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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel sorry for Theresa May

321 replies

thinkiamgoingcrazy · 12/06/2017 06:39

I think she has been an awful PM: evasive / divisive / arrogant / authoritarian / sneering / dog whistling.

I am glad that she no longer has a majority, hopefully allowing more voice to the many and diverse opinions in the oppositions as well as in the moderate wing of the Tory party.

I am also glad that we are apparently going back to government by cabinet meeting rather than by advisers (probable overstatement I know).

And yet I feel sorry for her Confused. Now a puppet at the mercy of her ruthless party.

She reminds me of Glenn Close at the end of Dangerous Liaisons.

OP posts:
dotandstripe · 12/06/2017 09:52

I do because it wasn't exactly a fair contest with team Jezza handing out freebies to entice people in. Free this, free that, cancelling cuts, increasing benefits... Social media propaganda played a major role and so much of it was absolute lies like those memes talking about having to pay to use A

Peregrina · 12/06/2017 09:53

The referendum came about because of a rising political force - the largest UK party in the EU parliament, the third most popular party in the UK after Labour and Conservative, coming 2nd in 120 constituencies across the country in the 2015 GE. A force gaining so much momentum that no prime minister could ignore it.

Where is this force now? For the time being at least completely spent. Did their voters go back to the Tories who had become BlueKIP? No, they didn't. This is despite the pro-UKIP hysteria from the Mail, Express and Telegraph and despite BBC programmes like Question Time constantly featuring UKIP spokespeople. The tide started to turn at the Sleaford by election, where the media being so obsessed with bashing Corbyn and Labour, failed to note that UKIP, although coming second, had only polled a couple of thousand votes more than Labour. In a heavily Leave and impovershed area - one in which they should have been snapping at the heels of the Tories.

BoysofMelody · 12/06/2017 09:56

Whoever mentioned Macbeth was spot on. It made me think of Act 5 Scene 5 and especially the 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow' speech.

" It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

...Signifying nothing."

Pretty much sums up May's campaign.

MsMoobly · 12/06/2017 10:06

BoysofMelody I also thought of this bit:

'This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
...
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath"

angemorange · 12/06/2017 10:07

Not exactly a fair contest dotandstripe???!!!!!!

May had the backing of virtually all the media, and her donors spent millions more on her campaign than Labour did.

The Tory manifesto was woeful and nothing was costed. Everything in Labour's manifesto was costed and appealed to people concerned with their real lives - wages, housing, NHS, schools etc.

All the odds were stacked towards May and the Tories are still the biggest party - to say Corbyn had some sort of advantage is laughable.

makeourfuture · 12/06/2017 10:15

Where is this force now?

And furthermore....why didn't/don't the Tories respond to the huge number of people suffering under this ridiculous austerity?

They listen to UKIP but not to those being made to suffer for a crisis they had nothing to do with causing.....for a failed economic ideology....

alltouchedout · 12/06/2017 10:15

it wasn't exactly a fair contest with team Jezza handing out freebies to entice people in

Oh bless your little heart.
What you call 'freebies to entice people in', Jeremy would undoubtedly call the policies he has been advocating for 34 years. You are 100% entitled to disagree with every single policy he supports, but you have to understand he means what he says.

As for not a fair contest, hmmm. Whose side were most of the papers on? Who spent the most on their campaign? Who called an unnecessary election 3 years early when they had a 20 point lead in the polls- having promised 7 times beforehand that there would be no such election?

makeourfuture · 12/06/2017 10:19

There have been marches and pleas and letters.....nothing....

UKIP rolls out Farage, and we reinvent society for him.

Bumpsadaisie · 12/06/2017 10:24

I think she probably would LOVE to resign. However we have a date with Europe on 19th June and I think she thinks it is her duty to ride it out for that.

I don't think TM is a slimy s**t like Cameron or Gove or Johnson and to that extent I do feel sorry for her. In fact I feel sorry for anyone being humiliated (except possibly people like Gove/Johnson who I regard as utterly machiavellian and self-serving).

She was not totally stupid to call the election, in fact at the time no-one foresaw anything other than a Tory landslide.

That said I am beyond delighted at the outcome of the election! :-) The fact that (a) left wing views have been rehabilitated as potential vote winners and (b) the power of the red tops has been decimated by social media and (c) people are engaged with politics all make me feel thrilled and hopeful for the first time since about 2005.

NavyandWhite · 12/06/2017 10:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MsMoobly · 12/06/2017 10:33

Yes, I thought it was a cunning move when she called it, because I thought the Tories would win easily. BUT then she was astonishingly arrogant, and basically said her plan was to obliterate opposition within parliament, which doesn't go down so well in a supposed democracy (especially as the timing coincided with Erdogan's "give me all the power" referendum).

Followed up with a terrible manifesto and a campaign that revealed her to be unable to campaign. Refusing to take part in debate and regurgitating soundbites instead of responding to questions and challenges is just the ultimate in arrogance and cowardice.

Orlantina · 12/06/2017 10:34

The Conservative Manifesto was 'vote for me because I'm not Corbyn'.

She made it personal. For strong and stable leadership.

Nikephorus · 12/06/2017 10:37

So what you really meant OP was "AIBU to start another bitchy thread about Theresa May but to pretend that I feel sorry for her to give me an excuse?" Hmm
But I feel sorry for you for having such a sad life that you need to post something like this. Do have a Biscuit on me.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 12/06/2017 10:40

What is it you most feel sorry about?

Her gilded life before that brought her to the office of PM?

Or the gilded life she will lead on the dinner-speakers circuit with a massive pension after she is PM?

Dandandandandandandan · 12/06/2017 10:42

I wouldn't worry about a gilded after dinner circuit if Jezza gets in.

nina2b · 12/06/2017 10:44

She richly deserves it all. YABU.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 12/06/2017 10:44

Or when Brexit kicks in...

Nah, the rich will cope.

Original poster
thinkiamgoingcrazy · 12/06/2017 10:45

To be fair the bitchy threads have been about the Tories, not about May.

What an awful PM she has been IMO - genuine feeling.

That I feel sorry for her on a human level - also a genuine feeling.

I come here to talk about things I can't talk about in real life and for the debate.

Given that she is also my PM and that how she behaves is crucial for all of us, her actions can and will be discussed.

So keep your weird biscuit thing nike. And you have no idea about my life.

OP posts:
Maudlinmaud · 12/06/2017 10:48

I'm not a TM fan and have serious concerns about her relationship with the DUP. But she is being hung out to dry which is hard to watch. I wish she would resign but I'm told that won't happen. She describes herself as a bloody difficult woman and I tend to agree. She is not a people person and I'm not sure how she got so far in this game.

surferjet · 12/06/2017 10:50

A lot of weaker people would have resigned over this, no question, she has been totally humiliated ( world wide! ) so you kinda have to admire her, no one could have forced her to stay.
The last thing the country needs is another election or indeed a leadership contest, she knows this, so she's staying for the greater good. 99% of people would have run!

She's got guts - you have to give her that.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 12/06/2017 10:51

Yes, I think she has been very foolish, but what's really annoying is that by putting herself into this position the real architects of the destruction of this country: Johnson, Gove, Farage etc, are yet again getting away with everything.

That is galling.

Orlantina · 12/06/2017 10:55

She's got guts - you have to give her that

Or is stubborn, arrogant and out of touch?

What makes her think she's the best person to negotiate and lead on this?

What evidence is there that she is the best person for the job?

Floisme · 12/06/2017 11:02

I cannot believe there is still talk of Theresa May acting for the good of the country. We are in this shit because she put her own party and indeed her own position before the interests of the public she is paid to serve. Her predecessor did the same.

christinarossetti · 12/06/2017 11:04

I think she's staying in power because she's not allowed to resign. Who on earth would want to be in her shoes at the moment?

I wouldn't normally take joy in the disintegration of another human being, but every time I get a twinge of 'she looks like a dotty old aunt who's pissed the housekeeping money on bingo and has been found out' I remember the victims of the 140 MPs linked to child abuse whose files she 'lost', thus thwarting their right to access the criminal justice system for crimes committed against them and think good, and actually, she's not suffering enough yet.

surferjet · 12/06/2017 11:04

There's no evidence because Brexit talks haven't even started yet. I'm just saying she's brave to carry on at all, she doesn't have to stay & be a 'puppet caretaker manager until they find someone better' - (?if indeed that's what they think? ) she could tell them to poke it.
I'm not so sure this hasn't been a massive conspiracy by the tories, many of whom are remainers don't forget - maybe we're all being duped.