The tragic death of Jo Cox has been very
disturbing. One has to feel terrible for her family. But here we have a
humanitarian who has been slain. As such, it is a terrible attack on British
liberalism.
The attacker is alleged to have shouted
Britain First. Whatever his motive, or mental state, this is a party that when
Sadiq Khan was elected London Mayor, had their candidate on the platform turn
away as Mr Khan was pronounced as mayor.
Whatever your views on staying in or out
of Europe, I feel following this attack, the need to articulate the kind of
people who want us out, and the thuggery aligned to them. There has been a
propaganda campaign in the majority of the press to exit Europe. It goes back to
the days of the Daily Mail claiming Europe vetoes certain banana shapes, human
rights, rules and interference. It goes to the heart of the press and
politicians using any immigrant, asylum seeker or migrant bad news story as a
representative of all foreigners. But think, when was the last time you
associated any criminal act by a white person, as representative of all white
people?
There is an incredible humanitarian
disaster going on in Syria and Libya as a direct result of our short term
planned foreign policies. These are refugees escaping war, or economic
realities so appalling that people would risk losing their children in rubber
boats bouncing across the sea. Can you imagine if dad had made us cross the
Mediterranean or Aegean Sea in his boat, to escape war, persecution or dire
economic circumstances. Would it have been a lightly taken decision, or one of
absolute desperation?
The wider causes need addressing. The
very real threat of ISIS needs addressing, but of course it has to be
remembered that the worse you treat others, the more likely one is to create
people who are disillusioned with our way of life.
Ask yourself, would you be better of
dealing with these issues as a united Europe, or a fractured one?
The problem with the In and Out campaigns
has been mis-information on both sides. When it comes to it though, it is
obvious that as a nation, we will lose significantly in Economic terms. But we
will also lose the unity of a continent that fought itself twice in the last
century with millions of deaths. Europe has many faults, and I don’t like it as
it is, but we have to make it better, not fracture unity among people.
Europeans know their immigration policies are not working, but these need
addressing, not running away from. Leaving Europe will not make these issues go
away.
Back to my original point. Nigel Farage
yesterday standing in front of a poster of refugees is comparible with Nazi
propaganda in World War 2. I play basketball. I am the only white English
player in the mens or womens teams. Many are muslim, including many of the
women…. No they are not wearing veils, they are wearing basketball shorts and
kit like everyone else. Do I feel under threat by the fact that everyone else
is different to me, or that I am in a minority of one? Or do I go out with them
after games and laugh with them like anyone else. There is no “them and us”,
there is only “we”, and you have to get away from the decades of propaganda
that has fed you to believe that English white people are better than anyone
else. We are the same. Start thinking that people are the same as you, and then
why does any national or cultural difference matter.
What old England are you trying to
preserve? The England that invented concentration camps in the 19th century,
the England that caused millions to die in famines in India and Ireland by
denying food aid. The England that took land from the people of the Chagos
Islands as recently as the 1960’s. The England whose justice system covers up
the deaths of Hillsborough. The England that ruled the slave trade and stole,
murdered and raped 16 million Africans. But you won’t read that in the Daily
Mail, the Times or the Telegraph. And because you won’t, your view of our
superiority over everyone else, will reduce your ability to empathise with
people who don’t look like you.
The thuggery from the England football
fans which has risen in Europe recently, having improved for many years, is a
direct result of the wave of racist xenophobia which has come about from the
Out Campaign. Farage, Johnson, Gove and all have thrived on this misinformation
about others. They are creating and living off your fear of people who don’t
look like you, whose culture and religion is not like yours. This fear is what
will make you vote to exit, as it is what drives football fans to do what they
do, and very possibly what drives people like Britain First, and the murder of
a humanitarian that saw everyone as her equal.
What scares me most, is who we are
handing our power to in this country if we vote out. The only way forward for
humanity is to keep coming together, resolving our differences, and correcting
what doesn’t work. Isolationism has traditionally led to trade wars, conflict,
2 world wars and immense human suffering. Look how it’s driving the farce
around Trump. Do we keep adding to it, or keep a cool head and say, we have to
make humanity work.
