Prime minister Boris Johnson

• THE prime minister’s disgraceful performance in the resumed House of Commons on Wednesday evening – arrogant, full of hateful invective towards anyone who dared to disagree with him – contrasts strongly with the rational, humane certainty displayed by the man across the floor from him, Jeremy Corbyn.

Where Boris Johnson preached division with disdain, accusing his opponents of betrayal, sabotage, treachery and surrender, by claiming dishonestly both that he would and wouldn’t obey the law (it had to be one or the other but couldn’t be both), Jeremy Corbyn, quietly but firmly, called for honesty, paying tribute to members across both Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly in their quest to prevent Johnson’s attempt to silence our parliamentary democracy.

For months now, Corbyn has been calling for a coming together of opposing views, making efforts to find common ground and put an end to the deliberate provocation of the hatred and bitterness which are Johnson’s customary tools of trade.

Despite the routine insults casually hurled at him by the government and the Tory media, Corbyn has continued to press on with his efforts to bring about some sense of common purpose in parliament and the country.

On Wednesday night, although Johnson chose to walk out of the chamber without waiting to listen to points of order (despite the Speaker asking him to remain), Corbyn called on the Speaker to use his good offices to bring the parties together to declare their opposition to the threats and abusive language that currently pervade political discourse.

Corbyn talked of the toxic effects they have had on people everywhere – in Islington North, his own constituency, just as much as in the constituencies of every member of the House. Johnson, sadly, simply turns a deliberately deaf ear to these considerations and walks away. But it surely throws the two leaders’ approaches into sharp relief.

It’s not hard to imagine what the rest of the European Union must be thinking. Their worst fears will have been confirmed by the prime minister’s disgraceful tirade in the House of Commons.

At a time when bridges need to be built with “our friends and partners” (Johnson’s most famous – and trite – title for those he is supposed to be negotiating with), for them, the prime minister’s performance will have been truly shocking.

GILLIAN DALLEY
Thorpedale Road, N4