The Reader: Snowflake Brexiteers must surely expect a bit of name-calling?

“STICKS and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” How many times did we hear that from our parents when we were children? Yet strangely, that sage advice seems to have passed some Europhobic Tories by. They are apparently outraged at being called nasty names by some of the bigger boys in the Westminster playground, including the Chancellor himself [“Tory party ‘risks splitting’ as storm rages over Hammond’s extremist Brexiteers jibe”, December 14].

It is surely pretty rich of them to complain, given their constant sniping at colleagues who, instead of flouncing off in a huff as soon as things don’t go their way, have been doing their damnedest to pull off the near-impossible trick of delivering a Brexit that will “take back control” of the UK’s borders without trashing the economy or re-establishing a hard border in Ireland.

Anyway, this sort of rough and tumble is hardly without precedent in Conservative Party history. One only has to go back to the Nineties to recall some of the invective heaped on Tory PM John Major by those opposed to the Maastricht Treaty, many of whom had never forgiven him for replacing their political pin-up, Margaret Thatcher. No wonder the normally mild-mannered Mr Major got caught calling them “bastards”.

But “bastards” was a badge sceptics wore with honour. Their successors should stop being so sensitive.
Tim Bale
Professor of politics, Queen Mary, University of London

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Tim

As you say, cruel words in politics are not new — and nor, by the way, are Tories the only ones to use them. John McDonnell, now the shadow chancellor, once quoted someone saying they wanted to “lynch” the Tory MP Esther McVey.

Nasty stuff? Sure. But what I miss is the wit. Australia’s former PM Paul Keating was a genius at political put-downs. He described one opponent as “all tip and no iceberg” and told another, the leader of the opposition, that “I suppose that the Honourable Gentleman’s hair, like his intellect, will recede into the darkness”. Or there was the Tory MP who took down Corbyn recently.

“Last week I was in Brussels,” he had started, “meeting European leaders and heads of socialist parties. And one of them said to me…” The Tory MP cried out: “Who are you?”

Are people upset by it? Only when the contempt is real. That’s the thing about the Chancellor’s description of Tory Brexiteers as “extremists”. He thinks it is the case — and they know it is. It’s not the personal language they are really complaining about, but the fact he’s telling the truth.

Julian Glover, Associate Editor (Comment)

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Blue Cross