Theresa May tearful resignation has produced a number of conflicting reactions.
There is the “poor May” faction, claiming she was given an impossible job: to deliver Brexit in a country and political parties split down the middle, and throwing in a little admiration for her resilience (where others saw stubbornness), trying to find something positive to say about “the worst Prime Minister” ever.
Then we have Owen Jone’s more enlightened piece in The Guardian: He reminds us that as Home Secretary she promoted anti-immigrants vitriol by sending “go home” vans around mixed communities, who spread pernicious myths of being unable to deport illegal migrants because they owned a pet cat, and under whose watch gay refugees felt obliged to film themselves having sex to avoid deportation.”… This, together with austerity for the less well off and more wealth for the rich set the mood for the Brexit vote…“No deal is better than a bad deal,” became her defining mantra, raising expectations to impossible levels and conferring respectability, desirability even, on a disastrous Brexit outcome”… Then she promoted to press secretary the journalist who called the judges that agreed Parliament should have the final say on Brexit “Enemies of the People”…
“… But it’s not just Brexit, for we must judge a prime minister by her own promises. When she fatefully assumed the premiership, she declared war on the “burning injustices” she correctly identified had paved the road to Brexit. And then, in the subsequent three years, she oversaw the biggest jump in child poverty for three decades; a housing crisis which has only worsened; the rollout of a universal credit system which is a life-destroying disaster. The Grenfell fire will endure as a reminder of a social order built by Toryism which prioritises money over human life. The Windrush scandal – in which British citizens were denied medical care, kicked out of their homes and even deported from their own country – will remain a salutary lesson of where the migrant-baiting May promoted leads. The surge in violent crime will always testify to the disastrous consequences of the austerity May herself championed.”
The job description very few knew about
In spite of her failure to “deliver Brexit” Theresa May did preside over success in delivering a part of Brexit she was perhaps uniquely qualified to do, by being married to Phillip, her “most trusted adviser” and investment banker, linked to US, UK and other financial groups. The City of London, that quasi independent financial isle next to St Paul’s Cathedral working in many ways as a Tax Haven, managed to make a deal with Europe outside any other Brexit agreement to ensure its continuing role as a gigantic player in the European financial sector. Pressenza published a report “Puzzled by the Brexit debacle? Just follow the money” based on Simon Jenkins piece in The Guardian, hoping others would pick up the enormity of this deal made behind closed doors. It has remained, however, largely ignored by the media.
To give continuity to this process the Conservative Party is intent on choosing as next Prime Minister a hard Brexiteer, say, Boris Johnson (our very own Tump!) most probably working towards a No Deal, in order to fulfil its plan to marry US trade with its extreme privatisation and deregulation drive. Chlorinated chicken, hormones and antibiotic filled meats (if animals are fattened this way, could it also be the root of Americans’ obesity?) and much higher prices for medicines would be just the beginning.
The Labour Party is demanding a general election but for the time being the numbers do not add up and the “fear of Corbyn” factor promoted by the media will again allow a small group a people to decide the political fate of 70 million.
“Poor” Theresa May will exit office towards a very comfortable lifestyle leaving behind the real British poor struggling in the cruelty of a system that masquerades as “Democracy”.
