My initial shock and third party grief is rapidly starting to boil over into anger now.
I know people who are politically motivated at a local level. I believe that many MPs are motivated for all the right reasons.
It is not politics that is toxic in itself. Its the way in which political strategy has been constructed and targeted that is poisonous. A lot of good people are caught up in that, as they have no choice if they do want to make meaningful change. You can not do it from outside the system. Sometimes I think politicians are just as powerless as anyone else, because they are constrained by party politics rather than the bigger issue. As honourable as they may be, they have to compromise in order to win the battles they are most passionate about as individuals. Its hard to break the line, and take the risk, unless you really believe in something. I do not blame the majority of MPs.
We all know political spin is responsible for public apathy and lack of trust. That's coming from political campaigning and strategy. In other words: it is very much driven by career politicians who are putting that over and above the country's best interests.
We have been led a merry dance by this latest one, as they chase the votes of the disaffected, sceptics and the apathetic rather than try and address problems and win the argument on its merits and its strengths. It has been deliberate.
There have been a number of articles written in recent weeks about how the biggest winner in the EU referendum campaign has been the far right. The fact that the death of Jo Cox seems to be linked to that makes it all the more troubling, but certainly does not define it.
I think a lot of blame will therefore go to the Leave campaign. Far more than it should do. Ideas of a certain nature can only gain traction because of the failure of the left and centre and their inability and indeed unwillingness to tackle them properly. However, the reality this goes back much, much further into political strategy.
I think there is two parts to this particular rise of hate: the first part is the inability to offer a proper alternative and solutions to the underlying problems people are screaming about and blaming on immigration. Immigration is only a symptom of many of the issues, and immigration is blamed because of a lack of a political will to do something for groups that don't win a general election and it has been allowed to fester.
The second part is this very vote chasing itself: The votes that matter for general elections are middle class and are predominantly older. The more this has polarised, the more the problem has created voter apathy and the more that people feel unrepresented because no one is coming through from those groups and the more those voters have been chased.
The general election last year was part of that on going creep. In order to get votes in one area, they allowed the agenda about the EU to focus on immigration to be controlled by Farage rather than draw attention to its own failings in policy and governance (some of which were Con-Lib in nature and some of which were untackled issues from Lab). Labour were just bloody useless and didn't spot what was going on, and didn't have an answer. The Conservatives did, but took the gamble, using fear as a way to counter it with the SNP working out they could still win.
Its happening again in the same that someone believed it was not in the interests of political strategy to challenge certain views because the only effective way to do that, is to draw attention to government failings and be forced to do something about them, and would loose public support later. It was a gross miscalculation of the situation so they have had to ramp it all up even further.
Instead when presented with a situation, they have tried to tackle it with a dangerous political strategy of brinkmanship. It is doomed to fail, even if we do stay in the EU. It probably was before Thursday's events.
The strategy that was taken was like this. Lord Ashcroft, did polling several years ago, about public opinion on the EU. March 2014 to be exact. www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/03/lord-ashcroft-should-we-leave-the-eu-britain-isnt-sure-either-way.html In this he talks about an EU referendum a couple of years away. Stressing here, just how long before last year’s election this was. Whilst I think there was a hope that they could tell with the matter through trying to get better terms with the EU, it does seem that there was definitely a plan that neglected to certain groups and to only focus their attention on winning the support of some.
Lord Ashcroft identified there were five groups.
My poll found that when it comes to Europe there are five types of people in Britain. A fifth of the country are in the “Committed Hostility” group who see nothing good about Europe and overwhelmingly want to leave – though immigration worries them more. Or maybe you are a “Discontented Sceptic”, thinking the costs outweigh the benefits but less certain that we should head for the exit. Another quarter of the population make up the “Relaxed Status Quo”, who are happy as things are and hardly give the subject a thought, while the smaller group of “Global Progressives” strongly support the EU and even welcome its influence on Britain. Finally there are the “Disengaged”, one-in-seven of the population who know little and care even less.
If you don't quite get what I'm driving at here, the long and short of it is, that it was clear at this point that the only way to get a win in a referendum was to push hard on voter apathy by scaring the electorate, to get the votes of the 'Relaxed Status Quo' and convince some of the 'Discontented Sceptics' and 'Disengaged'. The 'Global Progressives' were already in the bag with regard to the EU and didn't matter (and perhaps were less likely to vote Conservative anyway), and there was no point in challenging the ideas and fears coming from the Committed Hostiles who had largely made up their minds. There was no political mileage to be gain to tackling the issues that perhaps are driving at least some of this sentiment. It suited more than they will admit, to merely appease in the short term. Especially since there is a huge overlap the core voters of the Conservatives and the 'Committed Hostiles'.
This has therefore been an ongoing process for how long?
How about instead of looking at everyone as voter targets with labels will look at the problems they have and get round to dealing with social issues?
What they didn't bargain on was Germany actions and Syria. And they arrogantly thought they could scare people without pissing them off.
Its lead to a situation of ever increasing brinkmanship. The more they push, the more it pissed of and alienated. So they ramped it up again.
Its become increasingly bitter and increasingly nasty. Its spiralled and got out of control.
So its wrong to say that the public has not been listened to over immigration and other issues. It was very much listened to. The polling shows it. It was just decided that it was not worth tackling as they were only interested in votes, not what's actually best for the country.
Its now hit a point, where its becoming obvious that ignoring the issue has meant its been open to exploitation and it was appealing to far more people than they gambled on. How you can put that back in the box?
It also needs to be stressed that its not just Leave that is home to the disillusioned despite what it might appear.
There is a huge number of Remain supporters who have been utterly pissed off with it all and horrified by the campaign angle and lack of positivity.
They have been coping the flack for strategy from those who would be 'on their side' and been coping the increasing flack from those who are sick of the political manipulation and 'not being listened to', and have been drawn to the right by this alienation and lack of will to deal with problems. Yet they find it hard to understand this mentality and that’s added to the problem. That not helped the mood and the level of debate.
Its undermined public trust. It serves to create more voter apathy in the long run from people who have been previously politically motivated.
And in turn this goes back to the MPs who get it more than anyone else from everyone. The very people who are often the ones who are trying to make the changes we need more than anyone else and put themselves on the line to do that. It is all connected.
After all, what do you think sets public mood? The fucking fairies?
The newspapers are merely pawns and tools in this. Big ones. Ones with a lot to answer for. But for the most part they are reactionary rather than agenda setters. Thanks to lack of money from falling circulation figures and public political apathy. They change side as the public mood changes, not because they are setting that agenda but because they are chasing money. They go for the easy options too, like the career politicians. Its much easier than asking the difficult questions. Nothing generates that more than horror and outrage. Well apart from the Royal Family.
Funny how, the media reaction is not the same as a supposed Islamic terrorist would be too. Is this so they can distance themselves from the climate? I hope we make sure that the mirror is held up and it’s not deflected.
Social media is massively open to exploitation because it generally fails to engage debate. Instead it polarises. People collect and self group. MN is actually one of the few remaining places which actively encourages debate and oppose sides in the same place.
How can you tackle the issue of voter apathy and the lost of public trust now? It seems that its got to the point where political strategists and newspapers feel the only and most effective tool in their arsenal, is fear. And so it goes on. And on and on.
The process of reversing that, is going to be an extremely rocky one, if its possible at all. Otherwise it leaves the door open to only more career politicians and not the good ones.
We might get through this week. We may or may not leave the EU. That's not really the issue now. At least not for me. I hope that people vote on the merits of what's actually on the table for or against the EU rather than looking for some sort of rebellion or someone to blame or doing so out of fear, loathing and a mounting sense of resentment. And that immigration is not the deciding factor as there is so much more to the EU debate than just that issue. Whether that be for Leave or Remain. I also hope that apathy does not take hold again because that's not going to help. We don’t need fingers up at the establishment, we simply need a credible alternative whatever the outcome. For the sake of everyone. I hope this week is different to what we’ve had so far. But I’m not convinced it will be. That's how far its got.
We need good people. We need ordinary people. We need people to stand up and get politicised. We need young and working class people in particular, to stop it all. We need women to act as foil to much of the overly masculine nature of political debate. We need people to actually give a shit.
Then this has happened. A murder that could act as a barrier to the very things we need right now.
The only solace that I can take from that, is if people upset, is not a bad thing as they do give a shit about the world around them and not just their own little bubble.
It gives me maybe gives hope I need.
All I want to do, is sit with my head in my hands despairing of it all, hoping that there are people out there willing take hold of some of the things Jo Cox believed in and run with it, in the face of such hostility and for people to be able to act in a way which is positive and constructive and finds proper solutions rather than trying to take the short cuts and succumbing to the anger and frustration of which ever side of the coin they feel they are on.
So God damn right I’m going to be upset and to hell with anyone who has a problem with that. Since apathy seems to be one of the things that has got us here in the first place and led to no one winning, but those who have been pulling the strings.
I'm sorry, I have ranted for so long and about so much, but I needed to. I only hope I have managed to articulate everything I'm feeling right now, in a way that translates that anger in a way that's useful rather being pure anger. I just feel that this can not be allowed to just slide away as just some crazy guy with a grudge who killed a seemingly wonderful woman doing her job.
It is so much more than that. To so many people. For some many more reasons.