Sir, – As the Brexit shambles grinds its way inexorably towards some sort of denouement, there have been few moments of light relief amid the lies, anger and bitterness on all sides of the debate. But thankfully Joe McCarthy (Letters, September 19th), in his glowing paean to Jeremy Corbyn as "the voice of good sense, moderation and sanity", provided just that.
This would be the life-long EU critic Jeremy Corbyn who three times voted down Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement because, as he told BBC Northern Ireland last week, the backstop would trap the UK in a customs union with the EU, even though membership of a customs union is the current Labour Party policy.
The same Mr Corbyn who now thinks he’ll negotiate a better agreement with the EU and then allow a second referendum on it, with Labour being free to campaign against what he has negotiated.
At least I think that’s his intention because, Baldrick-style, his cunning plan seems to have been not to have one at all and hope no-one notices.
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This is a man who has spent every day as Labour leader demanding a general election and then opened himself up to ridicule when he turned down the one offered to him by Boris Johnson.
More seriously, he has failed miserably to tackle the virulent anti-Semitism and bullying of MPs that has engulfed his party.
Perhaps that’s why in this week’s polling by Ipsos/Mori, Mr Corbyn has achieved the record-breaking approval rating of minus 60, making him the least popular leader of the opposition in the history of modern British politics.
There will eventually be a solution to the conundrum that is Brexit but Jeremy Corbyn will not be it. He’ll still be off somewhere looking for a fence to park his backside on. – Yours, etc,
KEN ANDREW,
Cobh,
Co Cork.