Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

everybody accepts that just because a lone psychopath publicly aligns themselves with a political cause it doesn't mean they are a representative or product of that cause

With husband and daughters on the Thames yesterday.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/8461/production/_89998833_brendancox_blurred_976.jpg

or product of that cause

Probably too soon to have this discussion but what about the rhetoric the organisation pumps out - sure it matters whether they directly 'sent' him or not, probably they wouldn't be so stupid as to do that - but we've all seen what they put out on facebook for millions of people to see

i was being sarcastic in a way that i'd probably FP somebody else for being.

sure this conversation will be had elsewhere, but as far as it touches on the EU referendum and the nauseating moron conspiracy theories that are gonna be everywhere i think i'd better shut up and sit it out

am spiralling into this void of anger, fear and despair here. fuck fuck fucking hell

Had no problems with that sarcasm tbh. (xp)

London Black Revs timeline on Twitter worth a look rn

I was just moaning about how lawless Batley is getting after having a skirmish with some ignorant thug arseholes who were making disablist comments to my son outside Tesco on saturday. But despite what the area is like you really wouldn't expect to get murdered in broad daylight in Birstall :(

Donald Trump just tweeted 'AMERICA FIRST!'

I don't want to live on this planet any more.

From following this at work I'd somehow misunderstood that she had survived the attack and was stable in hospital, what a horrendous thing

From following the BBC coverage it was difficult to ascertain that there was any apparent connection to the referendum at all, aside from a lone confusing-in-context reference to campaigning being suspended on both sides

I know they need to avoid fanning the flames by carelessly reporting unconfirmed info but the neutrality just seems bogus and sinister when it's a prominent Remain campaigner getting murdered in public during a notably hysterical referendum campaign

Scratch that, he tweeted it two days ago, sorry

Xp

I just heard about this. I'm sorry to hear about it. Absolutely tragic.

@NV sorry didn't get the sarcasm there

don't worry, as i say i had second thoughts soon as i posted

No worries.

@Dadjokke The exact recipe for this behaviour is always complicated, but this time ... I don't know what Britain First have been saying about the EU referendum specifically but ...

ugh, this is horrible, RIP

the sun calling him a "loner"

this kind of murder...not a good look trying to score any kind of political point off it right now.

which isn't to say that all murder isn't political in a complex set of ways, but plugging into a reductive "Team A/Team B" football politics feels sick to me

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/a-day-of-infamy/

decent piece by massie

I've been a bit weirded out about people using it to score points about remaining in the EU, even though she was an ardent Remain supporter, but I think it's pretty fucking clear this is a political act carried out by a racist right-winger, it *IS* political, inherently.

xp

Sure - difficult to do the maths on whether he was influenced by BF and/or the Leave campaign, plus Orlando shooting and football fights ... then if he was, what is the correct way to address this xxp

i'm expecting reductive political point scoring ("someone on team a did a bad thing therefore team b is the best", etc.), which i agree is nagl, but this is a political murder in a pretty simple way tbh. it was the murder of a politician by a man shouting the name of a political party. basically http://gawker.com/5927847/there-is-no-such-thing-as-politicizing-a-tragedy

i mean based on what we know now, this is literally the dictionary definition of assassination.

It's possible he might have been shouting "Britain first" not "Britain First".

... sorry if that sounds like a stupid thing to say.

certainly got no intention of playing Cap'n Save-a-Nazi, so won't add anything now. will say the story is still unfolding.

London Black Revs said this:

Tommy Mair, arrested shooter. Batley, West Yorkshire
+ 2006 - had a subscription to an Anti-ANC Pro White South African Magazine.
+ Now Named by the BBC and Independent, Guardian, Mirror.
+ House is Cordoned Off and confirmed by Neighbours.
+ White Nationalist Political Interests
+ Shooter's former address - Fieldhead Estate
+ Subscription to SpringBok publication, a pro white supremacist organisation. Now split to 'Swinton Circle', which are still active and organising with Pegida.
+ His most likely political links are probably with Britain First.
Tommy Meir's had affiliations to an organisation called 'SpringBok' their motto is '"Out of Europe and into the World". Highly motivated against Labour's "racism" towards white people. A pro white supremacist south african organisation in exile in Britain.

Nick Griffin
‏@NickGriffinBU

If #JoCox dies (& we all pray she doesn't) just watch #Remain exploit the tragedy in attempt to shore up their crumbling blackmail campaign

Between this and the Farage poster this morning this is honestly the worst single day I can remember in British politics. Just... where does this end?

Also let's stop pretending that mental illness has nothing to do with government policy or structural conditions in society ffs.

yep. "loner" is the sun's favourite way of eliding that direct link.

which is part of what i meant by "complexly" political. beyond his immediate Party goals is all that stuff + misogyny + christ alone knows what else

understood and you make a fair point.

Not a fan of The Spectator (well, it's editor, anyway) but that piece posted above is good.

When you shout BREAKING POINT over and over again, you don’t get to be surprised when someone breaks. When you present politics as a matter of life and death, as a question of national survival, don’t be surprised if someone takes you at your word. You didn’t make them do it, no, but you didn’t do much to stop it either.

I cannot recall ever feeling worse about this country and its politics than is the case right now

that last picture her husband posted on Twitter at 2:50 is devastating, can't imagine what he was feeling like at that exact point

XP (sorry - they were supposed to be block quotes, rather than bold text)

It might be a good idea for me to stay off the internet for a while.

various reporters and MPs looking like they're going to break down and cry on C4 News, feeling a bit that way myself

Between this and the Farage poster this morning this is honestly the worst single day I can remember in British politics.

as always someone (often Matt DC actually!) puts into words what is spinning in my head ..

i cracked badly at the picture of her and bloke and kids in the boat from yesterday ..

Like, what I would LIKE to come out of this situation would be an acceptance from Blue Team 79 and Red Team 97 that they have FAILED, that the country isn't actually a better place as a result of what they and their glorious leaders have done. That this is, if not the obvious endpoint of the politics of divide-and-rule, then at least a big signpost on the way to that. And maybe if they had the basic humility to accept that then they might actually work out what to DO about it, rather than stubbornly protecting their own reputations, and we might actually prevent that endpoint from happening.

I've been saying for years that Cameron's greatest skill as PM has been projecting strength from a position of weakness, but in doing so he's thrown the lid off, and exacerbated, resentments going back decades - resentments that have obviously contributed to his weakness. If this DOES turn out to be the last week of his premiership (and I have a feeling that it now won't), then he will only have himself to blame. And everyone else will blame him for the shitfest that follows.

feeling very bad for her former UNICEF co-worker struggling to keep it together on C4 news

Jason Keen ‏@Jason_Keen 3h3 hours ago

Jo Cox told me about her new project when I saw her a few days ago - a cross-party commission to tackle loneliness. There are no words.

Last year Paula Sherriff had to improve her security after receiving death/rape threats on social media.

don't read the comments on that Spectator piece unless you want your last vestige of hope to go pop.

They keep editing it. The first one was blistering, now they've taken out all the stuff blaming the right wing and pointed the finger at mental health

This might be the original version
http://web.archive.org/web/20160616183957/http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/a-day-of-infamy/

Not that long after the grim WYP statement on R4 earlier, came Jimmy Tarbuck's stern defence of Cliff Richard. And then him saying false child abuse victims should be horsewhipped - it reminded me of everything I love about this country.

Why on earth are all people on Newsnight going on and on about social media as a cause to this tragedy? Social media isn't some alien entity, it's a means people discourse over. We never questioned people speaking on telephones to each other having a poisonous effect on society did we? Social media redlects humanity just as awfully truthful as any other form of communication or 'tone'. Don't blame the medium, blame the people who abuse it ffs.

Easier to say than a whole historical and interlinked toxic system of hysterical and biased hatred of things unknown.