Caroline Lucas’s female cabinet plan – divisive or visionary?

I vote for the Green party, oppose Brexit, teach and research women’s history, and consider myself to be a feminist, but I do not agree with Caroline Lucas that assembling a cabinet of women is the means by which to solve the problems of Brexit (‘A cabinet of national unity’: Lucas urges female MPs to put aside parties and fight no deal, 12 August).

We need to encourage cross-party discussion, and the voices of women are underrepresented in the current cabinet, but of the 10 women whom Caroline Lucas approached all are cisgender and white, most are straight, their average age is 50, and eight studied or taught at Russell Group universities. It is debatable whether they represent the diversity of opinions and qualities to be found in Britain and Northern Ireland in the 21st century, and it is unclear why such a homogeneous group will be able to find a solution which will be supported by a majority of MPs and by the general public.

To heal the wounds of this divided kingdom we need to foster alliances with those most like us, and reach out to those who differ from us. Caroline Lucas seems able to do the former but not the latter.
Dr Tim Reinke-Williams
University of Northampton

• Where to start with Caroline Lucas’s call for an all-female “emergency cabinet” to avoid a no-deal Brexit? First of all, it strikes me as odd that a “national unity” government should be defined by its discriminating against a group which makes up half the UK’s population. Second, Lucas’s implicit argument that only women are capable of cross-party compromise will probably come as a surprise to Dominic Grieve and Oliver Letwin, who have led virtually all cross-party moves to stop no deal and have probably torched their careers as a result.

Then there’s the fact that Theresa May and her refusal to engage opposition parties on Brexit is one of the main reasons no deal became a serious possibility in the first place. All in all, a ridiculous idea.
Daniel Peacock
Manchester

• Caroline Lucas sagely advocates a government of national unity. This should have been implemented following such a closely differentiated referendum. Whether such a government should be an all-women affair is worthy of consideration given the parliamentary impasse we have experienced. What is certainly the case is that we need radical thinking if we are to avoid a Johnson-inspired maelstrom.
Peter Chapman
Ashwell, Hertfordshire

• Caroline Lucas invokes “Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who began the Peace People movement during the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland” (I’m calling for a cabinet of women to stop a disastrous no-deal Brexit, 11 August). Yet how is it that the DUP’s Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness were able to set aside their considerable differences and collaborate under the Good Friday agreement, whereas the DUP’s current leader, Arlene Foster, and Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill are unable to work together to restart the Northern Ireland assembly, let alone resolve Brexit?

Will the DUP now propose female-friendly “alternative arrangements” – or even female unicorns – to resolve the Irish border issue?
Derrick Cameron
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

• Caroline Lucas’s intervention is so visionary, radical, practical and necessary that I guarantee it will be rubbished by the Westminster village and assorted media pundits by breakfast tomorrow. But if she’d like to start a petition I’ll sign it now.
Lyn Dade
Twickenham, London

• This is an excellent idea – and our head of state is, thankfully, a Queen. Yes! Dream team.
Robin Le Mare
Allithwaite, Cumbria

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