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A sad end. But I’m afraid we got here because Theresa May is a prime minister who is very bad at politics.
It didn’t have to be this way.
It didn’t have to be this way.
There will be a lot of bad takes saying “May had an impossible hand, no one could have done it.”
That is completely untrue. When she became prime minister May had complete leverage to define Brexit and set a strategic direction to get there.
That is completely untrue. When she became prime minister May had complete leverage to define Brexit and set a strategic direction to get there.
The version she chose led us to this moment. The language she used (“Brexit means Brexit/No deal is better than a bad deal”) has been been the midwife to the populism we see now. She, more than anyone, legitimised no deal and made her own task much harder.
Even in January she could have changed tack. She could have made a bold offer to Parliament. She could have compromised. She could have acted *politically*. Instead her strategy was to try and ram through the same thing again and again- to force MPs to bend through force of will.
That was never going to work.
Worse still, her attacks on parliament and parliamentary government in this period were deeply corrosive and not worthy of a prime minister. They gave rhetorical and intellectual ammunition to Nigel Farage and his latest efforts.
Worse still, her attacks on parliament and parliamentary government in this period were deeply corrosive and not worthy of a prime minister. They gave rhetorical and intellectual ammunition to Nigel Farage and his latest efforts.
She leaves office with few achievements as prime minister to her name and the future of the Conservative Party and country less certain than ever. It’s a sad end to a premiership of someone who has obviously tried very hard but it’s the truth.
Theresa May is a decent person and her application has been impressive. But the truth is hers is perhaps the worst premiership since the war.
She did confront big structural challenges. However, the Brexit process and the end of her premiership has been highly contingent on the decisions she’s made and the approach she chose. Let’s not demean her or our understanding of this period by pretending otherwise.
This period needed someone who felt politics to their fingertips and had quicksilver skill. May did not. Arguably, by temperament there were few more ill-suited to the historical moment in which we found ourselves.
