
Jo Cox, ITV, fair use
With the murder of the young Labour MP Jo Cox outside her constituency surgery, a pall has fallen across the referendum campaign. She voiced support for refugees. Her assassin cried “Britain first” before he knifed her and blasted off a shortened firearm. A shudder of revulsion went across the country that the UK could become like America. The murder threatened something valuable about British political life. Just as they shout at each other in the close proximity of the House of Commons, we too want to be able to see our politicians face to face and tell them what we think, without security screens coming between us to depersonalise politics even more.