Humiliation for Corbyn as ex Labour leaders step in on EU

They have issued a joint open letter supporting the Remain campaign while, seemingly, Corbyn simply looks on.

Corbyn has already faced criticism for not allegedly doing enough, publicly at any rate, to boost that campaign.

He should be leading the party from the front in a campaign, ahead of what is regarded as the most important decision the British people will make for generations.

He should certainly not leave it to yesterday’s men and women to do the job for him.

Admittedly, Corbyn has now belatedly delivered a hard-hitting speech – quite a virulent one – on the subject, but just as one swallow does not a summer make, neither does a single speech – however robust – constitute a campaign.

Corbyn is already facing considerable criticism from a substantial number of his backbenchers who would like to see him deposed. What he should now do is introduce some fire and brimstone into his leadership.

The allegations of his laid-back approach to these issues is causing great concern among socialists – both MPs and those elsewhere in the Labour spectrum.

But they elected him and so they will have to put on a brave face in dealing with it. In short, they are lumbered with him, hoist by their own petard.

• The Prime Minister has just undergone a traumatic week, politically.

He emerged from it looking frayed at the edges and apparently coming apart at the seams.

There is no problem for David Cameron when he is lambasted by his political opponents in the House of Commons.

He can – and often does – hit back as hard as he can.

Yet he is utterly defenceless when taken to task by young university students in a public, televised debate.

So when Soraya Bouazzaoui accused him of waffling, Cameron simply had to take it on the chin and smile weakly.

He simply dare not hit back because he knows he would be accused of bullying.

His political enemies at Westminster can attack Cameron with as much venom as they can muster, but in the end it does him far less damage than the criticism from Soraya and her fellow students.

And to cap it all, Cameron has decided his “pledges” on reducing immigration – the latest figures show his targets have been missed by miles – were not pledges after all, but simply ambitions!

I do not think I have ever heard such a feeble excuse from a Prime Minister.

• The ludicrous idea -–some would say it is much worse than merely ludicrous – to tell would-be employers to ask potential employees whether they went to a public or a state-run school should be abandoned before it sees the light of day.

This preposterous plan, put forward by the no less ludicrous Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock, would punish youngsters for the decision of their parents to spend money on what they consider the best education for their offspring.

The distinguished Tory peer Lord Waldegrave, who is Provost of Eton College, has understandably threatened to resign the Conservative whip in the House of Lords, if this proposal is allowed to go through. Why can’t government ministers mind their own business?

I would hope that bigger brains in the Tory Party – and there must be many superior to Mr Hancock’s – would have the sense to scotch this proposal at birth.

• Culture Secretary John Whittingdale says he has no hostile designs on the BBC nor is he out to “get” it, despite allegations to the contrary.

And I believe him because, politically, he is a straightforward and honourable man.

But what baffles me is the way the BBC allows some of its employees to slate it, sometimes quite viciously, and in public.

The latest example is the presumably well-paid and well-heeled disc-jockey Paul Gambaccini, who, in his attack on the sacking of fellow DJ Tony Blackburn in the wake of the police Operation Yewtree, described the BBC as “the worst employer of all time”.

If that is the case, why does Gambaccini continue to work for them?

Why does he not look out for someone he regards as a more congenial employer?

And what is no less baffling, is why the BBC takes no action against those who attack it in this way?

Many other employers would have booted them out without ceremony.

Incidentally, Blackburn insists he has told the truth throughout and denies any allegations that might flow from the Jimmy Savile inquiry.

Whittingdale’s relationship with the BBC is like that of a playful pussy cat compared with the ferocity of those who cheerfully take its shilling.