Readers may have noticed that we suspended normal posting yesterday, as soon as news came through of the tragic death of Jo Cox MP.
As a mark of respect, for 24 hours after that cruel blow to the operation of democracy, we have carried only material related to tributes to (and vigils for) Jo Cox MP.
This has been a profoundly shocking event. We are still numbed by it. A bright light has been brutally extinguished.
Our hearts and our thoughts go out to Jo’s husband, Brendan, their two small children, their extended family, friends and neighbours at this most traumatic time. We hope that the fulsome tributes to Jo, paid in the last 24 hours, may be of some small comfort to them in their grief.
This tragedy has made us all pause to consider the nature of politics, democracy and the activities of politicians. That contemplation will continue and, we hope, change the tone of politics in this country for the better.
We will now gently resume our normal diet of posts about politics. We hope that some of the sharper, more bitter, elements of debate will be eschewed as we continue to honour the memory of Jo Cox MP.
We end with the words of Brendan Cox, paying tribute to his late wife yesterday:
She would have wanted…that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous.
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One Comment
Earlier today I read an article about the difficulty of coaching or training elite football coaches. Where can they go to learn the very best practice, to keep pace with evolving tactics?
What’s that got to do with Jo Cox?
She seems to have been a great MP from the very first day in that position.
In the film clips I saw yesterday afternoon, it was not the assured and memorable maiden speech that struct me – it was her ability to hold ministers to account by forensic questioning and just the right amount of assertion.
Anyone who has served in a public body where the chair or cabinet members are backed by a professional staff, and where they always have the last reply, knows just how hard to do this is.
And yet it is really the prime role of an elected politician not in Government or not on the front bench of a controlling group; holding the administration to account, getting it to think again when it is mistaken..
How many MPs have this ability, despite its importance as a qualification for the job?
No wonder Osborne said yesterday that he could atest that Jo Cox had, already, influenced policy. How many politicians out of office have achieved that? The truth is not very many.
The separation of powers under the British constitution is very fuzzy in most situations. The legislative is 99.9% of the time the creature of the Government. How often does the legislature or a member of the legislature actually do its part in that separation effectively?
This skill that Jo Cox demonstrated time and again in just thirteen months is the principle means of the legislative exercising its power on our behalf and of effecting change in the Executive’s policy. It is the foremost skill in campaigning to get things done, to right injustice and to change the minds of those who hold power.
Perhaps someone should put together all her interventions over the last thirteen months as a training manual for elite members of public bodies, scrutineers and campaigners.