Fierce rivals from the worlds of politics, journalism and broadcasting are uniting, for a few days at least, in support of this weekend’s Great Get Together events in memory of Jo Cox MP, who was murdered by a far-right fanatic a year ago.
On Tuesday, the Sun and the Mirror will publish the same editorial for the first time in their history in support of the message of national unity being propounded by Cox’s widower, Brendan Cox. The editors of the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph have also written a joint article, which is being published in both newspapers on Tuesday.
All four living former prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for Labour and Sir John Major and David Cameron for the Conservatives, are recording messages about what they believe unites Britain as a nation.
Finally in Yorkshire, where Cox was MP for Batley and Spen, rival local news teams for the BBC and ITV will stage a joint broadcast about this weekend’s events, in which more than 116,000 community get-togethers and street parties have been planned across the UK.
The acts of solidarity between people and organisations that are usually on opposite sides of the spectrum is about “setting aside differences and coming together”, said Lance Price, a spokesman for the Jo Cox Foundation.
Writing in the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of the Guardian, and Chris Evans, the editor of the Daily Telegraph, reflected on threats to the freedom of the press internationally. “As editors we are extremely concerned by steps by some governments around the world to restrict press freedom, and in some cases to threaten or endanger reporters,” they said.
They conclude: “As the Great Get Together is launched this coming weekend in memory of Jo Cox’s life and work, we two editors have no hesitation in uniting, if for one day only, to share the fine sentiment of George Orwell, that: ‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’.”
The foundation has also produced a video it hopes the public will share online, which poses the question: “What unites us?” In it, the singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran says it’s fish and chips. The actor Helen Mirren says: “We love our pubs”. Double Wimbledon champion Andy Murray said it is James Bond, while actor Bill Nighy said it is “toast – unless it’s spread with Marmite”.
Speaking on Monday, Brendan Cox described his wife’s “amazing empathy” and “zest for life” and said her killer had failed in his aim to drive people apart and instead ensured that her voice was heard more than ever.
“Jo’s killing was designed to do a few things,” he said. “It was designed to divide communities and it’s failed in doing that, it’s actually brought Jo’s community much closer together. It was designed to stop her speaking, stop her message reaching people, and this book is showing that that’s failed as well, that actually her voice and the messages and the things she cared about can reach more people even after her death.”
