Robert Peston

the reaction to political violence since then is that whenever there is political violence now, everybody always says the same thing.

We can't allow this to change us.

They come out with the same sort of bromides.

But what we've seen basically, and it has happened to some extent on both sides of left and the right, is when political violence happens, excuses to some extent are made for it.

And there is blame

against the other side for the political culture that they say that side alone has created.

What do I mean by that?

Well, I remember, John, in the wake of Joe Cox's murder, there was obviously some reflection and it had to be quite sort of tepidly expressed because it was so traumatic and politically difficult at the extent to which was it really a coincidence or or can we be sure that it was really a coincidence?

that the only assassination that we had seen up to that point for decades had taken place in the middle of a referendum campaign where the atmosphere was deeply toxic.

Let's never forget that Thomas Mayer, the man who murdered him, the court later heard, not only was he a far-right extremist, he had neo-Nazi sympathies, white supremacist literature around his house,

The trial heard that he shouted phrases such as Britain first and keep Britain independent and talked about death to traitors, freedom for Britain.

Now, that was all taking place when perhaps it wasn't always explicitly put.

But that sort of atmosphere, those sorts of sentiments, they were being readily expressed in the political debate around the referendum, which was reaching its crescendo at that time.

And it was legitimate to talk about, I think, and was not talked about enough, actually, in the aftermath.

To what extent was it that we can say, was it a coincidence that that assassination happened at that time when we hadn't seen anything like it before?

But Farage and others would have said, and the Leave campaign at the time said, no, this guy is just a madman.

He's just a complete madman.

It's a complete coincidence.

OK, fair enough.

But when we see left wing political violence, for example, when Charlie Kirk was so appallingly assassinated,