Tories put party before country
IF ever there was a misnomer it’s the ‘Prime’ in Prime Minister when referring to Theresa May.
The word means ‘of great importance’ or ‘top quality,’ neither of which apply to May, whose political career is like the David Brent dance in The Office. The longer it goes on, the more horrified those witnessing it become.
Her government has plunged to such uncharted depths in the last week I’m amazed Jacques Cousteau in a diving suit isn’t covering it.
Sometimes you have to take a step back and repeat what happened to remind yourself of its idiocy.
First, in order to win the confidence motion and carry on with the Brexit negotiations, May had to assure MPS she wouldn’t lead the Tory party into the 2022 general election.
So they’re cool with her holding the future of the country in her hands so long as she doesn’t stick around long enough to muck up their chances at the ballot box.
This means that while Brexit talks reach their crucial stage, the campaign to replace her will have started in which those vying for the top job will be undermining whatever deal she reaches with the EU.
If ever there was something to show how the Tory party puts itself first and the country last, this is it.
Topping that was how May’s team gave the ‘whip’ back to MPS Andrew Griffiths and Charlie Elphicke so they could vote in the confidence motion.
Griffiths, who is married, is under investigation after reportedly sending 2,000 sexual texts to a barmaid and her friend in just 21 days, weeks after the birth of his first child. Before the confidence vote Griffiths said he was going to back May, one of those happy coincidences no doubt.
Elphicke had the whip withdrawn in March 2018 after he was accused of sex offences against two members of his staff.
And then there was fundamental hypocrisy of the actions of the week.
It seems that May and the European Reform Group, led by Jacob Rees-mogg, are the only ones allowed to either change their mind about the Brexit deal or demand a re-run of a democratic vote.
May cancelled the meaningful vote on the deal in Parliament at the last moment, while the ERG orchestrated the confidence vote against her. The latter point was particularly annoying as the group’s common retort to those demanding a second referendum is that the 2016 vote was a democratic one so ‘get over it.’
It was in the same year that May became party leader via a democratic vote so what gives them the right to change their minds and the public not? And not only has the ERG not ‘got over it,’ it is even now trying to engineer another way to oust her, refusing to accept the result of the vote.
Double standards at the heart of government. Who’d have thought it?