Like many people I have been on Twitter this evening, and on the internet. I have watched the news obsessively. The first I knew of the shooting of Jo Cox MP was when I picked up my ‘phone early this evening and saw an email from a newsfeed saying there had been reports of an attack on an MP.
Jo Cox was one of the few MPs in the House of Commons who made you feel every word she said was genuine. She was bright and funny, serious and committed. I am sure I am not the only one to have noted her as a future leader of the Labour Party, and a future Prime Minister.
For all my news scanning and watching, why she was killed is still unclear. There are reports that her killer suffered from mental illness, that he was normally a gentle person who did work in other people’s gardens for free. Other reports say that he shouted “Britain first!” before pulling the trigger on his home made gun.
Moving tributes were made by stunned colleagues and constituents. For once David Cameron looked genuinely shaken and upset. Conservative Andrew Mitchell, hardly the most endearing of our elected representatives, spoke of her warmly and with obvious respect and admiration. Tonight the flags on our official buildings fly at half mast.
It seems that not a day this week can pass without some dreadful human on human violence. Anyone deemed as other is fair target. Blood and tears are our nightly television fare.
Jo Cox’ husband called for an end to hate. That hasn’t stopped people demanding her killer should be executed. An eye for an eye so we all end up blind, as though our blind ignorance and intolerance isn’t destructive enough. No doubt they’ll be others who say those with mental illness/suspected of having links to extremists should be locked up and the key thrown away. That isn’t fighting hate; it’s feeding it.
This is the best thing I have read. Maybe you’ll think it worth reading too.
Isobel (and Cat)'s Blog 
Yes well worth reading…a sad day indeed….
I reread it today. I think it is a very good piece; thought-provoking and sober.
Thanks Isobel. Jo is not the first Politician to die, but it is deeply shocking.
I shall be in Westminster this afternoon. I think seeing the floral tributes is going to be extraordinarily moving.
1994???
I agree, Isobel, well worth reading.
I hope in the reams that will be written about this death and what lead to it there will be more sober thought and more thoughtful articles.
Thanks Isobel for your wise words
I’m not usually called wise, I think that description belongs Alex Massie who wrote the piece.
I was so sad when I heard this yesterday. Will it ever stop? It WAS worth reading… thank you Isobel for your post and the link.
Horrendous. And have you heard the news about trefugees trying to escape from Felujah? And seen the mistrteatment by troops of those captured?
No, just getting started this morning. I may take the weekend off from news.
Thoroughly agree with you.
The violence must end.
How, though? Like you, I don’t think the “eye for an eye” policy is the answer; love and education are.
Hopefully, we will make it happen some day…
I think it takes a lot of political will. Politicians like Jo Cox who keep raising humanitarian issues that most governments find easier to ignore are too rare. And see how our leaders continue to overlook human rights abuses in those countries where they want to do business.
We have to change our priorities.
For sure.
We have to change our governments.
I am so sorry. I thought of you when I first heard the news. It makes me so angry when good people are killed, and so sad because every death causes pain for those left behind.
I think yesterday and today it has felt worse. On Thursday we were shocked. As time passes we realise what we have lost, and the killer a man with mental health issues is equally, so far as I can see, a victim. Someone who took the rhetoric of those parties yelling about Britain For Britons etc to heart and acted of it in a way he understood. Sad days. Shocking days. I hope Jo Cox’ death wakes the electorate up to what we want our politicians to be, and that we enable those who want to serve, not have a cosy political carrer prior to taking up lucrative consultancies, to take their place in the House of Commons.
One thought that keeps occurring is about the children who must have been expectng Mummy to come home in the evening, whose world has been rocked, and who will live with this event for the test of their lives.
Yes, I understand what you are going through. With the increase of violence in the U.S. , my heart aches for the families who have lost loved ones. It really does eat away our very core. And it blows my mind that there are so many people willing to follow Trump who says things to flame the fires of hatred and violence in the bellies of those who have been so damaged that they can’t know compassion and love for others. He is still a playground bully and I think at 70 he has missed his opportunity to grow up. The good news is that he is behind Clinton in all major polls and he doesn’t look able to put together a campaign that will be effective against her very well run and financed campaign. To ramble a bit more – very happy to see the poll today saying that the vote to leave the EU is likely to fail.
I think it feels worse now than it did on Thursday. then we were shocked. But the killing was so recent it felt like we could push the world backwards and it wouldn’t have happened. Now it’s real. Jo Cox’ body is cold. She’s not coming back. How many good people will her death discourage from going into politics? Trump, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage. Marine Le Pen, they go on peddling their tarnished cynical messages. It makes me very sad. As for the EU referendum, I am scared. I don’t know that I shall be able to listen to the news on Friday. So I hope the poll you speak of is correct as is the one I’ve heard of saying Trump is now far behind Hillary Clinton. xx
I heard on TV this evening that the betting odds-makers also believe that your voters will want to stay with the EU. 🙂 Not sure that will ease your anxiety.
I hope you are right. I had a text from. Celia last night saying she is in denial that. Brexit is possible. I hope her stubborn refusal method is effective.
Still shocked and sad about Jo Cox shooting. From what I have been reading about her so far she was a democrat dedicated and courageous person.
I am desolated about her murder.
It is shocking. Did you see any of the speeches from the Commons yesterday?
I’m affraid, not. Sorry!
You can find them on YouTube I am sure.