I
look stupid, not strong and stable – Teresa May
“The
Titanic was steaming ahead under blue skies. Then we created an
iceberg and steered towards it.” - Tory party spokesperson.
Dust
is beginning to settle after what was, perhaps, the most interesting,
ill-conceived and ill-fought election in a generation.
Conservative
politicians and pundits are falling over themselves (and falling out
with each other at the same time) trying to explain what went wrong?
What were the voters thinking? How could Tories have ballsed it up
quite so spectacularly after being comfortably ahead just six weeks
ago. How could the electorate actually favour Jeremy Corbin and
Diane Abbot? (Heaven preserve us – or is that in the hands of the
DUP?)
(
Prime Minister Harold Wilson - attributed, 1954 "A week is a
long time in politics" )
He
certainly got that right!
I am
a creature of habit. My Sunday is not really complete until I have
had a good read of The Sunday Times. I like to think of them as
fairly balanced (even though that evil little gnome Rupert Murdock is
the proprietor). Get up, have breakfast, read Sunday Times is my
mantra.
The
Sunday Times generally supports the Tories but in a not very
enthusiastic way. I was interested to see their take on the result.
I was shocked.
A
flavour of their coverage: “The loyalties which centre upon (the
leader) are enormous. If he trips he must be sustained. If he makes
mistakes, they must be covered. If he sleeps he must not be wantonly
disturbed. If he is no good he must be pole-axed.” - Winston
Churchill - May must be pole-axed and probably will be. . . . She
had a 20 point lead but managed to turn that crock of gold into a
crock of shit. (Very unusual Sunday Times front page language!) By
the end – in a campaign against Jeremy Corbin, for God's sake –
we were even on the back foot over terrorism. That is the extent of
the disaster – Senior Tory MP.
Who
might the new leader be? Boris Johnson, whose innate laziness and
sloppiness and inability to grasp the running of a department are
legendary in Whitehall? David Davis, who is combative, insouciant
and slightly flaky in equal measure? Amber Rudd, who so nearly lost
her seat and whose flip-flop over Brexit . . . suggests flexibility
if nothing else. It is as if a whole generation has gone missing,
just when we need them the most.
Wading
through the vitriol we finally reach page 15 and commentator Camila
Cavendish's take on events. . . . “the person who lost most
catastrophically was Teresa May. She and her people seemed to think
she could triple Cameron's majority without wooing anyone. They were
probably not helped by the wild predictions of landslides, Which I
and many others believed. We Brits love an underdog and people may
have voted to clip the wings of what they assumed would be a
domineering Tory majority . . .she went into the contest as a
no-nonsense, capable woman seeking a stronger negotiating hand with
the EU. But she came to look more and more like an opportunist.
This was partly because she had nothing to say about Brexit or at
least nothing she wanted to share with the electorate. Mrs May gave
the impression that we should trust her to get the deal done, not
worry our silly little heads about the detail.”
Ron
Liddle is definitely one of my favourites. His ascorbic with and
classic turn of phrase lightens any Sunday morning. He says, “The
prime minister made her magnificently stupid decision to call a
general election while on a walking holiday with her husband in north
Wales (I bet that was a barrel of fun!) .
. . Look at that hill Philip. It's a large and very firm
protuberance, rising up out of the ground. One might call it strong
and stable. Certainly one couldn't call it a coalition of chaos. I
am like that hill, Philip. I am strong ans stable. I am not like
that bog over there. That bog seems to me a coalition of chaos. I
am a hill not a bog (bog is a colloquialism for a toilet
here in the UK).. . . But
the country isn't united on Brexit, patently. And there are
divisions at Westminster (as she gave as a reason for an
election) because, uh, that's
what the place is for, you dumbo. How did she manage to
lose? My reasons were these.
First, an awful lot of people
in the North of England and the Midlands do not like the Tories.
They mistrust them, with some justification. And the Labour vote –
before the campaign – was still remarkably and even growing at
local level. As for Jeremy Corbin: Westinister
may think he's unfit to run a whelk stall, but north of Milton Keynes
no such assessment was made. . . The Labour manifesto may well have
been written by deranged Trots (Trotsky-ites)
on acid, but at least it offered something , even if that something
was unattainable by the usual laws of economics or even physics.
What did the Tory manifesto offer, to anyone? . . . There was no
enthusiasm for the Tories even among the Tories.”
MOST
UNFORTUNATE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN: A van carrying advertising turned over
in high winds on the M6 on Tuesday. Nobody was hurt, but the central
theme of Teresa May's campaign suffred a slight dent. Not very
“strong and stable” was it?
“I
doubt any political party will again make the mistake of producing a
responsible manifesto.” - Dominic Lawson
Mr Lawson is an arch-Tory with
impeccable credentials. Therefore what he has to say ought to be
listened to.
“. . . if the Conservatives
somehow managed to lose seats and failed to gain an overall majority,
it would be a near-terminal rebuff to a prime minister who had gamed
the Fixed-Term Parliament Act to hold an election of choice –
especially as Mrs May has run a clunkily personal campaign . . .a
cult of no personality. Wrong again, I should have written terminal
and left out the near.
I just can't remember a
Tory-leaning paper ever savaging a Conservative politician in quite
so systematic, thorough and sustained manner.
Fittingly,
the last word goes to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration Of
Independence.
Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed
That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
A
Prince, (in this case Mrs May) whose character is thus marked by
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a
free people.
How long can she last? Consensus has it not long.
She did get some respite owing to the tragic loss of life in the west
London tower-block fire. Some respite, but only for about an hour
until she turned up and did not meet with any of the residents.
Meanwhile Jeremy was on the streets hugging people.
If a week is a long time in politics she may not make it past June
20.
