She was the bat in the battle between the birds and the beasts – neither one thing or the other. She was the Reluctant Remainer, the Eurosceptic Europhile who could never seem to make up her mind where her loyalties lay and, perhaps more importantly, was never able to project a clear, bold message about this to the electorate. She waited in the wings, lurking patiently like a shadow for others to stand their ground in the harsh daylight of the debate. Her reticence in the most important political decision for the UK in the 21st Century so far spoke most loudly for her.
And she profited from this. The Referendum was won by Leave in a result that is described as “the slimmest of margins” when a similar outcome happens in Turkey. As the polls closed, not even Nigel Farage thought Leave would win; he spoke about the battle going on despite a likely Leave defeat. After the vote, David Cameron swiftly fell on his sword, breaching previous assurances that he would not do so in the event of a loss by Remain. Yet May seemed entirely invulnerable compared to her Prime Minister due to her negligible participation in the campaign.
A Conservative leadership contest then ensued. Yet again, May hung back, watching carefully from her belfry, whilst other candidates postured and preened. As they all fell away in error in one way or another, she silently swept on, ultimately winning the contest by default through lack of a rival. A Zen like, negatively successful quality seemed to attach to her. Issues and policies were irrelevant; she succeeded because others failed. She then glided quietly into place as the new Prime Minister.
Interestingly, despite being a Remainer prior to the referendum and therefore, albeit half-heartedly, supporting the U.K.’s membership of the European Union, since becoming Prime Minister she has swung round to being happy to accept a hard Brexit. It is a total switch around from her position less than a year ago.
After being crowned Prime Minister, May repeatedly and firmly stated that there wasn’t going to be a general election. Not until 2020 of course, in accordance with the Fixed-Term Parliament Act’s requirement of a five year gap following the general election of 2015. Her reasons were that the government needed to concentrate on Brexit and wanted to build up support to “win big” in 2020. What was needed was time to get the Brexit deal right; that was the priority. There was, she repeatedly stated, to be no general election now whilst this took place.
Yet a walking holiday in Wales seems to have been the setting for her to completely turn about; to stop mid-wingbeat and head back the other way. Despite everything she had said before, on Tuesday 18th April she announced we would have another general election on 8th June, just over two years since the last one, the shortest time between elections for over forty years.
The picture that emerges is of a purely political personality, who is interested in only power. Her values, it seems, must be subordinate to opportunity. She plays politics like a game and is happy to act in a way entirely opposite to previous, recent statements. It is impossible to believe anything she says.
Is this who we really want running the country?
Vote Liberal Democrat.
