A tragedy twisted into a bogus ‘terror plot’

WE ARE told by some police functionary that 10,000 officers are ‘on standby’ in case of unrest. We are told that there is a ‘ febrile’ atmosphere. And about every ten minutes we are reminded of the supposed political assassination of the Labour MP Jo Cox, allegedly by a ‘Right-wing extremist’.

Well, if it’s so febrile, it’s odd that the turnout at Thursday’s Newport West by- election was only about half what it was in 2017. I think weariness, rather than rage, is the most common feeling.

But can we once and for all stop making the absurd claim that Jo Cox’s killer, Thomas Mair, was a serious political actor? First, his killing of a much-loved mother of a young family predictably achieved more or less the exact opposite of what he supposedly intended – and he would have grasped this in a second had he been in a normal state of mind. In fact his abnormality is the most striking thing about him, despite the fact that it was almost wholly ignored by the police and the courts. News reports from the time repeatedly quoted Mair’s brother Scott as saying that the killer had a history of psychiatric problems.

His half-brother confirmed this, saying Mair would clean himself with Brillo pads and had obsessive compulsive disorder. OCD is often treated with powerful mind-altering drugs, yet I know of no attempt to establish if Mair had been prescribed such drugs.

But there is evidence he had been. He had told a local newspaper in 2010 how volunteering at a park near his home had helped his mental health, saying: ‘It has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world.’

Just before his crime, he walked into the Wellbeing Centre in Birstall and asked for help. He said his medication for depression wasn’t working and ‘seemed agitated and treading from side to side’.

After he was caught and charged, his lawyer oddly said he would not bring his medical history into the case. Why not? Plainly Mair is a danger to others and his action was a terrible one. But why does authority ignore such vital facts? Does the Government want to believe, and to spread the idea, that there is some organised Right-wing terror plot?

Please question these claims.