Horrible, horrible. It's made me seriously depressed, as did all the news yesterday. People like Farage stoke the fire when they stand in front of posters of Syrian refugees, mirroring the imagery of the Nazis eighty-odd years before. No doubt Jo Cox's killer is a mental, right-wing loner and the stuff coming out about his white, supremacist ideology is chilling.
But whipping up racism emboldens bad people, whether it did in this case or not. It makes it acceptable to feel hateful towards people whose only crime is to take their children and flee the barbarity of war and poverty. And hateful towards people, like her, who try and help them.
I don't think this principled and beautiful young woman died because of EU-outers. But we shouldn't be blind to the arguments being used by them to whip up hate and suspicion towards immigrants. Britain will be a poorer place if we vote out and not because of any money we might lose. But because it emboldens the bigots and the racists and the fascists, who meet any difference with hatred and the extremes of who feel violence is the way to achieve their ideals.
I feel so sorry for her husband and family, who found it in themselves to reject hate and engender hope even though they must be heartbroken. So sad. x
|