Evening Standard comment: We know exactly where Mr Corbyn is on Brexit; Closing the gap; Brava, Alessandra

Is it worth trying to decode what Jeremy Corbyn thinks about Brexit, and what he’s going to do about it? The obvious answer is yes. After all, our hung Parliament might collapse soon into an election that could make him prime minister.

Even if that doesn’t happen, has there ever been a better chance for an Opposition to determine the future?

If Labour snapped out of its paralysis and backed a second referendum next week, there’s a real chance one would happen. But without its formal support, it’s hard to see how a majority for one can be put together in a fractured Parliament.

She backs a second vote, but she’s still in a minority among Labour MPs, and she’ll know she’s still more likely to be dropped from the front bench than to persuade her leader she’s right.

Actually, we don’t need to spend long working out what Mr Corbyn thinks. Because we already know.

We’ve known it since he was a hard-Left activist in the Seventies, voting to stay out of the EEC. We’ve known it through his parliamentary career. We’ve known it since his limp and unconvincing pretence in the last referendum campaign that he wanted Remain to win, when every sign he gave showed he wanted out. And we know it now, when he has managed to show even less grace and flexibility than the Prime Minister by turning down talks with Number 10 on a plan that might prevent a no-deal disaster or bring about a referendum.

It’s not for the want of trying by people such as shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, or trade union leaders, or Labour members — 72 per cent of whom want a new vote and 88 per cent of whom would then back Remain, according to a poll this month. Remember when Mr Corbyn promised to give control of his party to members and win over a new generation of voters? Now we can see that he didn’t mean a word of it.

Mr Corbyn seems only fitfully interested in Brexit at all. Those around him don’t seem to mind what chaos that might bring with it. After all, in a horrible way, chaos could help them.

The consequences of economic and social catastrophe would be blamed by voters on a Conservative government. Labour might end up with the spoils.

Although the party lost this week’s confidence vote, the longer Brexit remains unresolved, the more likely it must be to win another.

When Mr Corbyn says he wants an election, not a referendum, he means it. Of course others inside Labour disagree, including Ms Allin-Khan.

Maybe they will be able to strong-arm the party leadership into changing course. But don’t count on it. On Brexit, Mr Corbyn has got no intention of riding to the rescue.

Closing the gap

Baroness Hale, the country’s most senior judge and first woman president of the Supreme Court, has said in a speech just published by the court that women can take heart from enormous strides towards equality across the professions. But she identifies several respects in which progress towards fairer treatment for women is slow.

One, importantly, is domestic violence, which she says is “too common”. She also draws attention to “systemic failures in investigation” when it comes to sexual assault, which were “vividly illustrated” in the case of the black cab rapist John Worboys.

She is right. There has been real progress towards equality of the sexes but we’re not there yet.

Brava, Alessandra

There is a four-star review from the Evening Standard for Trio, the first dance show by the Royal Ballet at the newly reopened Linbury Theatre.

And star of the show is Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri, who is 55 and who retired from ballet in 2007 before returning to the stage.

As she tells the Standard , her performances are “fresh because every production I do I’m so grateful and so amazed I’m doing it. And who knows if it’s the last one?”

It’s an inspirational approach: long may she continue to delight us.