Jo Cox verdict.

[the other bob wilson]

If you cast your minds back to June, you might remember that there were those on here who sought to partially excuse the murder of MP Jo Cox on the grounds that Thomas Mair was a "lone nutter". Well, yesterday came confirmation that this opinion was half right - it seems that Mair did act alone, but the British legal system and the jury that had to consider his actions that day decided that he was sane enough to be held responsible for his actions.

During the referendum campaign, it became too easy to brand those who were going to vote leave as racists (I did it occasionally myself). This was wrong, but I strongly believe that one of the consequences of Brexit is that things have swung too much the other way now.

The seventeen and a half million who voted leave were certainly not all racists, but, in my opinion, enough of them were to make all of the difference to the result.

Obviously, Mair is a very extreme version of the sort of person I talk about above, but in a world where there are so many things happening which are source of concern, I worry that the way elections/referendums have been conducted on both sides of the Atlantic in 2016 is leading to a situation whereby holders of ultra racist views, that most of us want no part of, are beginning to feel legitimised.

There is a two fold potential problem with this - the obvious one is that hate crime will increase (and every poll or public consultation I've seen on the subject since the referendum indicates that it is), but there's also the question of how will those with extreme views on the immigration issue react when, as will inevitably happen, both the Brexit negotiators and Donald Trump are not able to deliver everything that those with extreme views thought they were going to get when the results were confirmed?

Jo Cox was murdered because of her beliefs by a man whose views anyone who classes themselves as a decent human being should find reprehensible, it would be good to see some of those on here who had a problem with admitting this back in the summer do so now.