We often hear of deaths on the news in Britain; this clergyman has been killed for their beliefs Saudi Arabia, these people gunned down in the US for their sexuality, a politician assassinated in Russia for to the slightest degree opposing the regime. It always seems so distant to us in Britain; a country which historically, ever since the end of the 17^th Century has not seen political upheaval the likes the continent saw in the 18^th and especially 19^th Centuries. So when the news broke that a sitting MP, Jo Cox of the Labour Party, had been shot and stabbed multiple times by an assailant, the British nation was gripped like no time in its recent history.

Jo Cox’s wounds were ultimately fatal, turning a shocking news event into a tragedy immediately. What makes things even worse is when you dive into who Jo Cox was. She had worked for the aid charity Oxfam, where she became head of policy & advocacy in Britain. When she was elected for Batley and Spen in 2015, she became a tireless advocate of human rights, women’s rights, supporting refugees and the downtrodden, joining the parliamentary group ‘Friends of Syria’. A humanitarian to her core, this was clear from her maiden speech in parliament, where she said before the House “we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us”. She was a 21^st Century progressive in other words, something truly admirable in the Westminster Parliament. And then you hear what allegedly her killer said as he took her life, and it’s more salt in the public wound: “put Britain first” – one among other reported nationalist calls.

This is the pit British politics, and society in general, has fallen into, a both a result and a cause of the recent toxic atmosphere of the EU referendum campaign, which devolved into public figures calling each other liars, rejecting each other’s arguments entirely, rejecting the arguments of those dreaded experts, calls for resignation, the stirring up of fear and the fanning of hatred. I directing this only at the Leave Campaign, however the poster unveiled by Nigel Farage was the most blatant example of a continuous degradation of British political life. Remain also extensively engaged in fear tactics, however at least this was in the majority been based on numbers (whose reliability was often been exaggerated). It’s Mr Farage’s poster however which really strikes fear in the heart of democrats; the comparison between it and a Nazi propaganda film from the 1930s has been all over the internet now, and seeing it is what really gives you pause to think ‘wait, is this where we are in our politics today?’ This is the hideous, nationalist atmosphere some of the nation were willing to stir up to win the campaign, these are the forces they were willing to unleash?

Britain got a taste of the new politics we are being subjected to on 16^th June, which saw one of the shining lights of our politics, the antithesis of the new, ugly atmosphere which has descended, get butchered hideously in the street of her own constituency by a British nationalist. Obviously, neither UKIP nor the Leave Campaign are responsible for Ms Cox’s death. Nor are they necessarily for Thomas Mair’s neo-Nazi beliefs or connections. They certainly haven’t engaged in the worst of the hatred and nationalism that we see in Britain today, from Britain First for example, whose London Mayoral candidate turned his back when Sadiq Khan made his victory speech having won the election. However, they have contributed to this idea that Britain is not being put first, and immensely so. Jo Cox was no secret Remain campaigner. Considering her other views, and those discovered about Mr Mair, it’s not beyond the pale to think, as her husband does, that she was murdered for her beliefs. And why did he feel so emboldened as to commit this vile atrocity? Perhaps because for months now, he has been hearing from hitherto somewhat respected public figures that Britain is under assault, the experts are liars, the Prime Minister has failed to put Britain first, and that Britain does need to be put first by the British people.

I would go further however; Brexit is an inherently nationalist idea. Those on the left who fought for Brexit have to square this fact with the rest of their progressive views. It’s the idea that we can do things better on our own, don’t trust the outsiders, they won’t put Britain first, Britain is all that counts. Perhaps this is why the young voted so decisively for Remain, 75% of 18-24 year-olds to be exact (and furthermore we had a turnout of 70%, only 2.5% below the national average). We don’t buy the nationalist argument because it just doesn’t register. Rejecting the modern world doesn’t change its reality, or solve the problems which come with it. We are the Erasmus generation, and ultimately, we are stronger together, we are brighter when we are accepting, and fighting for common goals as Europeans. In truth, that is really putting Britain first.

This article was updated for the post-Brexit situation the country is now facing.