Colour Ms Raccoon totally confused.

Even as we are exhorted not to discuss the ‘whys and wherefores’ of her murder, and in particular, not to ascribe our own beliefs to the possible motivation of Thomas Mair – whose trial starts today, so please Raccoonteurs, no discussion of his motives or beliefs – but even as we are so exhorted, her husband tells us categorically ‘why she was killed’.

Mr Cox said that his wife was a politician with strong views. “I believe she was killed because of those views,” he said. “I think she died because of them and she would want to stand up for those in death as much as she did in life.”

So much does he believe that she would want to stand up for those beliefs ‘in death’ as in life, that he has set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations ‘in memory of Jo’. There is nothing wrong with that – it is a time honoured tradition to give money, particularly where two children have been left without a Mother; there will be many who have had those two children in mind as they reached for their purses.

Reach for their purses the generous British public have – £1,240,812 as I write this. Since the GoFundMe page makes no mention of the children, it is reasonable to ask which of the ‘political views’ alleged to have killed Jo, might be benefiting from this munificent sum. Three organisation are pledged half a million each, with any surplus going to unnamed charities.

The first named charity, The Royal Volunteer Service, undeniably reflects the better side of charitable organisation. 35,000 selfless volunteers, doing the sort of work in the community that people associate with charities. You do have to plough deep into their accounts to find that 1,534 individuals shared £21,444,000 of their revenue in salaries since they weren’t ‘volunteering’. So be it. Salaries of £150,000 plus a year are scarcely unknown in the charitable sector.

The next charity pledged to receive half a million is Hope Not Hate.

‘HOPE not hate seeks to challenge and defeat the politics of hate and extremism within local communities, building resilience against the politics of hate and fear, at a national and grassroots level’.

They were formed in 2004 in response to ‘the rise of the BNP’. That sounds like the sort of thing a left-wing politician would and should be supporting. Personally I think right wing politicians should also be supporting resilience against the ‘politics of hate and fear’.

Edited to add: Oh dear, just had this illuminating post from 2014 sent to me regarding ‘Hope Not Hate’. Worth reading…

I always resent the implication that anyone opening a dialogue as to the numbers of people coming into the country only does so because of their colour or religion. Schools and Hospitals would still be bursting at the seams if the incomers were blued eyed Californians with ripped muscles, a degree in Christian theology, and a pedigree traced back to Alfred the Great – we would still be complaining.

It is the 3rd Charity to which half a million is pledged which has raised eyebrows across the globe. ‘The White Helmets’. A curious name for a Syrian organization. You might expect a name expressed in Syriac script, those squiggles unintelligible to western eyes; or perhaps the equally unpronounceable ‘alkhudhat albayda‘ which would be understood in the arabic speaking world – but no, they have headed straight for the nostalgic English speaking world, reared on a diet of cowboy films where you knew that the White Hats were the good guys.

When you delve into the history of the ‘White Helmets’, life becomes truly bizarre. According to the Guardian:

The White Helmets are an organisation of volunteer search-and-rescue workers in Syria, who have saved more than 51,000 lives in the region.

Which sounds incredibly noble. Apparently they only save lives in rebel held areas of Syria, This, they claim, is because President Assad won’t let them save lives in Government held areas. One wonders why. Could it be because those on the front line may be volunteers, but someone in the organisation is consuming some $23 million dollars a year in US aid? It can’t be the White Helmets leader and founder Raed Salah – he has just been banned from the US as ‘an extremist’.

However the US State Department have made the extraordinary statement that although the White Helmet leader and chief spokesperson to UN and Whitehouse is linked with terrorism, the White Helmet Group is miraculously unaffected. For a truly outstanding example of double-speak, I point you to the US press conference on June 3rd.

So we have a charity whose leader is banned from the US as an ‘extremist’ yet the US government give them $23 million a year? Why?

You may wonder why even more when you discover that their supposed ‘leader’ the aforesaid Raed Saleh was not the originator of ‘White Helmets.

That was James Le Mesurier who runs an organisation which specialises in training search and rescue teams. Through researching James Le Mesurier we discover that the governments of the UK, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Japan are also throwing their money into the volunteers of White Helmets, who receive $150 a month each – where is the rest of the money going?

You see, for all the money being piled into the White Helmets, Raed Saleh had to make this appeal:

My name is Raed Al Saleh and I am the head of the Syria Civil Defence – also known as the “White Helmets”. We’ve saved 22,693 lives from under the rubble.

Yet I know that we don’t have the money to pay for hospital treatment if one of us is injured. I know if a team member loses their life, we have nothing to give to their family.

Thus was yet another charity fund set up – one specifically to support the volunteer heroes. They currently have $426,790 in the kitty. A meagre enough amount to repay their courage.

So how are we supporting Jo Cox’s ideals by giving money to an organisation that doesn’t even look after its volunteers when they fall by the wayside? Could it be that her death is being used to bring publicity and funds to a political cause?

Perish the thought that the British generosity towards Motherless children is being used to further the cause of regime change in foreign lands.

___________________________

Perchance you could have forgotten by the time you got to the end of this rabbit-hole – please remember:

This is not an opportunity to discuss the motives, beliefs or mental health of Tommy Mair. The man is on trial for murder – let us ensure that he gets a fair trial unsullied by internet gossip about him.

You are free to discuss Syrian politics, charities, and British contributions!

Thankyou.

Tagged as: Jo Cox MP, White Helmets