Wobble or not, Theresa is the only show in town
NIne days to go and, finally, the tories announce they intend to concentrate on Brexit for the rest of the campaign. hallelujah!
to be honest, after taking a short break for an election detox, I had hoped it would be all over bar the shouting by now. sadly not. there’s still more than a week of this patronising nonsense until we actually get the chance to cast our votes.
On the day Mother theresa decided she would go to the country, I warned that a campaign lasting the best part of two months had the potential to go pear-shaped. events, dear lady, events, as harold Macmillan almost said.
no one could have predicted the awful atrocity in Manchester. But even before the bomber struck to such evil and devastating effect, things were starting to unravel. Boredom and irritation set in long ago, as the politicking expanded to fill the time available in the 24-hour news cycle.
an election supposedly about Britain leaving the eU has inevitably become about anything but. the nadir was reached the day after my last column, when the Green Party staged a rally against ‘ Period Poverty’, attracting widespread coverage on the rolling news channels and in the anti-tory Press.
at first, I thought period poverty might be something to do with Poldark.
turns out it was a protest against Vat on sanitary products. a noble enough cause, but what the hell has the price of tampons got to do with Brexit?
Quite a lot, apparently. Vat is imposed on sanitary products by an eU edict. so you might have thought the Greens would be all in favour of Britain breaking free of the Brussels yoke. nothing could be further from the truth.
TheY
want to derail Brexit and keep us in the eU — tampon tax and all, presumably. Go figure, as our american cousins say.
this was just one daft diversion from the central purpose of calling the election. some of the others, such as the furore over the so-called ‘dementia tax’ (which is nothing of the sort) have proven to be more serious.
If Mother theresa is in trouble in the latest polls, she has only herself to blame. this should have been a short, sharp election focused on a single, defining issue.
It should have been held on the same day as the local elections in early May and would have resulted in a decisive victory for the tories.
By now, she would be the unassailable mistress of all she surveyed and Britain’s future independence would be assured. Instead, it has dragged on, and on, and on, with every new day bringing another pointless policy initiative, giving her opponents a new line of attack.
Yesterday, for instance, the deeply unimpressive home secretary amber rudd was doing the rounds on radio and tV.
the presenters all wanted to question her about the failure of so- called control orders to stop known terrorist suspects from operating with impunity.
Instead, they were forced to ask her first about a new initiative on domestic violence — obviously at the insistence of her media handlers. admittedly, domestic violence, like Vat on tampons, is a legitimate subject for debate. But neither is what this election is supposed to be about, for heaven’s sake.
hubris took over, bolstered by initial predictions of a three-figure majority. theresa was running round Wembley with the cup before a ball had been kicked.
Frankly, I’ve never believed the polls and always thought the tories would be happy with any kind of majority approaching 50.
that’s still achievable, but time is at a premium. It’s no secret that I’m not a paid-up member of the theresa May fan club, but I do intend to vote for her next week.
she’s the only show in town, even if I have little confidence in her delivering the kind of tungsten-tipped Brexit I want. Most people I know feel much the same. she’s the ‘Who else Is there?’ candidate.
the conservative Party isn’t exactly brimming with talent, but anyone who seriously thinks Labour is a credible government in waiting should be sectioned.
You don’t need me to reiterate the shocking unsuitability of the terrorist- loving trots in the corbynista cabal, especially in the wake of the Manchester attack. OK, so there’s been a tory wobble. Good. Wobbles concentrate the mind at this stage in an election campaign.
Don’t read too much into Labour’s apparent resurgence, either. Back in 1987, I spent a month on neil Kinnock’s election battle bus. as polling day approached, a couple of rogue polls suggested Labour was going to win and the conservatives went into a blind panic.
Glenys Kinnock started mentally measuring up the curtains at no 10. On election night, I stood outside the Welsh Windbag’s constituency home as the BBc’s Vincent hanna marched up to the front door bearing an exit poll which pointed to a Labour majority. We could hear the cheering coming from within.
Lovely, tidy, smashing. A cOUPLe of hours later, after the count, I watched Kinnochio slump away as the realisation dawned that the tories had romped home by 102 seats.
the smell of stale chip fat hung in the air, a poignant olfactory requiem for his abject failure. Oh dear, how sad, never mind. It’s now up to theresa to get back on track, to show real leadership, to ignore the squabbling, wobbling munchkins in her private office, and remember why she called this election in the first place.
she told us Brexit means Brexit and the only — repeat, only — reason for calling an election two short years after the last one was to give her a mandate to get on with it. If she really intends to be true to her word, she is entitled to our support next week and will deserve our long-term gratitude if she pulls it off. We shall just have to take her on trust.
More than 17 million people voted Leave. We’ve got no choice other than to give her a solid mandate to turn that decision into reality. the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
Despite the fevered speculation surrounding the latest polls, I fully expect her to be returned to Downing street with an increased majority. Just so long as it doesn’t go to her head and she can resist the temptation to call another election over the next five years.