Theresa May Resigns

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast.

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26 Responses

  1. Philip H says:

    She couldn’t deliver on BREXIT because it was built on lies and those lies eventually caught up to her – though I do t think she actually lied. Sadly this is not a courageous move.Report

    • Fish in reply to Philip H says:

      ^^^This. Her administration, I think, is guilty of negotiating in bad faith with the EU, and guilty of having the audacity to think that they could dictate terms to the same. I admit that I’m a little bit amused that it’s the Irish question that again plagues England (really not England but the whole of the UK, but yeah). Irish unification may be the only real solution. Otherwise we could see the return of The Troubles.Report

  2. Oscar Gordon says:

    Honestly, given all the grief she’s gotten over this, I’m amazed she never walked into Parliament, dropped trou and mooned the place, then walked out flipping every the bird with both hands while calling out, “Fuck you, bitches!”Report

    • Chip Daniels in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      In the world we live in, where the American President has members of his staff line up to declare that he is not mad, such a thing would seem completely normal.Report

    • dragonfrog in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      Except that she kind of signed up for this – everyone including May knew that no decent Brexit deal was going to happen, and she claimed she could make a good one work or else she couldn’t have become PM.

      Basically she signed up for a job knowing, or at least predicting it was very likely, that she was going to catch a bunch of grief for a couple of years and then have to resign in disgrace.Report

      • Oscar Gordon in reply to dragonfrog says:

        Oh, I know, I’m just amazed she lasted this long.Report

      • PD Shaw in reply to dragonfrog says:

        I cannot interpret this other than you think she is insane. Did she run over your dog or something?Report

        • dragonfrog in reply to PD Shaw says:

          I’m sure she’s quite sane.

          I suspect she wanted to be PM because she had goals other than Brexit to accomplish (I don’t know to what extent she did get those things done), and being of course a dedicated Tory, she wasn’t about to let Labour have the helm, even if it left her with a not especially glowing public image after retirement.

          Everyone who wanted a shot at government had to claim to have an excellent and workable plan for a Brexit deal that would involve unrealistically few concessions from the UK and unrealistically many from the EU. Everyone who had a shot at government knew perfectly well they didn’t. Nobody was willing to say this publicly because it would have guaranteed the other party formed government.

          I think the “leave” side in the Brexit debate was insane – not composed of individually insane people, but institutionally functioning as one insane entity.Report

          • PD Shaw in reply to dragonfrog says:

            Based upon listening to several months of TalkPolitics podcast at the recommendation of one of the contributors here, I think that the basic strategic framework she operated under made sense:

            1) Leave voters are significant in the most competitive constituencies fought btw/ Labour and the Conservatives, and both parties agreed to honor the referendum, so the question would ultimately be under what terms Britain leave.

            2) Once the issue is down to deal or no-deal leave, then the deal, any deal, would be approved, with even some Labour MPs in competive districts giving support.

            Getting to the second point seems to have escaped her, and its either her personally, or something fundamental has changed about UK politics, e.g., Fixed Term Parliament Act and Devolution. Her government should have failed long ago, or the threat of its failure would have enforced party/coalition discipline.Report

  3. North says:

    Here’s hoping many further Tories reap the same bitter harvest she is. They’ve sown enough.

    Here’s also hoping that antisemite clown Corbyn follows on her heels shortly.Report

  4. PD Shaw says:

    In retrospect, it seems preordained when the Conservatives lost seats in the 2017 snap election, that her hand in the party and to negotiate a deal had been fatally weakened. Nothing appears to have really changed since, except feelings have hardened and third-party proxies have emerged that only appear to be viable threats so long as Brexit is not finished.Report

  5. Stillwater says:

    The only things I know about Brexit are that the propaganda campaign advocating for it was based on lies and disinformation and that once passed parliament couldn’t agree on the terms of the exit.

    The only things I know about May are that she was criticized for not delivering the impossible and that she’s a terrible dancer.Report

  6. dragonfrog says:

    As Hugo Rifkind put it – May’s predicament is basically that 52 of British people voted that the government should build a submarine out of cheese. Then anybody who wanted to be prime minister had to promise an excellent cheese submarine, which May duly promised. Of course she’s not an idiot and so knew that whatever she built would be terrible.

    All parties – every MP in opposition or government – knew that no decent submarine can be made of cheese. But they’re not about to give any quarter, so they’re all pretending that they could have made a much better cheese submarine and that it’s totally because of May’s incompetence that her cheese submarine is terrible.Report

  7. George Turner says:

    I’m more worried about the important resident of 10 Downing Street, Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. He’s 12 years old and won’t be around much longer, and Palmerston, the Foreign Office’s cat at Whitehall, has been in a fight with him before, suffering some ear damage in the scuffle. Palmerston is only four and quite a ruthless killer. Last year he nabbed a duckling.

    The Chief Mouser doesn’t leave when the leadership changes hands, but he might retire at any time. Will Palmerston be the one to replace him at Downing Street?Report

  8. Saul Degraw says:

    No one can deliver on Brexit because everyone who supports it has a different and inchoate idea on what Brexit means plus the E.U. is pissed and there is no reason or incentive for them to play nice. The situation is not helped because May is ostensibly pro-Remain but was chosen to lead the True Blue Tories. Ironically Corbyn is a soft leaver but his party is overwhelmingly pro-Remain.

    May was given this job because she is a woman and men are usually good at making women clean up their messes and then coming in when it is all done. This is a mess that can’t be cleaned up.

    I don’t have much sympathy for her. Her track record on Brexit was to propose the same thing over and over again and see it fail.Report

  9. JoeSal says:

    “she left before the rubble fell on her”Report

  10. The scary thought is who replaces her. Johnson is a clown. And if the next election goes badly, we could get Corbyn, one of the most vile people in politics.Report

  11. Victor says:

    Brexit is impossible to deliver as it was based on fears and half-truths, Europe is stronger when unitedReport