As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I feel sorry for Theresa May. Despite this, it is a feeling that I am sure resonates with many, at least the rational ones among us, irrespective of which side of the political spectrum they may fall.
From the deplorable Home Office “Go Home” [Johnny Foreigner!] vans, to her role at the helm of the most shameful government since the Thatcher days, her politics is nothing short of discreditable but, there again, the same can be said for her Cabinet, what’s left of it at least, and much of the Conservative Party as a whole.
The current status quo, however, is unacceptable. It is not about her politics. It is not about her questionable Cabinet appointees. It is not about her historic voting record. So much of the abhorrent abuse and opprobrium that has and is currently being thrown at her from all angles from both within and outside of her party, and by the general public as a whole, both Brexiters and ‘remainers’, is because of things that aren’t her fault and lay beyond her control.
Unfortunately, we seem to have moved away from attacking the Prime Minister for her and her party’s politics and are instead now focusing on her deep-rooted personality traits, her appearance, and her handling of Brexit, something that was a tactful move made by David Cameron to get re-elected under the expectation that the general public would never be stupid enough to vote for something so incredibly dangerous and unnecessary. But after the vote, Cameron resigned leaving his successor to pick up the pieces and deliver the impossible, a successful Brexit situation that delivers the so-called “will of the people”.
This is not and never will be possible and we should not be personally attacking May because of this, a woman thrust into the country’s top job who has worked valiantly to bring about an amicable solution.
As the leader of a party that is constantly at odds with itself due to a perpetual internal power struggle, the Prime Minister has had to deal with an impossible situation. The demands from her party, from both Remainers and Brexiteers, and from the EU itself have been everything from logical to fantastical. This country has never been so divided, at least not in my lifetime, and there is no Brexit scenario that is going to please everybody. In fact, there is no Brexit scenario that is going to come close to what the majority of Brexiteers wanted, that is impossible. It cannot be done.
It will never be the case that we leave the EU in a dignified manner where we are an independent island nation free to do what we want, with whom we want, when we want to. The EU has the upper-hand here, they know it is a ‘soft’ Brexit or no Brexit, full stop. With a ‘soft’ Brexit under the proposed EU deal (a deal that is not going to change, by the way!) the country will largely be in the same situation it is now, a member of the EU bound by its decisions and policies in key areas such as trade but without a say in any of these decisions and policies. Anybody with even a trivial understanding of politics, diplomacy, and economics who isn’t self-serving could foresee this, and that is exactly why so many of us voted to remain in the EU.
Although it may be a hard pill to swallow, it does not matter who oversees the Brexit negotiations, the results will be the same. It is immaterial whether it is the Minister for the 19th Century Jacob Rees-Mogg or the man with the funny hair and big mouth Boris Johnson, they will get exactly the same answer from the EU, an institution that has the upper-hand and a legal right to tell us where to go.
Of all the moments that May could have been prime minister, this is by far the worst possible.
I feel sorry for her, I sincerely do.