Labour’s position on the single market has to be reflected at the local level

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Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has announced that Labour will back membership of the single market beyond March 2019 (AFP/Getty Images)

It’s all very well getting excited about Labour’s change of direction on Brexit, but unless sufficient electoral alliances at local level are negotiated now, the anti-Tory (and, in reality, anti-Brexit) vote will remain split. Please don’t miss the opportunity again, Messrs Corbyn and Cable.

Patrick Cosgrove
Shropshire

Some in Labour may be concerned about taking an “electoral hit” over plans to stay in the single market for a period after Brexit, (but probably not from the young, who are after all the future voters). In any case it’s high time our so called “leaders” started doing what is good for the nation and not grovelling at the feet of their narrow, short term and reactionary party interests!

Arthur Streatfield
Bath

Brexit bright side

As Brexit appears to have joined death and tax as an inevitability in life, could we spend a little time rejoicing that we have a whole year, 2018, to enjoy before darkness descends?

Bob Gould
Edinburgh

EU questions that still need answers

Britain is a successful, thriving, open and cosmopolitan nation. It is inextricably intertwined with the political, economic, cultural and social fabric of Europe.

It enjoys free trade deals with more than 50 nations around the world and was able to withstand mega-disasters from the influx of refugees unleashed by seemingly armed conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East to the upsurge of violent extremism and terror.

Political parties must transcend their political chasm and tell people the truth. Is it feasible to withdraw from the EU and renegotiate already existing free trade agreements with over fifty countries around the globe? Would leaving the EU lead us to a land of milk and money overnight? Would it stem the flow of migrants and refugees? Are our hospitals and clinics oversaturated with doctors and nurses that we do not require skilled employees anymore? What difference does leaving the EU make when Britain is not part of either the euro or the Schengen zone? These questions need answers if we want to remain a bulwark of social stability.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob
London

A venerable error

Just a very minor point, but I have noticed it before in your Birthdays listing that the compiler seems to think that Ven (the Venerable) is an appropriate title for a female bishop. It isn’t.

Ven is the title for an archdeacon, male or female. Rt Revd (The Right Reverend) is the title for all bishops apart from Archbishops, who are entitled Most Revd.

The mistake in today’s app: ‘Ven [sic] Christine Hardman Bishop of Newcastle’ is presumably a carry-over from a previous listing when she was Archdeacon of Lewisham before being promoted to bishop.

Gavin Turner
Norfolk