britain first” as he launched his attack. Britain First is a far-right nationalist party that campaigns against immigration, multiculturalism and the alleged Islamification of the United Kingdom.  Ironically, for a party that regularly suggests that all Muslims wish harm to this country whenever there is an Islamist attack anywhere, tarring everyone with the same brush, they very quickly released a statement stating that this man had no connections with their party and saying that even if he was a supporter, the actions of one man did not condemn all their members.

It is also known that Mair had links to neo-Nazi groups in both South Africa and America and is believed to have purchased a manual from the publishing arm of a group called the National Alliance, a white nationalist political organisation based in the United States. This manual apparently included instructions on how to make a homemade firearm and the gun that Mair used is believed to have been homemade, although not necessarily the one that the manual suggested.

It is being speculated that perhaps the attack was because he was against Mrs Cox’s stance in the upcoming EU Referendum, which is being held next week.  Her stance was that the UK should remain in the EU; his politics clearly suggest that he believed that the UK should leave. Since then, this man has appeared in court and, when asked to give his name, replied that it was “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.  This has now led to speculation that he may be suffering from a mental illness and this may well be the reason for his attack.  However, nobody seems to be speculating that it may be due to him being an utter fuckwit.

I have to say that I’m not convinced as to the mental health angle.  There has recently been a video released on Facebook showing a “Britain First activist training camp” taking place in Snowdonia.  It consists of a group of overweight middle aged men running around in the mountains wearing camouflage and practising fighting.  What exactly are these “activists” actually “training” for? I thought it was very reminiscent of those old black & white films from the thirties of the Hitler Youth camps, except that these guys were older and fatter.  What is worrying is that the comments on the post show that there are appears to be no shortage of people who seem to think that this is a good idea and wanting to join the next camp.  Are they trying to model themselves on the various militias that exist in the United States, formed to “protect” against various perceived threats and enemies?

And this is worrying.  It has been publicised that there are places in Britain where there were so-called Sharia patrols, groups of young Muslim men confronting people and insisting that they conform to Sharia Law with regards to things like alcohol and dress.  To counter this, Britain First launched Christian patrols.  Not confrontational at all! I don’t know how active in Britain first this man was, or whether he was at all, but I speculate that there are people who are associated with this group who believe that he was right in his actions, just as I would speculate that there are people in the Muslim community who believe that the actions of the 7/7 bombers were correct, and will therefore see his actions as setting a good example.

This risk is that with nutters operating on both sides, how long will it be before they actually go hunting for each other and the UK descends into some form of civil war?  And you also have the nutters who, again from both “sides”, are heading off to the Middle East to fight either for ISIS or against ISIS, then returning to this country full of their respective “ideologies”.

The other campaign that has been launched since this tragic event is the “Thank your MP” one which seems to be suggesting that all MPs are some sort of superhuman being doing a very difficult job and that they should have our unstinting support.  Whilst this is true in some cases, not the superhuman bit, obviously, there are still a lot who are in it for themselves (see Snouts in the Trough)

Don’t get me wrong, if they do a good job, as it appears that Jo Cox was doing, by all means thank them.  But I don’t believe that we should give these people carte blanche.    We live in a democracy, so they are as entitled to their opinion as you are to yours. However, if you disagree with your MP, say so. Debate with them, argue with them, write to them and tell them (although from my experience they’ll probably ignore you) or don’t vote for them at the next election.  But don’t go out, hunt them down and murder them in the street. That isn’t democracy, that’s extremism.