A Tale of Two Murders

In the Chamber of the House of Commons there are carved and painted shields in the wood panelling commemorating the forty-two serving MPs that died in the World Wars. There are also another four for the more recent sitting MPs that have been murdered. The last two are for Ian Gow, killed in 1990 and Jo Cox, killed in 2017. It’s these two murders and their aftermath that I’m going to discuss.

At 08.39 on the 30^th July 1990 Ian Gow was reversing his car out of his drive when the 4 ½ lbs of Semtex that had been planted under it during the small hours of the night before exploded. The bomb was under the driver’s position and Gow’s lower body was shattered. He died ten minutes later. He was 53.

Ian Gow had served in both the regular and Territorial Army with the 15^th/19^th King’s Royal Hussars. During his Territorial service he also worked as a solicitor and entered politics in the 1960s. After some years trying to be selected to stand as a parliamentary candidate he was selected for the Conservative seat of Eastbourne, East Sussex on England’s south coast, in a comfortable area known for its large population of retired folk, sometimes known as the Costa Geriatrica. He was elected in the general election of 1974 and represented Eastbourne until his death.

He was certainly old school. Although on the right of the party he was never doctrinaire and could surprise people on some social issues. For instance, unlike many on his wing of the party he opposed the death penalty. A loyal and important supporter of Margaret Thatcher he was her Parliamentary Private Secretary at the start of her Premiership and a junior minister from 1983 to 1985. As a staunch Unionist his deep disagreement with the government’s policy on Northern Ireland led him to resign his ministerial position in November 1985. Back then politicians still resigned on points of principle.

He continued to be very close to Thatcher and was still a formidable force on the backbenches. As a traditionalist he opposed the televising of the Commons, and then, as a pragmatist, he made the first televised speech there in 1989. His self-deprecating humour made him popular member of the Commons with friends on both sides of the House.

On a personal note, I knew him slightly as he was the Honorary President of the Greater London Young Conservatives when I was involved in that august and now vanished body. He was one of the few MPs I truly liked. Always happy to have a pint and a chat after meetings he was a thoroughly decent chap. I found out about his murder when an apprentice in the factory where I worked at the time rushed up and exclaimed “They’ve got one of your lot!”.

“They” were, of course, the IRA. Gow was a natural target for them and knew his life could be in danger. When we were with him campaigning in the Upper Bann by-election in Northern Ireland, May of 1990, he did have security with him but at home he refused to let fear rule his life.

The death of Ian Gow had momentous and far reaching effects. His death, of course, triggered a by-election. When an MP is elected, they may be representing a particular party, but they are elected as individuals. They can change parties and keep their seat, if they die their party does not get to just nominate a replacement. Despite the fact that Ian Gow had not just died but been murdered by enemies of Britain in a deliberate act of political violence there still had to be an election. The major parties all stood candidates, as well as the usual handful of minor parties and fringe candidates and fought the campaign hard. The Conservatives were very low in the polls at the time and their candidate, Richard Hickmet, was foolish enough to make statements to the effect that a vote for anyone but him was a vote for the IRA. One might understand where he was coming from, but to state it as he did was just crass. Years later I found out that Eastbourne has a sizeable Greek Cypriot community, with an Orthodox Church in the town centre. Standing a candidate with a Turkish father and Saladin for middle name in a place like that was beyond stupid, even for the Conservatives.

Ian Gow’s 16,000 majority was smashed and the Liberal Democrats won with a 5,000 + majority. Conservatives across the country were shocked to the core. They’d expected the majority to be slashed but not over-turned, if Eastbourne could be lost then nowhere was safe. If Conservatives generally were shocked, Conservative MPs were terrified.

At the time Margaret Thatcher was under sustained pressure from within her own party. The party may have been low in the polls, but she was lower. The year before his death Gow had helped defeat a challenge from Sir Anthony Meyer. There was now another leadership challenge, after failing to get the required votes to prevent a second ballot Thatcher resigned. John Major became PM and lead the Conservatives to an unexpected victory in the 1992 general election. He also signed the Maastricht Treaty, creating the EU out of the EEC and committing the UK and the other member states to “Ever closer union”.

Major failed to reflect the scepticism of the UK’s population on the EU, despite a big campaign for one we were not given a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. We’ve been drawn deeper and deeper into a Union we never voted for. Discontent built up and in 2016 we were given a referendum on leaving the EU completely. During this referendum the second murder occurred.

At 12.53 on the 16^th June 2016 Jo Cox was outside the public library in Birstall, West Yorkshire where she was about to hold a constituency surgery. A man rushed up to her and shot her three times, once in the head, and stabbed her multiple times. He also injured a local man who tried to intervene. She was rushed to hospital and died shortly afterwards. She was 41.

Jo Cox was a Labour MP who had been an activist of one sort or another from her college days. After college she worked as an advisor to a Labour MP and then moved to Brussels, where she worked for Glenys Kinnock, MEP and wife of twice rejected Labour leader Neil Kinnock (who was himself made an EU Commissioner, they’re like bloody vampires, you stake them at the ballot box and come back in through the EU window). She moved sideways, staying in Brussels now working for Oxfam in the EU and then she came back to the UK to be Oxfam’s head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB.

In 2015 she was chosen from an all-woman shortlist to stand for Labour in the Labour held seat of Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire when the sitting MP, Mike Wood, stood down. She won the seat with a majority of 6,051 at the 2015 general election.

Jo Cox campaigned on the plight of victims of the war in Syria, was a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East and worked with the Moslem charity/activist group Tell MAMA. Jo Cox was a Remain campaigner in the referendum. Her constituency is a classic working class industrial northern one and has a sizeable Moslem population, Batley itself is getting on for 50% Moslem.

Her murderer, the 52-year-old Thomas Mair, was one of her constituents. He had a history of psychiatric problems and does seem to have been motivated by politics. A witness stated that he shouted “This is for Britain. Britain will always come first!”. This was widely reported in the press as just “Britain First!”, the name of a right-wing group. They issued a statement distancing themselves from Mair and his crime. Other vague political affiliations were scattered about. Mair has been described as “having links” to the National Alliance in the US. These links, according to the SPLC consist of having purchased publications from the National Alliance. Scots born Mair is a classic racist national socialst fan boy lone nutter. He went to the odd meeting, collected lots of material, but was not an activist or a joiner. If he had been in regular contact with others he may never have gone as far as he did.

The murder of Jo Cox came one week before the Brexit vote and had a distinct effect on the referendum. Campaigning was suspended for a day as a mark of respect, when it resumed the Leave campaign was noticeably less buoyant. The murder was truly shocking and with the MSM reciting variations on the theme of “right wing killer” the patriotic right was hamstrung. I remember the feeling of shame at being, even in the most microscopic way, on the “same side” as the killer. Even though I share no ideology with a racist national socialist these feelings are hard to shake. You won’t be surprised to learn the MSM made the most of it. Leave campaigners were attacked for making preparations to continue the fight after the one day suspension, and Nigel Farage certainly believed that the murder took the momentum out of the Leave campaign. We can’t know exactly the affect was, but it certainly didn’t bolster the Leave vote. Leave won, but by less than it would have done. 

There was a by-election in October 2016. Unlike in 1990 the main parties did not stand candidates and allowed labour a free run. Well, not quite a free run, a number of small patriotic, English nationalist and right-wing parties stood, including YouTube’s Jack Buckby for Liberty GB. Labour MP Jack Dromey, described Buckby contesting the election as “obscene, outrageous and contemptible”.

Jo Cox was the first sitting MP to be killed since Ian Gow. They themselves had much in common as well as many differences. Both were parents; both served their constituents and stood up for what they believed in, they were both killed for what they believed and neither deserved to die. There were big differences too. He was a southerner with southern constituency, she was a northerner representing the town she grew up in. She was the model of a modern Labour MP; he was a Tory of the old school. He served in the forces and the courts; she spent her whole working life campaigning. The biggest difference perhaps, and one I find hard to take, is the reaction to their deaths.

To say there was an orgy of commemoration after the murder of Jo Cox is no exaggeration. The extended leftist family, media, showbiz, campaigning groups and politics itself did not stint in their efforts to memorialise her. There were rallies and festivals. Races were run, funds set up. Music was recorded about her or dedicated to her. Obama phoned her widower, Clinton, Kerry and Trudeau sent messages of sympathy. Her widower published a book on the family’s experiences. In France a street in the town of Avallon was re-named Rue Jo Cox and in Brussels a small square was re-named Place Jo Cox. At the naming ceremony, complete with Balkan and South African music, the mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, said Place Jo Cox should serve as a reminder that the “poison of hatred” had to be rejected and that barriers should be brought down rather than erected. “Whatever the end result of the Brexit negotiations, the United Kingdom will always be part of Europe,”. Nice of him not to try to make political capital out of a young mum’s murder. He was less subtle than most, but the subtext of “If you’re not on board with us and project you are no better than her killer” was always there. 

There is a small NHS health centre in Eastbourne named after Ian Gow. Oh, and there’s an annual public speaking competition for Eastbourne secondary schools called the Ian Gow Memorial Cup.

Of course, they both have their plaques in the Commons chamber. Jo’s has her coat of arms painted on it. She did not have one when she died but the College of Arms granted letters patent to her husband so that she could have one to be painted on her memorial. Ian Gow also died without a coat of arms, his plaque is blue with his initials in gold within a laurel wreath. Jo’s was unveiled the year after she died, Ian’s was not until 21 years after he died, after a campaign by Andrew Rosindell MP, a former Chairman of Greater London YCs.

Of course, we naturally tend to mourn the death a woman, especially a mother of young children, more than a father of grown children. Also Ian Gow was the third Conservative MP to be murdered by Irish republicans, his death less of a shock than Jo Cox’s. Nevertheless, there is a huge gulf between the two reactions. One that shows just how much less restrained the British have become, and one that really shows just how shameless and ruthless the left is in using the death and suffering of innocents to its advantage. 

PS

For those of you who delight in AMAZING coincidences look up Anna Lindh, the photogenic leftwing Swedish MP and strong supporter of the EU who was stabbed to death by a lone man with mental health issues in the final days of Sweden’s referendum on joining the Euro…