Corbyn was wrong – but the Tories have no leg to stand on when it comes to sexism

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Nobody can defend Jeremy Corbyn’s comments about Theresa May yesterday. They were unacceptable.

However, there is a rather a large whiff of hypocrisy given the Conservative Party’s decision to readmit an MP who sent thousands of texts to two women – some of which were violent in nature – just so that he could vote in the confidence ballot on Theresa May last week.

Standing up against sexist behaviour also requires looking at themselves as a party in the mirror.

Chris Key
Address supplied

Corbyn’s alleged comments were a convenient distraction for Theresa May

At PMQs yesterday, the Tory party finally turned Brexit into a pantomime.

Tory MPs like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Anna Soubry, who called for a no-confidence vote only days ago, are now pledging their support for May. This proves yet again how quickly the Tories will rush to protect their party and their own self-interests over any principles they claim to hold, and how quickly they change their minds.

Little wonder Corbyn muttered stupid people (his mouth did a “pe-” shape and not a “wo-”) when May used farce to deflect from just how badly Brexit is going and what the potential of a no deal will mean to the country. Let that sink in for a moment: May reduced serious concerns regarding the issues facing our country, to a pantomime. A pantomime! We know the Tories don’t do national interests, just their own narrow self-involved ones, but dear god, has our parliament truly been reduced to this?!

What else can you expect though from a prime minister who is using psychological warfare upon the public (bringing in the army for a no-deal Brexit) and running down the clock to force MPs to her deal because it’s the lesser of the two evils?

The Tories used Corbyn’s alleged comment of “stupid woman” as an opportunistic riot; it turned the focus from their opportunism over May’s leadership on to Corbyn. Little wonder that the British people hold our MPs in such contempt. However, if Corbyn is forced to apologise over an aside he made regarding May’s pantomime routine, when is she going to apologise to the British public for handling Brexit as if it was one?

Julie Partridge
London SE15

At Christmas, spare a thought for those mistreated by our un-Christian immigration regime

Further to the letter regarding the Stansted 15, can I ask all my fellow readers to think about all those currently in immigration removal centres, and all those who are currently barred by the Home Office from the right to a normal life (unable to work, unable to call upon the NHS when needed, denied the right to education) and at risk of removal at any moment, simply because the immigration service thinks they are here without permission, or the correct documentation.

When all our politicians are at home over Christmas enjoying their time with friends and family, will they be thinking about victims of our callous, un-Christian hostile immigration regime? If they do, will it be to congratulate themselves for a job well done, or to feel shame that they have not resolved this disgusting and immoral policy?

It seems the whole nation is caught up in the madness that is Brexit, but at this special time, the highlight of the Christian calendar, is surely the right time to spare a thought for immigrants, and how we treat them.

Lets not join with Theresa May in her cruel, vindictive behaviour towards people just to justify her unworkable policy.

David Curran
Feltham

A no-deal Brexit is inevitable

Andrea Leadsom has rebuked Amber Rudd’s tentative support for a second referendum as being “not government policy”. This is necessarily true because on Brexit there is no government policy. Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling secured by Gina Miller and others in January 2017, the prime minister and cabinet do not have the power to make a Brexit deal independently of parliament.

The simple arithmetic is that the prime minister needs the support of the whole Conservative Party and the DUP to ratify any policy.

All that hardline Tory Brexiteers have to do in order to have their goal of a no-deal Brexit realised is withhold their support for anything else. Making a show of potentially supporting multiple other options at different times, or making noise about particular items in the withdrawal agreement are merely tactics to distract the media, the general public and other MPs from this simple reality.

Their thorough success in this endeavour means that the point of no return is almost certainly already upon us.

The early-days Supreme Court victory of Remainers combined with the PM’s disastrous decision to an midterm general election four months later has ultimately played straight into the hands of the most extreme Leavers. Even more than the EU’s insistence on the backstop or any other legal ephemera in the draft agreement, attempts by Remainers to secure the softest Brexit possible seem to have ensured the opposite.

John Thompson​
Dublin

Leave-alise it

New Zealand is to hold a referendum on legalising cannabis to coincide with their next general election.

I propose that a vote on cannabis should be held here in advance of a rerun of the Brexit referendum so that either outcome – Leave or Remain – can be greeted with mild euphoria and indifference.

Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon

Corbyn was right

I understand the point Holly Baxter is making, but I defend Jeremy Corbyn’s or anyone else’s right to say someone is stupid, especially when they have just been personally attacked by that person.

If instead Corbyn had mouthed “she is so stupid”, then by Baxter’s argument, because the statement is still gendered it would have been just as offensive. Do we really expect people to work on the phrasing of their spontaneous and frustrated asides in an environment as fevered as the House of Commons? And anyway, whether he said “stupid woman” or “stupid people”, many of us think he was right.

Rachael Padman
Dalham