EARLY ONE MORNING.........................
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stansted North on Uttlesford District Council and former Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Learn more
by Alan Dean on 17 June, 2016
I have declined to publish or have edited on my blog several comments that have been so offensive against individual people and groups of people that they would be counter-productive and also add no value in any debate. An article today by Alex Massie from the blog of The Spectator magazine encapsulates my wider concerns about the tone of the EU debate where it has become poisonous.
Below are selected extracts and a link to the whole article.
Events have a multiplier effect. And when they come in bunches the effect can be overpowering. This was already a sad and demeaning day, even before we heard the ghastly news a Labour MP, Jo Cox, had been murdered outside her constituency surgery in Yorkshire.
The poster unveiled by Nigel Farage this morning marked a new low, even for him.
The mask – the pawky, gin o’clock, you know what I mean, mask – didn’t slip because there was no mask at all. BREAKING POINT, it screamed above a queue of dusky-hued refugees waiting to cross a border. The message was not very subtle: Vote Leave, Britain, or be over-run by brown people. ‘Take control. Take back our country.’ You know what I mean, don’t you: ‘If you want a Turk – or a Syrian – for a neighbour, vote Remain.‘
It may be that eyewitness reports he shouted ‘put Britain First’ as he attacked Jo Cox will prove as unreliable as such reports often are. It could be there was no political motivation for this apparently senseless murder.
We know that even lone lunatics don’t live in a bubble. They are influenced by outside events. (The murderer of Jo Cox) has a cause, no matter how warped it may be. And so we ask who influenced him? We ask, how did it come to this?
Nigel Farage isn’t responsible for Jo Cox’s murder. And nor is the Leave campaign. But they are responsible for the manner in which they have pressed their argument. They weren’t to know something like this was going to happen, of course, and they will be just as shocked and horrified by it as anyone else.
But, still. Look. When you encourage rage you cannot then feign surprise when people become enraged. You cannot turn around and say, ‘Mate, you weren’t supposed to take it so seriously. It’s just a game, just a ploy, a strategy for winning votes.’
If you spend days, weeks, months, years telling people they are under threat, that their country has been stolen from them, that they have been betrayed and sold down the river, that their birthright has been pilfered, that their problem is they’re too slow to realise any of this is happening, that their problem is they’re not sufficiently mad as hell, then at some point, in some place, something or someone is going to snap. And then something terrible is going to happen.
Jo Cox was, by all accounts, a fine parliamentarian and a fine woman. She has been taken from her family and her constituents but her death strips something from all of us as well. I cannot recall ever feeling worse about this country and its politics than is the case right now.
Read the complete article here.
9 Comments
A bit rich, if I may say. Your blog has ritually allowed offensive attacks on individuals in its comments.
You would be amazed how many I have rejected or edited out in recent months. There are probably some contributions that I would not accept today.
When the Prime Minister said “The Labour Party is now a threat to our national security, our economic security and your family’s security” (https://twitter.com/david_cameron/status/642984909980725248?lang=en-gb) he included all Labour party members, including Jo Cox. When he persistently calls his opponents “terrorist sympathisers” for disagreeing with his foreign policies, he is setting an ugly tone in which assassinations of political activists and elected representatives can be legitimised in the minds of extreme, stupid and/or ill individuals. The media that backed him are just as responsible for Jo Cox’s death: the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Express, the Telegraph. This isn’t something created by this referendum, this has been the result of years of hate that Cameron unleashed on the political opposition.
Your inference would appear to be that the Remain camp have run a principled campaign with integrity rather than the squalid reality, the two spivs competing to scare the electorate with moronic threats and apocalyptic scenarios.
Osborne is a worse chancellor than Brown ever was, calculating, devious yet ultimately incompetent (or is the national deficit of no account?) whilst his oily chum Cameron is a disgrace as a politician, never mind as PM.
Their loathsome attempts to use the tragic death of Jo Cox for political advantage reveal the hollow arguments of the Remain camp.
I sincerely hope that the British public will take the opportunity presented on Thursday to leave the EU and benefit immediately from getting rid of the spivs and their supporters. At local level I would hope to see resignations from backers of Remain but given the lack of integrity at UDC I won’t hold my breath.
It will at least be pleasant to see the arrogant, out of touch elitists given a kick in the teeth.
There has been a noticeable shift in public mood in the past week. People who previously intended to vote leave have volunteered they are shifting to Remain. Last night I had just delivered a Remain leaflet to a house when the door opened and a cheery looking man called out “Thank you!” That’s a rarity in my year’s of campaigning.
The demonstrates the disproportionate fears from Brexiters: https://www.facebook.com/InFacts16/videos/773297159474386/
The words of Jo Cox’s widower: Jo Cox ‘died for her views’, her widower tells BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36590824
That ‘notable shift’ you detected appears to have been illusory.
I repeat my invitation for out of touch politicians at any level to demonstrate a little integrity and resign.
Naturally this will never happen, integrity is virtually nonexistent at UDC for a start.
Delighted that the electorate delivered a kick in the teeth to Cameron and his arrogant clique, the sight of his wife almost in tears this morning was delicious, as was the reaction of Keith Vaz when Dimbleby reminded him that this was a democratic decision.
Apparently some politicos only favour democracy when it equates to us falling for their lies, doing as we are told, lambs to the slaughter. Well in the referendum we lambs got a bit lively and wrecked the abattoir.
A significant majority in Uttlesford rejected your analysis Alan and disregarded the joint letter that you and Rolfe threw together. I still don’t understand why you were rash enough to associate yourself with (him) (or continue to be involved in the doomed local plan process) but you did and do. I strongly urge you not to continue with that relationship.
Incidentally, the stream of infantile, whining from the losing Remain side demonstrates their contempt for democracy and the popular vote.
As to the facile attempt to demand a fresh referendum, why does the media indulge these morons. There was a significant turnout and the response was binary, not nuanced. The losers should learn a little humility (that includes you Alan, with your support for 48 garbage)
The majority of the British public that chose to vote, were clearly in favour of leaving the EU. The whining babies that are unhappy with the result should go and lie down in a darkened room.
Either you favour democracy (I DO) and welcome the outcome of the referendum, or you admit being anti-democratic. No ifs, no buts. Any response to that, Alan? A point of principle I accept, but I had been under the impression that you actually had principles, though the letter with Rolph caused me some doubts.
What is alarming, Keith, is the triumphalism and authoritarian streak in much of the Brexit camp. “We won, so shut up!” is their cry. The country is divided down the middle. The bile, hatred, xenophobia and overt racism flowing from some (but not all) individuals who seem to think they can impose their low level standards on the rest of society has parallels with the 1930s.
The fact that one advisory referendum was won by a small margin is no license for the rest of society to accept the chaos a small majority of voters has inflicted on all of us. The result of one general election does not mean that the losers spend the next 5 years accepting the winning side’s philosophy. Much of the behaviour of the Leave campaigners has made me and many, many others ashamed to be British. That will not be accepted without a continued fight to regain our international standing – not as a narrow, inward looking, mean and selfish country but as an outward looking country that cooperates with its neighbours thought good times and bad.
As for jointly signing a letter with one’s traditional political opponents on a principle in which both believe strongly, there are times when party tribalism should be put aside. I campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum with Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Labour, Green and unaligned people and am proud of their dedication and continued belief is what we fought to retain. We now must continue to work together to try to save the country from the steep decline that Brexit is inflicting on our society.