We’ve waited a few days to post this. We wanted to let the dust settle a bit. We wanted to show respect for a grieving family and we didn’t want to join so many others in capitalising on the internet frenzy that always accompanies high profile killings. Jo Cox was many things apparently but she should never become mere clickbait at the height of a media frenzy.
Like the rest of the EBF team I’ve been unsure how to respond to this awful attack, not only on a young mother of two but upon the very nature of British representative democracy. The vigils that were held over the weekend across the country were not for Jo Cox personally. How could they be? Most of the attendees at these events, like me had never heard of her before Thursday. The mood of the nation isn’t grief – it’s outrage.
I won’t pretend to be racked with grief for a woman I never knew. I won’t do a hasty internet search and write a sentimental blog about Jo Cox as though she was an old friend I’ve known all my life. And I won’t be making any pretentious claims to know the precise details of the motivations that drove her killer, allegedly Tommy Mair to murder her in cold blood. I will be making a few observations about the far right and the way that groups like Britain First must acknowledge the blood indelibly staining their own hands.
Much has been said, written, shouted, even screamed about the words ‘Britain First’, apparently shouted by Jo’s murderer as he attacked. Whether he said ‘Put Britain First’, a campaign slogan for many in the nationalist/Brexit camp or whether he said merely ‘Britain First’, referring to the neoNazi group that regularly calls for British politicians to be executed seems to be a moot point. The undisputed fact is that Tommy Mair made clear his white supremacist and nationalist sentiments at the moment he (allegedly) carried out his crime. It is also obvious that this is a crime precisely in keeping with the rhetoric of Britain First.
It’s not clear whether or not Tommy Mair was associated directly with Britain First. He may have been. He certainly had aligned himself with overseas neo-Nazis. It seems unlikely that he’d never come across UK based Britain First as well. It is clear that a fully paid up Britain First ‘footsoldier’ (see the image left – that’s the name they give themselves) couldn’t have followed the party line any more accurately than Mair did last Thursday.
Paul Golding, leader of Britain First was quick to deny any association with Tommy Mair and denounce his crime. His video denial was in part an attempt to deny almost everything that Britain First has said over the last few years and partly an attempt to discredit the witnesses.
Most ironic of all from the leader of a party which thrives on misrepresentation, half-truths and downright fabrication was his appeal for people to wait for the whole truth without jumping to conclusions.
Ok then Paul. We thought we’d help people uncover the whole truth, not about Jo Cox’s death, that’s for the courts but about the fact that this is exactly the sort of murderous, anti-democratic, neoNazi atrocity that you, personally, have been doing your damnedest to incite for the last five years. Team EBF has already published a number of PDF’s on your neoNazi approach to politics and society as a whole. But on this occasion I thought it might be a good idea to focus specifically on your bloodthirsty attitude to British politicians, your support for violent uprising and the way you incite others to murder them exactly as Jo Cox was murdered (perhaps I should say ‘assassinated’).
For those readers who don’t yet understand how Britain First operates or why responsibility for Jo Cox’s brutal murder can be laid so squarely at your door I’m going to spell it out. Please stop me if I’ve misunderstood anything. I’ll be using direct quotes from you, from Jayda and from uncle Jim together with screenshots of your own public pronouncements and internet memes to illustrate my points. You may not like what I have to say here but you’ll know it’s all true (which is more than can be said for your usual social media offerings).
Britain first and violence
Britain First has a long record of inciting violence. Founder Jim Dowson is well known for his desire to incite Holy War against Muslims. Britain first leader, Paul Golding is a former member of the ultra-violent National Front and the British National Party. His violent, white supremacist attitudes are obvious. Equally obvious is his tendency to lie and deceive in order to achieve his aims. Britain First’s Deputy Leader, Jayda Fransen is a former EDL ‘Angel’, another white-supremacist organisation which is equally well known for its violent assaults on British Muslims and non-whites.
It’s hardly surprising that Britain First supporters are violent. They are spoon-fed violence at every turn. If it’s not fictitious threats from Islamic terrorists it’s frightening fantasies about perverted immigrants out to rape our children. The reality is completely different, of course but what do you and your buddies care about that, Paul? You know that refugees aren’t rapists and terrorists. You know that they’re just desperate people trying to escape a war they didn’t start or want. But they’re not the right colour so you use every dirty trick you can to slander them and all those who support their right to exist. And that’s why you hated Jo Cox. She saw through your lies, your slanders and your cheap, mean-spirited rhetoric and she had the courage to stand up against you.
Jo Cox represented everything that you could never even hope to be. She was courageous, she was compassionate and she was dedicated to decency, truth and the joy of living a life free from petty prejudice and hatred. That’s why she opposed you. That’s ultimately why she died. You may or may not have given the order but your hands are soaked in her blood either way. You and Jayda have spent so long encouraging your followers to kill all who oppose you, including and especially our elected representatives that it’s impossible for you to distance yourselves from this barbarous murder. As Shakespeare’s Macbeth bewailed…
“Will all great Neptune’s oceans e’er wash this blood clean from my hands?
Or will this, my hand the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red?”
No amount of washing will clean your hands of the blood of Jo Cox – and we at EBF will do all we possibly can to see you and Fransen stand trial for the incitement that led to her vicious, politically motivated murder.
Britain First’s vicious leadership
Steve Lewis used to be Britain First’s Deputy Leader until the party realised that Jayda Fransen’s sex appeal was more useful in signing up a following of disaffected young men. Now he’s one of their quasi-military ‘Regional Commanding Officers’, regularly to be seen throwing punches at ‘lefties’ during their marches.
This is what this ‘high-ranking’ member of Britain First had to say about left wing politicians, among other people…
In case you have any doubt about just what RCO Lewis means by ‘eradicated’, the words of the current Britain First Deputy Leader, Jayda Fransen below should make it quite clear.
Britain First has long called for the execution of left wing politicians whom they define as traitors. The extract above actually threatens labour politicians (among others) with execution. It’s part of a longer Email announcing leader, Paul Golding’s hopeless bid for the office of London Mayor. You can read the whole text of this murderous, racist and Islamophobic rant by clicking here.
Britain First and the political process
Britain First has always treated democracy with contempt. Ever since they first began in 2010 they have threatened, intimidated, harrassed and slandered political opponents at every turn. We know of several formerly outspoken ctitics of Britain First who found themselves needing police protection because of death threats issued by Britain First or their supporters. A number of left wing bloggers and activists have had their details published online by Britain First to intimidate them into silence.
Below we see a video still of Britain First’s ‘RCO’ Steve Lewis and ‘Armed Forces Offcier’, Robin Lomax intimidating a theatre group who dared to criticise Britain First and UKIP. Democracy means nothing to these people. Violence is the only change process they understand.
Given the tragic events of last week it’s not hard to see why Britain First’s intimidatory tactics are so often effective. Few people are courageous enough to put their families at risk from fanatical neoNazis with a grudge. We at Exposing Britain First understand this only too well. That’s why we protect our anonymity so seriously. We have seen and heard what happens when Britain First locates those who oppose them and it’s not pretty. The chilling tweet below from Britain First’s leader, Paul Golding illustrates precisely what lies in store for any Britain First critic who dares to reveal their identity.
Britain First does not respect democracy. It is an organisation dedicated to silencing all opposition by any means at its disposal.
And that includes executing opposition politicians…
We at Exposing Britain First have been saying for years now that it’s only a matter of time before Britain First’s propoganda leads to the death of a labour politician. We believe that they have already managed to incite their ‘footsoldiers’ to commit at least one murder of an innocent Muslim. We called for the British government to proscribe this violent group of neoNazis then and we continue that same demand today.
Proscribe Britain First for the hate-filled, murderous, fascist, extremist, terrorist organisation that it really is.
We have deliberately delayed publishing this article out of respect for Jo Cox and her family. We have no wish to make political capital out of this tragedy but equally we couldn’t just remain silent. The balance between smugly shouting
“We told you so”
and trying to demonstrate the truth about Britain First to the population at large is a fine one.
That’s why we waited until today to spell out our thoughts. We did so out of respect. But now it’s time to speak out.
The tragic assassination of Jo Cox may or may not have been committed by a fully paid up member of Britain First. Either way there can be no doubt that their endless deceit and incitement has played a part in influencing her killer. Tommy Mair certainly knew of Britain First. There’s good reason to suspect that he may even have accompanied Britain First on marches and demonstrations when they came to Yorkshire. The person in this widely circulated photograph may or may not be Mr. Mair. We genuinely don’t know. So far Britain First have refused to identify this BF activist who demonstrated with them in Dewsbury in 2015.
Whether Tommy Mair is the mysterious Dewsbury activist or not, his comments both at the scene and subsequently in court are unmistakeably ‘Biffer’. Not for the first time, Fransen and Golding seem to have been instrumental in persuading a British citizen to commit an act of terrorism on British soil.
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