To think Theresa May was given a very hard time?

[plodalong12]

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.

@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.

A middle aged woman.

I actually think she’d have handled the pandemic fairly well. Far, far better than Boris (although it’s difficult to think of many people who would’ve been worse at handling it that he’s been).

May was totally useless and a terrible PM, she was given a hard time because she was not cut out for the job sadly.

I support female PMS of course, but she was an embarrassment on the world stage, and could not communicate confidently or well.

She was utter shit and only got the job because the others had more sense and stepped back when the party was asked for volunteers - then deliberately sabotaged everything she did that she hadn't sabotaged herself through incompetence

And, in my opinion, her general incompetence was exactly why we've been landed in the current shit show. A better politician would have a) dealt with the other factions in the party, b) called an election rather than just jumping into the shiny shoes of Cameron and c) thought beyond the job title and asked themselves 'why exactly is Cameron bailing out quite so happily?'

So fuck all to do with sex, everything to do with being pretty crap as a politician at the top.

I'm not saying there are not dual standards and misogyny. I expect the current PMs personal life would have held them back if they were a woman.

But Mrs May's approach to securing agreement in Parliament of changing pretty much nothing, not bringing along the party but repeatedly expecting success seemed ill-conceived but entirely in line with what her personality appeared to be. Triggering Article 50 without any hope of a sustainable trading arrangement triangulating the Single Market, The Good Friday Agreement and a Buccaneering approach to signing all those improved trade deals was probably a high point too.

The hostile environment affected many people terribly for which she seems, at best, to have taken little personal responsibility. I wonder how she would have felt if Philip had been forcibly repatriated to a country with no means of supporting himself, life threatening illness and not being able to speak the language while being a citizen or having the right to remain?

That said, the Conservatives appear to have played a game of seeing how much worse they can be than their predecessor.

And she fought hard for that role, it was not a poisoned chalice that she was handed and she dutifully took.

If the answer next is Dominic Raab, Priti Patel, Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Chris Grayling, Rishi Sunak, Savid Javid (Nothing will postpone the end of lockdown, no matter what) then many might expect their game will continue.

I always found the coverage afforded to her 'pins' and shoes was patronising and demeaning. When they had her dance at the conference it was humiliating and unnecessary.

I doubt Boris would put up with anything to do with his extreme lack of sartorial anything really

I'm not a fan of hers but yes I think she had a rough time of it when she took over. David Cameron just flounced off after the brexit vote fiasco (an opinion poll that shouldn't have been acted on)!
Cabinet members started behaving like stroppy little toddlers, quitting all over the place so there was no focus on anything but that, it was shit show!!

She was an evil Home Secretary and a totally shit prime minister. I'm not giving her a special pass for being a woman, I judge our current Pm by the same standards and FWIW I think he's even worse.

The scary thing for me is to ask if countries get the leaders they deserve?

She was a poor PM.

@OneTC

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

This. She was absolutely bloody dreadful. Ineffectual, incompetent and downright cruel.

What she did to Amber Rudd was unforgivable. Unable to face the 2017 leaders’ debate herself, she sent Rudd to do it two days after her father died. She threw her to the wolves with the Windrush debacle too.

She was dreadful.

She only seems less so because of who came after her, but let's not retrospectively pardon her for the fucking shambles her term was.

I think she was better than Boris

She was utterly appalling.

Imo she was given an impossible job, that sure would never been seen to succeed in, so that Boris could ride in on his white horse and 'save the day'. There's no other reason for him not to go for the role at the time.

She was set up to fail, basically.

The scary thing for me is to ask if countries get the leaders they deserve?

The UK certainly does. We are an international laughing stock at the moment.

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

She was given a hard time because she was dreadful, a small-minded bigot, lacked any charisma and was completely out of her depth.

I certainly think that Mr Johnson and some others in the Tory party would have behaved differently if one of the three male candidates had been chosen.

I thought that her limited engagement with others especially in the party was a drawback. However, Mrs May was prepared to sack ministers (three of whom Mr Johnson has brought back), and no-one, male or female, is remotely as bad a UK Prime Minister as Mr Johnson.

She was completely screwed over by her party, so yes I do feel for her to an extent.

But she was foolish for taking the job at that point. It was always going to be a disaster, and Boris and co were poised to undermine whoever took that job.

Remainders were also foolish to join the crazy right in a pincer movement against her though. They were basically playing right into Boris’ hands by opposing May’d deal - it was a lot better than what we ended up with.

@MurielSpriggs have to agree about being a laughing stock. I got so fed up with conversations when abroad (pre-pandemic) about Brexit and/or Mr Johnson, that I started to hide being from these shores.

Theresa May introduced the “go home” buses, she flip flopped on Brexit before the referendum, she had a huge part to play in the Windrush scandal - in fact she was pretty nasty as Home Secretary.

She also came out with that horrible “magic money tree” phrase in response to a nurse.
She was arrogant thinking she would win a big majority by calling another election.

Overall she was shit. But then again, she is a Conservative - so what do people expect?

I’m not sure why people think a change in Conservative Prime Minister will change anything much.

As for being a woman - she was hardly one championing feminist causes and helping to overturn misogyny. Being a woman does not, by default, mean you care about progress for women.

The problem with Cameron, in my view, was that he was elected as Tory leader with very little experience or expertise, just because he was posh and pushy. He was then elected PM for similar reasons.

He didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He was all confidence and no substance. He should never have called that referendum. It’s like calling for a referendum into bringing back the death penalty - you just don’t do it, as the consequences could be so awful.

He was a gambler and a foolish one.

I agree. I'm not a Conservative by any means, but even I can see she was a vastly more competent politician than the absolute donkey Boris. Certain powers that be wanted Boris though as he can be manipulated to do their bidding. Whereas TM was a Bloody Difficult Woman, and good for her too.

She was terrible. As is Boris. I couldn't give a hoot what sex either of them are. Useless is as useless does.

Genuinely wonder what it would take for them to be voted out.