Want a straight answer? Then don’t ask Jeremy

When Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader, he said he stood for “straight talking, honest politics”. Has he lived up to this boast? Let’s set aside for a moment his behaviour over Brexit – and instead look at what he said yesterday, during his trip to Northern Ireland.

He’d just finished a speech at Queen’s University Belfast, when a student asked whether, as prime minister, he would call a referendum on Irish unification.

That, said Mr Corbyn innocently, wouldn’t be a decision for him. It would be a decision purely for the Irish people. He wasn’t “asking for” or “advocating” a referendum; after all, there must be no “imposition” from Westminster. All he wanted was “a return to the fullness of the Good Friday Agreement”. And the terms of that agreement meant there could indeed be a referendum – but only “if that is the wish” of the Irish people.

On the face of it, a reasonable answer. Except for one small point.

How would Prime Minister Corbyn decide what “the wish” of the Irish people was?

The only way to get a definitive answer would be to ask them. Which I suppose would mean calling a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum. The problem is, calling a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum would be an imposition from Westminster.

He couldn’t call a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum without first asking them whether they wanted a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum. Which would mean calling a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum.

The problem is, calling a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum on whether they wanted a referendum would be an imposition from Westminster. Which would mean…

On the whole, that probably isn’t a viable plan. So instead, presumably, Prime Minister Corbyn would just have to decide for himself whether the Irish people wanted a referendum. I wonder what his conclusion would be.

Actually, I don’t, because we surely already know. In the words of his spokesman on Wednesday, Mr Corbyn’s

‘Mr Nolan asked seven times whether he would condemn what the IRA had done’

“position” is that “the majority of those people across the whole island of Ireland want to see that outcome, a united Ireland”.

If this is straight talking, he does it in a very roundabout way.

Yesterday’s speech was about the need to avoid “any return to the grim days of the past”: “the bloody hand of conflict”, “the plague of violence”. I’ve no doubt he meant it. But I also remember an interview he gave in 2015 to the BBC’S Stephen Nolan. Mr Nolan asked seven times whether he would condemn what the IRA had done. Mr Corbyn didn’t say “yes” once.

Among his various replies were “I condemn all bombing”, “What is fair to push me on is how we take the peace process forward” and “Can I answer the question in this way? We gained ceasefires, they were important”. More of that famous straight talking.