Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Theresa May was given a very hard time?

131 replies

plodalong12 · 10/08/2021 11:36

Just as the thread title says really. I feel like she had a really hard time whilst trying to manage a poisoned chalice in the form of Brexit.
I also think it’s interesting that it’s the tories and other political parties that have had female leaders but the Labour Party has so far had none despite putting themselves across as the party of equality.

OP posts:
FFSFFSFFS · 10/08/2021 11:38

Course she was. Boris didn't solve any of the issues she "failed to" - he just rammed everything through....

Regardless of your views on her politics - she was given a hard time because she was a woman.

UserNameNameNameUser · 10/08/2021 11:40

YANBU

I don’t agree with the majority of her policies, but it was a perfect example of the Glass Cliff phenomenon. i.e. a women being put in charge of something that was unlikely to be successful, because the men knew they had other safer routes to career success, whereas the women had to step forward and take a risk to get the same chances at career success.

OneTC · 10/08/2021 11:40

Being followed by Boris has just made her seem reasonable by comparison

iamtopazmortmain · 10/08/2021 11:43

I am no fan of hers, but she was handed a shitstorm that was impossible for anyone to deal with successfully.

She was just a place marker whilst Boris made his mind up whether or not the prestige of being PM was worth some effort. He decided it was and has made very little effort to do anything at all ever since he was elected.

So, yes I do feel sorry for her.

StarryStarrySocks · 10/08/2021 11:46

She was. The way she was treated by her party - especially the idiots in the ERG - was absolutely brutal. They would never spoken about a man the way they did about her.
I'm not a Tory but I have a lot of sympathy for her. I hope it's easier for the next woman.

Orf1abc · 10/08/2021 11:47

Her term was never going to be a success, because of the shit storm Cameron had created. She had many in her own party actively fighting against her. But she chose to take the job, no one forced her. I'll save my sympathy for the millions of women impacted by austerity, through no fault of their own.

Xyzzzzz · 10/08/2021 11:48

@FFSFFSFFS

Course she was. Boris didn't solve any of the issues she "failed to" - he just rammed everything through....

Regardless of your views on her politics - she was given a hard time because she was a woman.

This. Because she was a woman she didn’t have the support.
StarryStarrySocks · 10/08/2021 11:48

Meant to add, I hope she's enjoying life as a backbench MP while Boris deals with the big dollop of karma that's come his way in the form of the pandemic!

Fiercestcalm · 10/08/2021 11:49

I’ve never ever voted Tory and even I felt sorry for her and feel she was given a poison chalice, treated badly by her party and it was because she was a woman. She was not as machiavellian/ manipulative as

Fiercestcalm · 10/08/2021 11:49

Thatcher … oops posted too soon

BiggerBoat1 · 10/08/2021 11:50

In fairness, she was pretty dire. She just seems ok now because of the monumental shit-show that followed her.

Badgersdrift · 10/08/2021 11:52

She definitely demonstrated resilience under extreme pressure, unlike Cameron and Boris.

But she made lots of strategic errors. Allowing herself to be persuaded to go for 2017 election which lost her a massive majority.

And then putting ridiculous red lines in place and not reaching out to other parties over Brexit until it was too late.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 10/08/2021 11:53

May picked up a poisoned chalice because she knew it was the only chance she would ever get at the job. A closet remainer, who, for the sake of sheer naked ambition, disregarded the fact that she was wholly unsuited to the task of overseeing the UK's exit from the EU.

She immediately set about burning bridges and ruling out perfectly reasonable avenues of discourse, for no other reason than they would have antagonised the swivel-eyed loon element of her own party, which she knew, if push came to shove, could have had her deposed. So she spent much of her time as PM leading the country down blind alleys, dead-ends, and up the garden path, trying to deliver a version of Brexit that was completely undeliverable right from the get go, with the inevitable consequence that she had to negotiate her own exit in order for anything to budge.

Hard done by? Not in the slightest. A completely underwhelming politician promoted well out of her depth, and in large part responsible for the utterly farcical situation the UK finds itself in.

Good riddance to her. It's just a crying shame she ever got her completely useless arse into a position where she could cause so much damage in the first place.

adeleh · 10/08/2021 11:54

Yes, she was, but she handled things appallingly. She didn’t have to insist on the hard Brexit she went for. She was an absolute fucking idiot to trigger Article 50 with no plan.

And don’t get me started on her behaviour over Windrush.

How much did she give the DUP for their support?

She was a LOT better than Johnson, but she was dreadful.

ChainJane · 10/08/2021 11:54

She was given a hard time because she was a poor PM. Johnson is given a hard time because he is a poor PM. It's not "because she's a woman" - it's because she was shit. Even "good" PMs like Cameron were given a hard time, so the crap ones are really going to have people gunning for them.

BigPyjamas · 10/08/2021 11:55

I agree with making strategic errors. I suspect she could have been a better leader internally.

Whilst I didn't always agree with her policies, I did always trust her as a person, I felt she was trying to do the right thing. She, to me, had integrity.

Whilst Boris on the other hand, has not a shred of moral fibre about him.

I'd be interested to know how Covid would have been different if she had been PM.

Tablow · 10/08/2021 11:56

Yes agreed. Classic glass cliff.

Abhannmor · 10/08/2021 11:57

The Backstop was a reasonable compromise. Stay in the Single Market until some solution to the EU - UK border in Ireland could be worked out. The DUP rejected it as did Tory extremists. Teresa May wasn't a terribly charismatic leader. She wasn't a 'plausible rogue'. But perhaps Unionists in N Ireland have more time for her now they have been stitched up by Mr Havecakeandeatit.

SeaWitchly · 10/08/2021 11:57

How was Cameron a 'good' politician pray tell? The smarmy bastard.

LavenderAskew · 10/08/2021 11:58

@FFSFFSFFS

Course she was. Boris didn't solve any of the issues she "failed to" - he just rammed everything through....

Regardless of your views on her politics - she was given a hard time because she was a woman.

Absolutely.

And nothing could show the comparison better than her being followed by unhealthy-looking, decision-avoiding man with an unknown about of children by multiple women who was having an affair and who dresses like he's been living out of a C&A plastic carrier bag, getting better press and being admired more than she ever was.

VladmirsPoutine · 10/08/2021 12:00

She doesn't get enough flack in my opinion. She's not some sort of 'feminist' pioneering icon and her time as Home Sec was utterly abysmal.

SarahAndQuack · 10/08/2021 12:03

I agree it was a glass cliff situation. But I also think there's been quite a lot of 'oh poor woman' and it's very successfully pushed to the back of people's minds the truly horrible things she's done. Her record on LGBT stuff is really disgusting. She's not a feminist icon and, worryingly, I have heard a left-leaning friend suggest she might be more than once.

SarahAndQuack · 10/08/2021 12:06

Oh, that the fact the Tories have had two women leaders is not surprising - the left will be (mildly) embarrassed about using misogyny as an attack tactic (or will pretend to be). The right won't have qualms about it. Therefore it is harder to be a leftie woman in power than a right-wing woman in power.

Tanith · 10/08/2021 12:07

I think it’s a cheek that the Conservatives claim they are the party for women when they have presided over the biggest attack on Women’s Rights for decades.

regthetabbycat · 10/08/2021 12:07

@OneTC

Being followed by Boris has just made her seem reasonable by comparison
This ^