Don’t cry for May Argentina, the truth is... she’s doing OK

Tide is slowly turning in British PM’s favour

AFTER a seismic week in British politics, it is with some irony that Theresa May headed to Argentina – where she might have expected some rest and respite from the relentless and, it seems, thankless campaign to sell the EU withdrawal deal signed last Sunday.

Mrs May will need all the charisma of Eva Peron and the guile and staying power of her husband General Juan Peron, who was President of Argentina on three separate occasions.

But signs are that Theresa May could be turning the tide slowly in her favour.

Firstly, she is blessed in her opponents. For the DUP leader to proclaim this week that ‘the prime minister has given up on a better Brexit deal – but I have not’ catapults Arlene Foster into pantomime land. Jack and the Beanstalk with his magic beans comes to mind.

This assertion by the DUP leader prompted a withering response from one of Belfast’s finest comedians, Tim McGarry, who retorted, ‘The woman who couldn’t negotiate a deal with a bunch of Shinners over Irish street signs thinks she can negotiate a deal with 27 EU nations’. To use a well known Northern phrase, ‘Please give my head some peace’.

Then there is the leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg who has become the most powerful politician in the UK.

This week, on Black Wednesday, the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney declared that every Brexit scenario would leave Britain worse off, but Rees-Mogg dismissed him as a second-rate Canadian politician and a ‘wailing banshee’.

Wait until Rees-Mogg, who likens himself to the hapless Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army, finds out that Mark Carney revealed to Channel 4 in 2013 that he was a Canadian and an Irish citizen – or perhaps that is where is the ‘wailing banshee’ insult came from.

Carney, who has steered the UK economy since 2013 – a period that even the Brexiteers regard as a boom time – did not predict plague and pestilence sweeping the land, but calmly called it as clearly as an economist with a very credible pedigree. Then came the ‘Survation’ poll this week for the Daily Mail group which shows rapidly increasing support for Theresa May, especially from women, as she rollercoasters across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The most fascinating question was: ‘Do you think the current deal is the best offer?’ It elicited a 52% positive response with only 19% believing Britain could get a better agreement. Interestingly, significantly more voters in the UK now support a fresh vote.

Theresa May was using the opportunity of her visit to Argentina this weekend for the G20 summit to announce increased flights between Argentina and the British Falkland Islands as a sign of thawing relations between the two countries. We should never forget the horrific consequences when diplomacy fails as it did between those countries in 1982. Argentina and the United Kingdom went to war leading to 900 dead and thousands injured and maimed.

Nation states should be learning lessons from history and seeking more ways to co-operate, not less.