Here we go again! Blimey, what a mess!
First of all there was the Brexit referendum. We were still reeling from that historic cock up when the next shock hit us with Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. Trump is a teenage bully of quite staggering shallowness whose principal achievement since becoming President is to have caused offence to as many people as he can.
You might have thought that this side of the water our politicians would be capable of more subtle judgement: apparently not. Now we have had the British general election.
On both sides of the Atlantic politics have gone barmy and the only thing you can still say with any certainty about them is that they are unpredictable.
The United Kingdom and the United States appear to have picked the particularly unlucky straws. Now why can’t we have a reassuring leader? A statesman like Angela Merkel, for instance, or someone exciting like the razor sharp Macron (in Lisbon pronounced Macrrrron)? Both Merkel and Macron give an impression of competence that seems sorely lacking in the British Prime Minister.
Perhaps it would be unkind - at a time when Teresa May can only be feeling pretty awful - to point out that Merkel and Macron also possess charisma and charm, two qualities that our own PM appears to be a bit weak on. Unkind I will be though as enough is enough! Merkel is affectionately called “Muti” by the Germans. Who would possibly dream of addressing May as “Mum”?
And then there’s Antonio Costa in Portugal. Costa’s doing an excellent job and, though it’s always possible to find things to whinge about, Portugal seems to be picking up an impressive number of prizes at the moment: economic growth, the top job at the UN, even the Eurovision Song Contest! Costa’s another leader with bundles of charisma and charm. Come on United Kingdom, surely there must be somebody more suitable … as long as it’s not Boris Johnson of course. We already have a teenager in the White House.
It is bad enough to make an elephantine political miscalculation, but absolutely appalling to then cling on to power in a manner that is frankly indecent. David Cameron got the point after his débâcle, didn’t he? What on earth can be going through the Prime Minister’s mind? May’s majority in the House of Commons has evaporated, the Conservative hounds are baying for her blood and she has lost all credibility as a strong leader.
It’s time for her to go. At a moment when the country is about to begin the most important set of international negotiations it has faced since World War II, Teresa May is manifestly the wrong person to lead it. The Prime Minister’s deal with the unattractive right-wing PUD is an unconvincing manifestation of her pathetic determination to remain in power. How they must be laughing in Ireland!
The author, James Mayor, is the founder of Grape Discoveries, a wine and culture boutique travel company
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