May’s Going: Her Replacement Should Try Listening
- Liam John
- Jun 2, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 28, 2019
As we power-on towards Brexit: the inevitable possibility that might just happen, maybe this year, maybe next and maybe not. The only conclusion that can be drawn with clarity is that roughly one half of the population wants to leave the EU with a burning passion, the other despite the idea to the point of it being stupid.
Our Prime Minister has done well over the past two years to consider and address exactly 0% of those concerns and do whatever she thinks is best, regardless of any silly public outrage.
One of the more irritating things about Brexit, and there have been quite a few, is the way our government refuses to listen to either side but claims they represent “the people.” The most famous example, of course, being: “the people just want us to get on with it.”
Given that the Brexit Party received the most votes in our EU referendum last week running on the mantra that Brexit vote had been betrayed by our politicians, and 5m people signed a petition to revoke article 50. It doesn’t appear as though Theresa May speaks for much of the British population at all.
Activists and journalists seem to agree on nothing except for the unacceptability of May’s vision for Brexit, so there’s little wonder why this embarrassing pantomime has dragged on thus far.
The condescending attitude of May’s government is possibly the reason why her resignation has been so necessary for our advancement in either proceeding with or stopping Brexit. It’s clear no matter which option is your preferred, Britain’s Prime Minister will do nothing and claim she’s representing you while doing it.
May has had her fingers in her ears since the referendum, ignoring any and all opposition to the way she does things. So, with the lack of transparency, it’s not at all surprising May’s new deal: The Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) has been hounded for being too similar to her previous.
One which Westminster has rejected three times already.
(In her resignation, she said it was three. My recollection is that it was one then three, which would make it four. Although I’ll let it slide)
The Withdrawal Agreement Bill was announced to a handful of journalists and broadcast on the news. With no politicians’ present, her new deal which was described as a “big and bold” offer fell utterly flat. It appeared, to the casual observer, May had claimed to be compromising but had essentially repackaged her previous deal, which I believe is why it was announced in a back-room full of preselected journalists.
The Prime Minister making announcing Withdrawal Agreement Bill
Guardian columnist John Crace described Theresa May, after this press conference, as: “the woman who has nothing for everyone.”
Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock MP was quoted following the announcement, on the BBC, he said:
“It ultimately will come down to this when MPs are voting: do you want to deliver on the referendum result?
Not, is this your perfect resolution to Brexit, and exactly what you want, but this is the piece of legislation that would deliver on the referendum.”
May supporter and latest to enter the leadership race Mat Hancock
The WAB was met with anger, outrage and confusion.
Although make no mistake, May could have presented her deal as the solution for climate change, she could have reanimated the award-winning late physicist Stephen Hawkins and cited him as her source. Still, the public, the press, the Labour party and her own would have only accepted it in exchange for her head on a stick.
Why?
For her party, this could be put down to mere ambition for her job, the press has grown frustrated with her and the Labour party disagree with her approach to governing entirely. However, for the British public, it’s something else entirely.
Theresa May’s Conservatives, like Cameron’s, don’t listen to the British public (or anyone else for that matter). They dictate to them.
It’s the Conservative government’s prerogative to conduct business on behalf of the people, rather than in cooperation with them if they chose. It’s long-since been their way.
A perfect example being May, in her resignation speech, describing her conduct during the Grenfell enquiry as the proudest moment of her career. In response, the Firefighter’s Union called her “disgraceful.”
Unfortunately for May Brexit that has shown that this secretive, Thatcheresque “need-to-know-basis” attitude towards the public has finally proved to be too much. The disconnect that has often worked as a positive, has been her undoing.
What they struggle to grasp is that not the people’s fault. The public doesn’t have to back anything because Matt Hannock MP says, or because it’ll help May keep her job or because it’ll move things along.
Members of Parliament have a duty to the public to reject policy which (like the WAB) isn’t representative of what the people want. We live in a democracy and they work for us. A fact the Conservative Party would do well to remember.
The distaste for the general public evident in Westminster is in my opinion responsible for the anti-establishment drive that won the EU referendum for Vote Leave and the European elections for the Brexit Party.
The real winner
What has made such a mess of Brexit?
Politicians claiming to act on behalf of us, whilst putting their own personal interests first. May knew how she wanted Brexit to look and began trying to piece it together. With little input from the people who voted for it.
As for her timely departure, I don’t empathise, neither does the press or her party.
What you’re seeing on Twitter is sympathy from journalists and ambition from Tory politicians hoping to come out better in the reshuffle. The Prime Minister has dragged out her tenure, expecting the British public to cave before she does. And she has lost.
The woman The Daily Star described following her minority victory in 2017, as “Teflon Tezza” has stuck for longer than anyone expected. Now as the 7th of June looms, notice she’ll only cry for herself.
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