Terrorism, Mental Health Homicide and the Murder of Jo Cox

In 1939, W. H. Auden penned these lines in one of his poems:
"In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark".
Well, as we know, one of those dogs came out of the dark yesterday and took the life of Jo Cox, M.P. We, as a nation, are reeling from this; the feelings of Jo Cox's family are unimaginable. All flags are at half-mast, and tributes are ringing out in the media. At the moment, I am listening to the Jeremy Vine programme on Radio 2, and a listener has just emailed asking:
"...what has happened to our beautiful, civilized country?"
That person's feelings are understandable, but, sadly, Jo Cox's horrible murder is not without precedent in this country or any other. As regular readers of this blog know, terrorism and mental health homicide are frequent themes of mine (some would say obsessions). The killing of Jo Cox brings these two themes together, and I think we need to look a little more closely at them here.
As for precedents, there have been a number of murders of serving M.P.s. Wikipedia lists eight, beginning with the assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, in 1812, and now updated with the killing of Jo Cox. Six of the MPs murdered were killed by Irish republicans, but Percival and Jo Cox were slain by people with a history of mental illness. There have, of course, been a number of murder attempts by political and religious extremists against M.P.s in recent years. There was the stabbing of Steven Timms, M.P. by the Islamist fanatic Roshonara Chaudry, which I wrote about in 2010. 2000 saw the murder attempt by a  mental health patient, Robert Ashman, upon Nigel Jones, M.P. (now Lord Jones), in which Jones' aide Andrew Pennington was killed by Ashman, who was wielding a sword. Incredibly, but in line with everything I have featured on Rhymes and Routes about released mental health patients, Ashman was released in 2008.
It hardly needs to be pointed out that terrorist organisations find people with mental health problems very useful. In 1975, members of the German Red Army Faction (aka "The Baader-Meinhof Gang") took over the West German Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. This group, grandiosely  named "The Holger Mains Commando", was composed mainly of violent mental health patients. After the occupation of Iraq, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor of Daesh, used mentally handicapped individuals as suicide bombers, and Daesh has continued the practice. Here in the UK in 2008, Nicky Reilly, a mentally handicapped young man with the mental age of ten, tried to blow himself up in an Exeter restaurant after being radicalized online.
Thomas Mair, the man arrested for the murder of Jo Cox, appears to tick both boxes - political extremism and mental health problems. He seems to have had links with far-right organisations in the USA and South Africa. During the attack on Jo Cox, he is alleged to have shouted "Put Britain first", or "Britain First", it is not clear which. Unsurprisingly, Britain First, the extreme right wing  group has denied all connection with Thomas Mair. It may even be true.
Mair also seems to have had mental health issues in the past, but, to be fair to the mental health mandarins, he does not appear to have exhibited any dangerous traits. One of his neighbours has said:  "He is just a quiet bloke who keeps himself to himself. "He is very helpful and he helps local people with their gardens. There is one neighbour who is a bit frail and he keeps her garden tidy. He has helped me cut my hedge a couple of times." In 2011, Mair volunteered to work as a groundsman at the nearby Oakwell Hall County Park, which he claimed helped ease his mental health problems, according to the Daily Telegraph.
It is my view that Mair was not an openly active member of any extreme right-wing party. Rather, I believe that we will learn how he nurtured his extremism in secret for years, watching neo-Nazi videos on the internet, as well as reading terrorist weapons manuals and extremist literature in preparation for an unspecified atrocity. One such book might well be "The Turner Diaries" by William Luther Pierce, written in 1978. Given the fact that Pierce was the founder of the neo-Nazi Nationalist Alliance in the USA, and the fact that Mair has been found to be in possession of National Alliance reading matter, it is more than likely he has read "The Turner Diaries".
This evil book, which tells the story of a white supremacist psychopath, Earl Turner, who launches a terror campaign against the US Federal Government, liquidating all non-white groups and launching a nuclear strike against Israel, has proven to be an inspirational text for aspiring fascist terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. McVeigh was found to have pages of this book on him when arrested. Another neo-Nazi seeking to emulate Earl Turner's example was David Copeland, who killed three people in a bombing campaign against London's black, Asian and gay communities in April 1999, and quoted from The Turner Diaries while being interviewed by police. Unbelievably, this hate-filled book is on sale at Amazon.
In the nightmare of the dark, the dogs of political and religious terrorism are still barking, and we will be very lucky indeed if they never bite again. There's nothing like hoping against hope, but that is what we do. We must at least ensure that our M.P.s are valued more, and provided with greater protection. This Fascist, Mair - for that is what I believe him to be - must not be allowed to undermine our democracy.
To conclude, I know I speak for all contributors and readers of Rhymes and Routes in sending our deepest condolences to Jo Cox's family, friends and constituents, should they happen upon this post. For a number of years, there has been a lot of cynicism directed at M.P.s, but Jo Cox was an outstanding young politician, who should have gone on to a fine career. For her husband and children, an empty space has appeared in their lives. Brendan Cox, her husband, has said:  "Today is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. More difficult, more painful, less joyful, less full of love."
I wish them peace, and time to grieve.