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.

You could say a lot about May but she was not corrupt.

Theresa May - windrush, the hostile environment, her response to Grenfell

Boris Johnson - picaninnies, watermelon smiles, letterboxes...

Honestly that you had to ask this question says it all really, it's not like any of this is hidden away.

Theresa May is racist. As is Boris Johnson.

Tories and racism go together much like cheese on toast. However, they do treat their token minorities with a great deal more respect than Labour does.

Whether there’s another Tory election win will depend on them getting a lot of money into red wall areas very quickly and very visibly. We were in the north east last week visiting relatives and it was very clear that Tory votes up there are only on loan. Unless they make a substantial mark very quickly, those votes will be taken back again.

The US. Special relationship etc etc

Oh ok, I was asking just in case you were from some country that was not renowned for a racist past and who was nice to nearby folks in another country, like Mexicans, but I see from your response that you’re not. It’s a bit galling to bemoan racism here when your country had a very recent president whose motto and pledge was “Build The Wall”.

@plodalong12

The US. Special relationship etc etc

Oh ok, I was asking just in case you were from some country that was not renowned for a racist past and who was nice to nearby folks in another country, like Mexicans, but I see from your response that you’re not. It’s a bit galling to bemoan racism here when your country had a very recent president whose motto and pledge was “Build The Wall”.

That was to @Beachhuts90

No, she could have stood up to the ERG but bottled it. Awful politician who created Windrush scandal. What's your point about being a female leader? What did her or Thatcher ever do for women?

It’s a bit galling to bemoan racism here when your country had a very recent president whose motto and pledge was “Build The Wall”.

Is this a joke? So because the U.S is also racist, Americans shouldn't express their views on racism in the UK?

I think I've heard it all now.

@plodalong12

The US. Special relationship etc etc

Oh ok, I was asking just in case you were from some country that was not renowned for a racist past and who was nice to nearby folks in another country, like Mexicans, but I see from your response that you’re not. It’s a bit galling to bemoan racism here when your country had a very recent president whose motto and pledge was “Build The Wall”.

I'm absolutely horrified by Trump. However that doesn't mean I have to endorse people saying rude things about other immigrants in the UK either, as a result of policies set out by the woman this thread is about. This thread isn't about Trump and the US relationship with racism, it's about whether Theresa May deserved more credit. Surely I am allowed to have opinions in both countries?

@VladmirsPoutine

It’s a bit galling to bemoan racism here when your country had a very recent president whose motto and pledge was “Build The Wall”.

Is this a joke? So because the U.S is also racist, Americans shouldn't express their views on racism in the UK?

I think I've heard it all now.

Thank you for this.

@Binjob118

No, she could have stood up to the ERG but bottled it. Awful politician who created Windrush scandal. What's your point about being a female leader? What did her or Thatcher ever do for women?

The Windrush scandal came out of the "hostile environment" that was instututed against illegal immigrants by the Brown Govt. All govts have tried to win votes by going as hard on immigration as possible. Caught up in that was a group of innocent immigrants who should never have been, and who must have lived a nightmare.

Thatcher smashed through a glass ceiling and demonstrated to women in the country that success was possible. She also changed attitudes of some men as they saw it was possible to be a successful female leader. Possibly not of labour voting men and women as they still don't seem able to elect a woman leader. 😉

@XDownwiththissortofthingX I don't recall seeing his personal opinion and I agree about the working class being affected the worst but I thought the impression at the time was that Corbyn was anti-EU possibly due to its role in contracting out exercises impacting on workers' wages together with freedom of movement and the Swedish cases leading to difficulty in applying national minimum wage to offshore providers and such like. Overall, I understood his position to be that EU membership adversely affected working class workers to the benefit or corporates. Supposition on the media's part but to an outsider, his support for remain looked lukewarm at best despite his assertions otherwise.

mmm...

I respect T-May but I regard her differently after listening to how vacuous one of her opponents described her as being.

Same narrator has some rather personal takes on BoJo & Farage, too!

She was not given a hard time because she was a woman.
She was given a hard time because she didn't do her job!

@lljkk

I'm happy to believe all bad stuff about politicians but even I'm not sure that a declared life long Labour supporter is going to be unbiased about tory and ukip politicians. Its like John Redwood writing a honest autobiography of John McDonnell. Haha.

Maybe listen to the podcast before you judge the value of what he said. He's describing things that happened, rather than having a rant. Pretty funny anecdote about Bojo, actually.

She should have realized that she wasn’t PM material, especially not for delivering Brexit, and not stepped up into that role.

Yanbu. Her Brexit deal was way superior to the nonsense Boris mashed together, particularly re. Ireland, and she didn’t inflame nationalism or insult our allies either. She had a tough time made harder by Boris stabbing her in the back at every opportunity.

I have a lot of respect for her I think she tried hard to do an impossible job.

@lljkk

Maybe listen to the podcast before you judge the value of what he said. He's describing things that happened, rather than having a rant. Pretty funny anecdote about Bojo, actually.

Fair comment. I'll have a listen later. 😊

@Skysblue

Yanbu. Her Brexit deal was way superior to the nonsense Boris mashed together, particularly re. Ireland, and she didn’t inflame nationalism or insult our allies either. She had a tough time made harder by Boris stabbing her in the back at every opportunity.

I have a lot of respect for her I think she tried hard to do an impossible job.

Once Boris decided he wanted to be PM, he didn't care who he took down. Or how he did it. But to be fair if she'd won the GE, she'd have been safe. She was a dead man walking after that. In Tory minds, if you can't win an election, you're done.

I felt sorry for her at the time, but am now glad she has gone.

She did have to endure some horrible insults, but that's politics- it has never attracted particularly decent or fair people, and the Commons is like a second rate boy's pubic school.

She stepped forward when no one else would. That alone deserves credit. Watching her tear up outside number 10 when she stepped down was actually quite sad as she was deliberately thrown under the bus. But this the business of politics. The Tories know how to hold onto power, the party is always more important than any single personality.
Now what to say about labour. Misogyny comes to mind. They don’t recognise women as biological females anyway, so that tells you everything you need know about how they feel about women in general, let alone in power. And when they do promote a woman by mistake, it’s usually someone who lowers the bar and turns off voters with their shouting an sneering on tv - yes Angela Rayner.

Pains me to say it in many ways, but I think she’s have done a much better job at the beginning of the pandemic than Boris did.

She’d have gone to the early meetings, there would have been no Cummings shennangins and I think she would have at least bothered talking to the heads devolved of devolved nations in some attempt to co-ordinate.

@SantiagoSky

She should have realized that she wasn’t PM material, especially not for delivering Brexit, and not stepped up into that role.

To be fair, it was a coronation after Leadsom’s repulsive remarks meant she had to step aside. At least she spared us having Leadsom in charge, what a debacle that would have been.

@Daphnise

I felt sorry for her at the time, but am now glad she has gone.

She did have to endure some horrible insults, but that's politics- it has never attracted particularly decent or fair people, and the Commons is like a second rate boy's pubic school.

I remember seeing her at the cricket at Lords the day after Boris took over. She was chatting and laughing away. I bet she was just glad to be out of it. Boris and Dominics back stabbing make you realise what an awful business politics is.