Dear prime minister, a ‘terrible collaboration’ with Brussels against no-deal Brexit actually sounds like a great idea

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So Boris Johnson, acting no doubt at the behest of Dominic Cummings, is extending his fatuous war terminology in relation to Brexit to accusing those opposed to no-deal Brexit of forging “a terrible collaboration” with Brussels.

EU leaders have shown themselves throughout this tortuous process to have been consistent, rational, reasonable and loyal to one another, and to be interested in protecting the interests of all their members, including the UK. This has been in spite of the falsities and provocations of Johnson and his gang of Brexiteers.

Who in their right mind would not want to collaborate with them?

D Maughan Brown
York

Interim government leader

The Labour Party makes a good suggestion that there should be a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson, leading to a short-term government of national unity.

But it’s understandable that other parties cannot accept the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. He has always been Eurosceptic, and has obfuscated for months about his position on Brexit.

Surely the obvious person to be leader of an interim government is Caroline Lucas. She is generally well-respected and has a clear stance about Europe. And, most importantly for MPs, her party is not likely to be in government any time soon, so she is not a threat.

Susan Alexander
South Gloucestershire

Tom Watson would make a terrible leader

Michael Cunliffe betrays a woeful lack of understanding of Labour Party politics if he really believes that Tom Watson could and should replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader (Letters, 14 August). I know from personal experience that Watson is reviled by swathes of Labour Party members for his scheming and constant undermining disloyalty to Corbyn since 2015; and for this reason, equally vast numbers who voted for Watson as deputy leader – as I did – will never vote for him again.

With regard to Brexit, unlike Watson, Corbyn has the intelligence to understand that to become a polarised Remainer party would not only betray and alienate millions of Labour Leave voters, but would fail to honour the complexity of a country split down the middle on the vexed Brexit issue.

Corbyn has been the only leader possessing the intelligence and the maturity to try to hold that tension. In Kleinian psychoanalytic theory, it’s called the ambivalent “depressive position” – a developmental achievement that is far more mature than the simplistic splitting and polarisation of the “paranoid-schizoid” position with its single-minded Remainers and scorched-earth Leavers.

That Corbyn clearly understands this is why he’ll get my vote for prime minister every time.

Richard House
Stroud

Great Britain

Despite some criticism, Britain has always had a deep altruism of spirit. The British empire was expended to prevent the spread of fascism, and the British economy is now being sacrificed to show the rest of Europe, and the world, the enormous value of the EU.

Matt Minshall
Norfolk

Jammu and Kashmir

Your article today by Adam Withnall chimed with a conversation I had yesterday with a young man from Kashmir. Both leave me wondering what our worthy government is doing to condemn the shocking trampling of human rights by the Indian government. A dangerous situation is developing and world leaders should be expressing concern, at the very least.

Perhaps our leaders are sitting on their hands waiting for the US to tell them what to do.

Lynda Newbery
Bristol

Stop and search could help

Politicians of all parties have for a number of years now completely divorced themselves from the reality of life and how it affects the public. When there appears to be a problem, they like to be seen on television with worried frowns saying “let’s talk about this and perhaps set up a committee”, but shy away from taking any serious and immediate action.

An example of this is their attitude to knife crime which has been on the increase for a number of years.

Anyone (male or female) found to be carrying a knife or sharp weapon illegally (the legality should be defined) should face a mandatory five years in prison without any reduction in time to be served. For illegal possession of a gun it should be 10 years.

The introduction of such measures should start with wide publicity, including in schools.

Stop and search should be rigorously applied with more police on the streets, including senior officers and those normally deskbound.

The saving of only one life would justify these measures.

Ken Shuttleworth
Address supplied