2018: Year of destiny for a resurgent May
WHAT a difference six months can make in the capricious, febrile world of UK politics.
In June, following a disastrous election campaign, Theresa May was written off by almost every pundit. her majority was gone, it was said she no longer had the authority to lead our Brexit negotiations and a cocksure Jeremy Corbyn was predicting he’d be prime minister by Christmas.
In October the knives were out again. After a coughing fit and a disintegrating set ruined her conference speech, the Westminster commentariat said Mrs May was a dead woman walking.
Yet, as 2017 comes to its close, she has weathered all the storms. Through hard work and strength of character, the Middle england vicar’s daughter is not only still in Downing Street but showing signs of a remarkable resurgence.
In stark contrast, Labour – with its risible flip-flopping over Brexit and bitter internal strife – has descended into a fractious, incoherent rabble. Latest polls show Mrs May’s personal ratings nine points ahead of Mr Corbyn’s and her party back in front.
The Prime Minister has navigated the ship of state through difficult and treacherous waters in recent months, despite the constant sneering and carping of embittered Remainers.
They said our Brexit divorce bill would be £100billion. Mrs May negotiated it down to a maximum of £39billion.
They said maintaining the ‘soft’ Irish border was an intractable problem. With skilful diplomacy, she finessed it.
They said the impasse over safeguarding EU citizens’ rights would delay trade talks. It hasn’t. They start early in the new year. even some of the most committed Remainers are beginning to admit their fears were exaggerated. The latest is Lord Macpherson – former Treasury mandarin and architect of Project Fear – who now believes the negative impact of leaving the EU will be ‘limited’.
True, there are still some diehards who cling to their visions of doom, such as Lord Adonis, who flounced out of his job as a Government adviser yesterday. With shameless disregard for democracy, he said the Brexit vote was ‘a dangerous populist spasm’ rather than a genuine mandate.
The language in his resignation letter bordered on the deranged. he accused Mrs May of supporting the ‘ extreme nationalist right’ and compared her ‘splendid isolation’ to policies that caused the First World War.
But he is in a dwindling, deluded minority. A recent survey shows that even among those who voted remain, just 33 per cent now want to overturn Brexit.
Meanwhile, a slew of figures has exposed as fiction George Osborne’s dire warning that a Leave vote would bring ‘an immediate and profound shock to our economy’.
Unemployment is at its lowest since 1975 (4.3 per cent), the FTSE hit a record high yesterday, unprecedented numbers of women, ethnic minorities and young people have jobs and growth figures have been upgraded.
Compare this success story with the grim picture in the rest of the EU. In Greece, unemployment is 20 per cent, in Spain 16.7, in Italy 11.1 and in France 9.4. The european project has stagnated and, across the continent, the far right is capitalising on the misery and disillusionment of people with no prospect of work.
But for Britain, the portents look good. The Prime Minister has the wind in her sails and Brussels finally seems ready to negotiate a free-trade agreement.
So if they have any regard for the national interest, naysayers like Lord Adonis will stop talking this country down and trying to thwart the people’s will. Instead, they should get behind Mrs May in her mission to secure the best possible deal for all.
If they do, 2018 could be a very happy – and prosperous – new year.