Politicians say a lot of stupid things that’s for sure. But one ex-UKIP politician just played herself to a new level by making perhaps one of the dumbest statements of the year. The independent MEP Janice Atkinson called for the death penalty for suicide bombers in the aftermath of the Manchester bombings on Monday evening.
Let that just sink in. The death penalty for suicide bombers.
It turns out Atkinson was actually expelled from UKIP in 2015. Although she had controversies surrounding her career amid claims of “her support for elements of the BNP” it was later an expenses fraud investigation that led to her dismissal from the party. She was later cleared of these claims when the case was taken to court.
Whatever Atkinson’s intention was behind this statement, now is maybe not the time to use your platform to incite more hate into people. Anger and confusion are of course going to be highly present in UK society after such a horrendous crime and attempting to drag people back to the dark ages is not progressive in the slightest.
In her own words Atkinson said, “Many will argue that I’m calling for revenge killings, motivated by hatred. Others will argue that I’m inhumane, that we live in a civilised society. Then there will be those who say that the death penalty is not a deterrent, that the warped perpetrators want in any case to die as martyrs.”
Yeah something like that. She went on to say, “None of the above arguments stand up. Not now. We are at war and war crimes and terror cannot be given any quarter or allowed any glimpse of victory. These people are not deranged psychopaths, they are indoctrinated into an ideological belief that involves all-out war against us.”
Perhaps Atkinson needs to look at what is going on behind the scenes, and the actions of politicians alike herself, to really get to grips of where this all-out war she speaks of stems from. What is clear from the callous events of Monday night is that even in the darkest of hours people pull together to claw their way back up, as the people of Manchester have done. It’s this unity which will motivate people to move forward and learn from such crimes, not the spreading of more hate.