Jeremy Corbyn, saboteur

IN 1975 a Labour government, split on Britain’s membership of the European Economic Community (as it then was), put the matter to a referendum. Most of its supporters wanted to leave, so it fell to the pro-European Conservatives to trumpet the case for staying. Margaret Thatcher, their leader, campaigned in a hideous sweater bespangled with European flags and railed against “the parochial politics of ‘minding our own business’”. On the day, two-thirds of Britons voted to remain.The intervening decades have reversed the politics. The party of David Cameron, the Tory prime minister, is now deeply divided on Europe, so to win the referendum on June 23rd he needs the pro-Remain Labour Party to beat the drum.