Sadly, I find myself agreeing with every word of John Harris’s article (Brexit is a class betrayal. So why is Labour colluding in it?, 19 November). The Labour leadership’s position on Brexit is embarrassing, shaming and daft. Jeremy Corbyn wants an election in which Labour would presumably spell out a soft Brexit option which would leave Britain worse off, but in any case would be unacceptable to Europe. And who, in that election, would Labour expect to do its pavement-bashing and envelope-filling? Not me, I’m afraid. Not any of my former activist friends either.
We are heartily sick of Corbyn’s equivocation and lousy leadership. No doubt at all, Corbyn is a very good man. He is also a lousy leader, and at a time when Britain needs a leader of presence, courage, intellect and vision. As John Harris says, the resolution of the current crisis can only be found through a second referendum. If the Labour leadership could summon up the energy to argue coherently and passionately for one, there would be a good chance that Britain would remain in Europe, Europe would reform its less attractive features and the world would benefit from a stronger voice for reason.
David Curtis
Solihull, West Midlands
• As John Harris says, the “misery and resentment” caused by deindustrialisation in the 1980s and by recent Tory austerity policies were important reasons for people voting to leave the EU, which makes it difficult to fathom the absence of anger from the Labour leader, and indeed from the “big unions”, about the economic problems Brexit will inevitably cause.
Jeremy Corbyn needs to be reminded of what he said in 2016 after decisively defeating Owen Smith for the Labour leadership: the “huge membership” of the party “had to be given a greater say”, and “be reflected much more in decision-making”, not least because they are “the people who raise the money, knock on doors, deliver the leaflets, do the campaigning work”. It would only take days to organise a membership vote on whether there was satisfaction with current policy on Brexit, or a need to support a people’s vote. Increasing democracy in the party goes hand in hand with Corbyn’s leadership, or this is what members were led to believe. Could there ever be a more opportune moment to put it into practice?
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
• Brilliant, John Harris. In his collusion-through-inaction with the right over Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn is in the process of betraying those multitudes of young people who subscribed to his refreshing model of doing politics differently. He has also left it to the likes of John Major to point out that leaving the EU, and the travesty of democracy that was the referendum, will damage most the lives and the futures of precisely those working people that the Labour movement represents. The 2016 referendum result was indeed the outcome of a class society increasingly riven by inequality.
But it is still not too late – in fact, it is a crucial moment – for Corbyn, McDonnell, Thornberry, Starmer et al to endorse our future affiliation with Europe as the basis for peace, and for the development of cultural, intellectual and economic prosperity for all in the UK. Do they have the courage and the vision to do this now?
Jeff Wallace
Cardiff
• John Harris is too kind to the Labour leadership. Its failure to voice anger at the hard right reeks of the same disingenuousness that Corbyn showed with his weak pro-remain speeches at the time…
