Don't count your chickens,warns Chris Moncrieff

Corbyn already has a tough enough job on his hands, without the likes of Tony Blair and the former deputy leader Lord (Roy) Hattersley continually carping, criticising and deriding as he struggles to be positive about Labour’s prospects on June 8.

Blair has said there is no chance of victory for Labour so long as Corbyn is at the helm, while Hattersley has issued a call for a campaign to oust him (in the columns of the New York Times of all places).

If these two former Labour heavyweights feel they must attack the party leader, why on earth can’t they wait until the election is over, if Labour do badly?

Corbyn’s task is daunting enoughg without having to endure brickbats from yesterday’s men at such a crucial time – unwelcome and unhelpful blasts from the past. He must be raging – and I don’t blame him.

u It would be foolhardy, lunacy even, for would-be Conservative voters to think their successes in the local elections will automatically be transferred, so to speak, on June 8.

Local elections are notorious for giving inaccurate pointers to the outcome of an impending general election – as Theresa May has wisely pointed out.

So talk of a landslide victory for the Conservatives is premature and possibly dangerous to the Tory cause – as the Prime Minister is only too well aware. Although she has made some robust remarks about Brussels grandees as the Brexit battle hots up, she is overall conducting an ultra-cautious campaign.

In short, she is taking no chances.

Incidentally, does anyone listen any more to the outpourings of Nick Clegg after he led the Liberal Democrats to near annihilation at the last election? I would think not.

u It is a platitude to say the internet is a force for good, but it can also be a source of great evil.

It was used, or rather misused, at the end of the United States presidential campaign to damage, it seems, Hillary Clinton’s prospects of victory.

She firmly believes she would have been in the White House today were it not for that.

Now, it appears a cyber attack was made in a vain attempt to embarrass Emmanuel Macron, who overcame it and was elected as France’s next president.

Let us fervently hope similar attacks are not made on any of the party leaders in our own general election.

u How strange it is that back in 1963, and again in 1967, President de Gaulle said: “Non, non, non!” when Britain made tentative approaches to join what was then the Common Market.

An act of great ingratitude, since Britain had played a huge role in liberating France from the Nazis. Eventually, when de Gaulle disappeared from the scene, Britain was successful.

Now, having had such difficulty getting in when we were banging on the door all those years ago, we are now, oddly, confronted with an equally tough problem in trying to extricate ourselves from it.