The U-Turn Queen: Theresa May in Action
By Dr Binoy Kampmark
Authoritarian styles can come at cost. The manner with which the British Prime
Minister has reacted to the concept of debate has been one such point. While
the joys of the Westminster system hardly suggest untrammelled enlightenment,
one superficial element remains: the need to debate policies.
Having called an election, the pollster community were more
or less suggesting Theresa May could sit back and shut-up with disdainful
reclusiveness. A victory with a majority
of 100 seats would be netted and British Labour would suffer their worst
electoral showing in generations.
As ever, the pollster community can no longer be said to be
a uniform gaggle, having been pummelled by the remorseless wheels of history.
One has decided to buck the trend:
should current trends continue as they are, the May government could
face a hung parliament, and the distinctly anti-British turn of negotiating
with minor parties. The Corbynistas, it
seems, were gaining.
The debate showing was poor, largely because the PM decided to
send a proxy in her stead, Home Secretary Amber Rudd. The other parties were hardly worth a
jotting. Liberal Democrat leader Tim
Farron was in stern mood: “How dare you call an election and then run away from
the debate?”
The Greens co-leader Caroline Lucas also posited some
guidelines of leadership: “the first rule of leadership is to show up – you
don’t say it’s the most important election of our lifetime and not be bothered
to show up.”
But May has not so much running away as simply ignoring the
convention of a debate format that is held in such high esteem in the United
States. “I don’t think seven politicians
arguing among themselves is that interesting or revealing.” For the PM, there really is nothing worth
talking about, though it is evident that members of her party are getting
rattled. This lady has been for turning from the start, and nerves are showing.
In a separate event organised by the BBC Question Time
program, May faced her own set of questions from a selected audience. She found
in it a chance to stress that she had “absolute, resolute determination to
respect the will of the British people.”
She then trained her rhetorical guns on the Corbyn
option. Imagine, she posed, the
nightmare of a government that would include “Diane Abbott, who can’t count,
John McDonnell, a Marxist, propped up by Nicola Sturgeon, who wants to break-up
the UK, and Tim Farron, who wants to go back into the EU.”
On money, May proved conventionally Tory, and brutal. There was little time for that old canard of
compassionate conservatism in the face of indignant teachers and nurses. A cap of 1 per cent on annual public sector
pay rises was justified, despite not keeping up with the rate of inflation,
since public money had to be “managed carefully”. Her opponents seemed to believe, by way of
contrast, in “a magic money tree”, one that could be repeatedly plucked and
raided.
In the 45-minute show, May insisted that “the only poll that
matters is the one that takes place on polling day”. Few could disagree with that putative fact,
though it also chimes with a certain long yawn shown by the prime minister of
late.
This sheer indifference has seen May do a set of U-turns on
various policies, be it the issue of Brexit, which she campaigned against, or
raising the National insurance for self-employed workers, which effectively
amounted to a repudiation of the Tory position on raising taxes. Few will
forget that other corker of a turn: the steadfast refusal to hold an election
without first serving a full term.
Robotically, continues to adjust gears and alter course as needed.
Corbyn’s own set of questions from the Question Time crowd
also had their element of discomfort, though they did draw out old
principles. He reiterated a certain
doubt about using Britain’s Trident missiles, even in the event of the country
being subjected to “imminent threat from nuclear weapons”. He preferred “negotiation and talks” to
existential annihilation. “If we did use
it, millions would die.” The current UK
Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, found such an
attitude “chilling”.
For all that, Corbyn had to concede to internal defeat,
having lost the debate within his party on the renewal of the Trident
option. The Labour Party is hardly a
collective for peace, and fantasies involving nuclear holocaust remain wedded
to the Union Jack and patriotic self-worth. Even faded dreams need their
weapons.
A May Britain will continue looking bleak and squalid, but
it will continue being British. The only thing left for the prime minister as
she goes forth hoping that Labour’s momentum weakens is to wish that others
fail. Such a Tory strategy has worked before, and may well work again.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn
College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT
University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
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