Truth scarier than fiction

Sir, – What an extraordinary collapse there has been in Cabinet discipline over the last few weeks, if you believe the reports.

The Foreign Secretary attacking the Chancellor for pointing to the economic damage which would be done by a hard Brexit and describing the Prime Minister’s plans as “crazy”.

The Foreign Secretary reportedly saying “F*** business” after Airbus warned 11,000 jobs are at risk, and 100,000 more in the supply chain, from a bad Brexit. Another Minister saying Business is entitled to comment when millions of jobs and the country’s economy are at risk.

The Prime Minister slapping down the Foreign Secretary while a former leader of the Tory party compares businessmen to Hitler supporters.

The Defence Secretary allegedly boasting to astonished Armed Services chiefs that he “made” the Prime Minister (in his previous job as Chief Whip) and equally he can now “break” her.

This Friday’s Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s country home, Chequers, to hammer out a policy (any policy) on Brexit sounds like an Agatha Christie novel – a bunch of upper-class people gathering in a stately home, with multiple hatreds and hostilities, as several of those present plot to knife their hostess and inherit her role.

Perhaps Hercule Poirot will gather everyone in the library at the end to announce who did it, although with so many suspects, even he might struggle.

Perhaps it will instead be like Murder on the Orient Express, in which everyone on the train had a hand in stabbing the victim.

Or if you prefer a more 21st Century simile, it’s like Love Island but with even more rivalries – you could call it Hate Island. Yet while these people play politics, real jobs and real people are on the line.

Phil Tate Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh