May’s ‘dream’ speech was like a nightmare
IT WAS the speech that will go down in history for all the wrong reasons.
Like something out of Fawlty Towers, Theresa May’s address to the Tory party conference was so excruciating that if it had been written for a political TV sketch, it would have been deemed too far-fetched.
The first sign of trouble was when a protester approached the stage.
A man, who we later learned was comedian Simon Brodkin, appeared at the lectern waving a P45, saying: “Boris asked me to give you this.”
At this stage, you would expect Special Branch to swoop in but security was nowhere to be seen and it was an uncomfortable few seconds before the Prime Minister had no choice but to accept the P45.
The comedian then had the opportunity to goad the first row, which included an unimpressed Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond, Boris Johnson and David Davis – before he was finally escorted out.
The stunt raises serious concerns about the Prime Minister’s security – how anybody could get in to such close proximity is alarming to say the least. And then came the coughing, as May was battling a bad cold.
At this point, the speech could already pass as a disaster – but there was more to come.
When the Prime Minister seemed to be getting back on track, the sign behind her bearing the Tory party slogan literally started falling apart, with letters shaking and then falling to the floor.
Later in the day, a clip of the speech was circulating on social media alongside a clip from the American political drama The West Wing – it appears May’s speechwriters plagiarised a line from fictional US president Jed Bartlett.
While this has all been amusing, particularly for political journalists, and it’s helped create lots of column inches, unfortunately the calamity of it all has meant the content of the speech has been largely overlooked. Because the speech was hugely lacking.
It failed to offer any solace for families and communities hit by Tory austerity, cuts and low economic growth – problems which are only being compounded by the Tory’s Brexit shambles that further threatens our economy, jobs and household budgets. Tory policies are deeply damaging to Scotland.
Such as their decision to charge Scottish emergency services VAT, the mess of universal credit, their deeply damaging immigration policies, which hurt our economy, and the assault on the most vulnerable people in society – to the point that the United Nations have described Tory policy towards the disabled as “a human catastrophe”.
May said her speech was about the “British dream” but a lot of people will continue to struggle in a Tory nightmare.