Yesterday’s Bolshevik versus the tin woman
British voters face a weak choice on June 8,
On the eve of the U.K. national election that Theresa May’s Conservatives were expected to win in a walk, the party is now expected to do no better than a reduced majority or a minority. This is a staggering reversal of fortune.
May is the Hillary Clinton of British politics. It was her election to lose. Blessed with the weakest opposition in memory, she’s in free fall.
Britain isn’t France, where the pollsters predicted the surprise election of Emmanuel Macron. Polls here missed Brexit in 2016 and the late Conservative surge in 2015.
They may be wrong again. But survey after survey shows Jeremy’s Corbyn’s Labour Party closing. Heavens, Labour might even win on Thursday.
If so, don’t blame terrorism, Brexit or Donald Trump. It’s May. She is the country’s second consecutive incompetent Conservative prime minister.
David Cameron set a standard of folly that May now challenges. When faced with an internal party revolt in 2015 over the future of Britain in Europe, Cameron bungled it. His response to a managerial problem that he could have ignored or dismissed was a referendum.
When Britain voted to leave Europe a year ago, Cameron resigned. It was a humiliation for him and a calamity for Britain. He will forever be the prime minister who presided over the death of European Britain.
May opposed Brexit, but ran to succeed Cameron. In a weak field, she won.
May inherited a government with three years left in its mandate. There was no need for a snap election. But she wanted to strengthen her hand in negotiating Brexit; she declared, audaciously, that she needed a vote of confidence as big as Macron’s, who won with 66 per cent. The parliamentary system was never going to give May two-thirds support, but a thumping majority seemed likely.
After all, she faced Corbyn, a radical leftist leading Labour. Was that really competition? Was that not a ticket back to 10 Downing Street? Into the vacuum stepped the avatar of “strong and stable leadership” who, newly emboldened, would find a “soft” exit from the EU.
Like Clinton, she had the advantage of popularity, organization and a weak opponent. But also like Clinton, she is a poor campaigner. On the hustings, she is wooden, halting, bloodless.
When May reversed herself on a key plank of her platform, she looked indecisive. “Theresa Maybe,” they call her.
In the wake of the attacks here on Saturday, she proclaimed “enough is enough,” declaring that Britain needs a new anti-terrorism strategy. But in her six years as Home Secretary, responsible for public safety, she cut the number of police officers by 20,000. Experts say that Bobbies on the beat are eyes and ears on the street, a deterrent to homegrown terrorism.
When asked about that now, she dissembles. Terrorist attacks in a campaign do not produce rational thinking. But the British do not scare easily. They survived the Blitz and the Irish Republican Army. They will not necessarily embrace the government as the emblem of authority.
It takes talent to blow a double-digit lead against Corbyn, a captain of chaos. He is a Bolshevik pushing a return to nationalization and a command economy. He is suspicious of the Western military alliance and he scarcely campaigned against Brexit. He is shaded by allegations of anti-Semitism.
May promises to keep Britain safe, but she is no Iron Lady. If she wins, Macron will demand a hard Brexit, and May will have little leverage. Britain faces a failure of leadership this spring. There is no Thatcher, Churchill or Disraeli here.
On Thursday, sensible, proEuropean progressives have nowhere to go.
In the face of a restive Scotland, an alienated Europe and faltering security, Britons have yesterday’s man in Corbyn and a tin woman in May. The British are plucky and London isn’t falling, but politically, it’s the worst of times and the weakest of choices.