The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dancing around the issue
Anyone who’s rhythmically challenged will understand. You are at a wedding or a ceilidh and are asked to get up and dance just knowing that calamity and humiliation await. Out of time and going the wrong way during the Dashing White Sergeant or causing a stramash at Strip The Willow. A car crash waiting to happen.
So some might have found Theresa May’s recent attempts at African dancing rather admirable. Without sounding ungallant, the prime minister is unlikely to be a potential candidate for Strictly Come Dancing. But well done to her for giving it a go despite the inevitable ridicule.
The dancing brought to mind that other no-win situation – trying to keep her own colleagues under control over Brexit.
The Conservative Party has been eating itself alive over Europe for 30 years. When John Major was prime minister during the 1990s he was continually undermined by the so-called Eurosceptics.
From memory, it didn’t seem to matter to them that they might assist the demise of their own government.
Today, the Brexiteers and the Remainers are at daggers drawn and Theresa May probably thinks Tom Cruise has it easy during Mission Impossible.
The confirmed Europhile Lord Heseltine has described Brexit as a “cancer gnawing away” at the party.
Earlier this year, he said: “There’s never been such an unpredictable and calamitous set of events facing the country.”
Of course, Michael Heseltine’s views will be dismissed by the Brexiteers but how much are they now resonating with the UK population?
There is talk of another referendum to decide Brexit terms but how many people would agree now that there should never have been one in the first place? Or, at least, not one decided simply upon a yes or no vote. Perhaps something like 75% approval from the population should have been required when many voters clearly didn’t understand the magnitude of the change they were about to endorse. Even golf clubs use that criterion when they change their constitution.
David Cameron took a gamble with the Scottish independence referendum and, from his point of view, he won. At the time, issues around the separation of Scotland from the UK, like currency, were complicated enough but might seem like a walk in the park compared to withdrawal from the EU.
In 2016, David Cameron negotiated a deal that he claimed would give Britain “special status” in the EU. He gained some concessions but failed in other ambitions. But all the while, the question of an EU referendum was never going to disappear.
Cameron’s former communications chief, Sir Craig Oliver, revealed that the then-PM feared Eurosceptic backbenchers were lining up like Kamikaze pilots to bring him down if he didn’t commit to a public vote.
The same mindset seems to prevail among some in the Conservative Party at the moment.
But while the Tories tear each other apart, the future prospects of millions of ordinary Britons are up in the air.
There is a huge responsibility now among those in the governing party to get their act together and produce something that benefits Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the Irish Border being a crucial element.
Ideological differences should be set aside. Questions about who is going to be the next prime minister should be put on the back burner. There are far more important issues to be settled. In a nutshell, the future wellbeing of this country.
On a more flippant note, some might wonder if Boris Johnston would make a better dancer than Theresa May. Given his performance when he knocked over a 10-year-old boy while playing touch rugby a few years back, I have my reservations.
Maybe he imagined himself bulldozing Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission. Or might that be the way he would conduct negotiations with Michael Barnier? Whether it’s Mrs May or Boris Johnston, a “Ten From Len” seems highly unlikely.