James O'Brien's Powerful Response To Boris Johnson's Jo Cox Reference
26 September 2019, 11:48
James O'Brien asked how Brexiters have ended up defending Boris Johnson for insulting the friends of murdered MP Jo Cox in the House of Commons.
Yesterday as parliament resumed following the Supreme Court ruling, Boris Johnson was criticised for his confrontational language and said that the best way to honour Ms Cox is to get Brexit done.
Speaking about the language, James said that the Brexit debate has broken society completely.
He said: "The assassination of Jo Cox reminds us all, whatever your perspectives or politics may be, it reminds us all that sometimes, sometimes these threats are not issued, frivolously or designed solely to scare the recipient.
"Sometimes they are signposts towards serious, imminent crimes. In the case of Jo Cox, a murder.
"And the words that appear on these missives, these messages do often echo the words that are heard on the broader stage. When Paula Sherriff called upon the British Prime Minister yesterday to stop using the sort of words that routinely appear on the sort of death threats and vitriolic abuse that people like her receive, she could not have conceived of the response that she would get. And nor, I think, could you.
"Even if you are, to coin a phrase, the most ardent Brexiter in Britain. Right up until that point, if I told you that a British Prime Minister would behave in such a depraved manner, you would not have believed me.
"But this is where we are today. The minute he did, you felt compelled to defend him. You wouldn't have done that five years ago, you'd have been just as disgusted as everybody else is. You'd have been just as disgusted as morality and decency demand.
"But Brexit has broken everything so completely, that today, having fallen four years ago for some harmless guff about British fish, blue passports and sovereignty, today, that path has led you to a place where you are defending a Prime Minister, who insulted the grieving friends of a murdered MP in a parliament that he shut down unlawfully."
Watch his full monologue at the top of the page.
