CAMPAIGNING for the UK’s referendum on the EU has, incredibly, sunk to new depths.
The decision by Vote Leave campaigners to use murders and rapes committed by EU nationals in the UK as a campaign tool is sickening and tawdry.
Anti-EU campaigners have used the dead and the abused in a misguided attempt to make their point.
The argument, such as it is, seems to equal, leave the EU and no longer worry about a dirty foreigner trying to murder you.
There are shades “If you want a n****r for a neighbour, vote Labour.”, that horrific, racist campaign slogan used by the Tories in the Smethwick by-election campaign of 1964.
Except, in their commitment to the cause, Vote Leave supporters have not realised the upset they will cause to those whose lives have been impacted on by the criminals in their dossier.
Or, perhaps more worryingly, they have decided the upset is a price worth paying for the cheap political points they hope to score.
Moira Jones, was raped and murdered in 2008 in Glasgow’s Queen’s Park by Marek Harcar. It was a brutal attack.
Without warning, Moira’s mother Bea found herself being forced to deal with that crime once again, because Vote Leave misappropriated her daughter’s death.
The next time you hear Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove, or Ian Davidson – all of whom are on the Vote Leave campaign committee – moan about Project Fear, remind them of this.
The logical response to their argument is to point out the many Britons serving time in jails all over Europe for murder and rape. To remind them of the EU nationals who have come to the UK only to be raped or murdered by the locals. Or maybe it’s to remind them that most murders, most abuse is committed by someone the victim knows. Being out of Europe does not stop that.
But to do that is to stoop to their level.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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