Letters | 21 March 2019

What’s the point?

Sir: Katy Balls asks ‘Will there be an election?’ (16 March). That prompts the question: ‘To what purpose?’ Jeremy Corbyn may be ‘keen for an early election to break the deadlock’, but as the EU has repeatedly emphasised that its withdrawal deal is the only one on the table, how would Labour win a substantively better one than what’s already on offer? Besides, in the 2017 general election, more than 80 per cent of the electorate voted for parties promising to remove Britain not just from the EU, but also from its customs union and single market. Duly returned to the Commons, a majority of these MPs are now openly labouring to renege on their manifesto commitments and to thwart Brexit. What’s the point of an election if parliament has abandoned democracy?
Dr Sean McGlynn

Monkton Farleigh, Bradford on Avon

Changing my mind

Sir: It is rare for an article to change significantly one of my long-held opinions, but Douglas Murray’s uncomfortably forthright piece about the prosecution for murder of a soldier of the Parachute Regiment has done that (‘Bloody liar’, 16 March). For me, as a former reserve soldier and lifelong supporter of our armed services, the Bloody Sunday events have always been an uncomfortable issue. While I still do not accept the IRA’s account of the shootings, nor that they were a planned outrage, Murray’s point that we should hold our soldiers to a higher standard is correct. It is also the case that if Soldier F has engaged in serial lying and perjury, further inquiries are justified.
Jim Corbett

Cork, Ireland

Who woke us?

Sir: Toby Young’s article ‘The rise of the woke corporation’ (9 March) makes interesting points about diversity and inclusion. However, the notion that political correctness is derived from the left is not entirely convincing.