Talk some sense into each other

NO one could seriously believe that Government Chief Whip Julian Smith is secretly plotting to engineer a second EU referendum.

No one, that is, except some hardline Tory Brexiteers who are too often a few cents short of the full euro. They see conspiracies to thwart Brexit in every Commons corridor, plots behind every Whitehall door.

But the anonymous allegation about Mr Smith that Boris Johnson so carelessly dumped in a waste bin should be treated as the rubbish the former Foreign Secretary intended it to be.

Once again Boris’s actions call into question his fitness for high office. A man who can leave something so incendiary where anyone could find it is not fit to be trusted with the nation’s security as Prime Minister.

Mr Smith is unknown to the public. But as Theresa May’s top enforcer, it is his job to get Brexit through Parliament.

Good luck with that one, Julian. There is still little sign MPs are ready to compromise, much less agree on what sort of Brexit Britain needs.

And even if they do come to a consensus, there is no guarantee Mrs May can persuade our EU partners to accept it.

This newspaper has never been in favour of leaving the EU, but we accept the will of the British people must be delivered.

That is why we remain sceptical about a second referendum. With a result which looks as if it would be on a knife edge, it would further divide rather than unite at a time when the nation needs to heal.

The Sunday Mirror has always thought some kind of customs union will prove to be the ultimate answer to our Brexit woes. The EU would be more sympathetic to that as a solution as it solves the Irish border issue.

That is why we should all hope for a meeting of minds now that Conservatives and Labour are talking to one another.

It would be a novelty in British politics.

But an innovation whose time has come.

TO look at her now, it is hard to believe Miss England Alisha Cowie self-harmed.

But she did, and she blames Instagram for encouraging her. That is why she is backing Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s crackdown on social media giants.

It is a disgrace that social media does not adequately police itself and needs the Government to do it instead.

Navigating the internet jungle can be a nightmare for mums and dads bamboozled by technologically more adept children.

That is why the Sunday Mirror today publishes our essential guide to online safety.

It covers everything a parent should know about cyberbullying, pornography and how much screen time is too much.

As with all play, children need boundaries. Our guide will help parents to draw them.