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Jeremy Corbyn will be remembered as the great enabler of Brexit

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Saturday 11 May 2019 15:06 BST
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Jeremy Corbyn: 'It wasn't the EU that slashed public services to pay for tax cuts for the rich, it was the Tory government'

Principled and courageous? Diane Abbott’s piece on Labour’s stance on Brexit beggars belief. On Brexit Corbyn has only one “principle”: to end free movement. His “courage” is to bury this in half-baked cakeism.

Corbyn will be remembered as the great enabler of Brexit and the destroyer of the Labour Party.

Dr Ian Veltman
Stonehaven, Scotland

Change UK? More like Short Change

I doubt the first assertion but don’t doubt the second (“Change UK had a chance to make a real difference, but its arrogance will be its downfall”, by Andrew Grice). Short-Change UK consists of as disparate a group of left/right/centre disgruntled politicians as could exist: forming policies, let alone a credible manifesto, is beyond their, or anyone’s, capabilities.

The news media loves a new toy, which by now Short-Change UK is not.

So farewell then, Short-Change UK. You were the flavour of the week, once. Luckily you all have other jobs, as a general election would not suit you at all.

Eddie Dougall​
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Making waves

Delighted to see your Google Doodle coverage about Lucy Wills, who helped to discover folic acid and thereby made a big difference to the health of women and unborn children.

I researched her as part of an academic article in 2017. In retirement she, along with another female nutritionist, Dr Muriel Bell, was responsible for carrying out the first multi-ethnic nutritional survey of women and children in Fiji in 1950.

Neither Bell nor Wills were immune from making assumptions about how well women fed their children based on cultural stereotypes when explaining their results. At the same time their work led to the introduction of free iron pills for pregnant women and was built on by other (mainly female) researchers to improve child nutrition in Fiji. As fallible people they improved health and saved lives.

The facts she was female, researched women’s health, and conducted much of her research in the field rather than high status, highly funded laboratories are likely to be the reasons she has been overlooked until now (even in specialist academic histories of nutrition!).

Dr Sarah C Hartley
Address supplied

Happiness is not a commodity

Education has become so commercialised and business-oriented at many universities. Happiness cannot be taught in classrooms. We must campaign to put mental health at the heart of governments’ policies, and make it everyone business. Mental health services are in a diabolical situation. They endured tremendous cuts in this age of gruelling austerity. We also need a sea change in public attitudes towards mental illnesses. We need to break down taboos and embarrassment and to tackle poverty, addiction, housing shortages, power imbalance, social inequalities, discrimination, income disparities, gender gaps, stigmatisation, smouldering injustices and family breakdown. Only then will we succeed in creating a fairer society.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London NW2

Who really wants to Remain?

Gina Miller needs a crash course in Scottish politics. Outwardly, the SNP wants to Remain but has a vested interest in Leave, as its last election manifesto gave it an excuse to hold a second independence referendum if Scotland was dragged out of the EU against its will. There are many SNP supporters who voted to Leave. It’s much better to vote Scottish Labour, which wants a confirmatory vote, Theresa May’s deal or the status quo, and has the power to influence the outcome – or for the Lib Dems, who don’t.

Phil Tate
Edinburgh

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A rerun, please

Why does an advanced democracy “fear” a vote? If a second referendum returns an unclear answer then, just like Brexit means Brexit, Nothing means Nothing. It’s still a decision!

This is exactly where UK democracy fails. If just one person is stopping the vote then that’s a dictatorship – it’s just not openly so!

According to the Sun, Boris Johnson “lashed” those calling for a vote for putting the union of the UK at risk by legitimising the Scottish call for an independence vote! Cheap – coming from the man who promised money to the NHS, and no doubt influenced the Brexit result.

The trouble is that a lot of people read such things and believe them – a little like believing “leaving will be the easiest thing” or “the EU will be tripping over itself to give us a deal”.

It’s time these wicked people were held to account for all the Brexit lies. The fact they are being called to account should anyway void the 2016 decision, which is now three years old news and needs a rerun on the grounds it’s both dated and flawed.

Michael Cunliffe
Ilkley

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