The Genius of Theresa May

I got out and about for the first time in a little while today and realised that I need to put words to some thoughts. I know from experience that I won’t find peace until I do.

I’ve long held the belief that the very qualities required to become a politician - an intense personal ambition, a very thick skin, and an allegiance to an ideology - actually disqualify you from being a good one. Perhaps the most valuable skill is the ability to avoid addressing the issue at hand. Theresa May’s sublime mastery of the art of never answering a direct question is something I marvel at. As is her stubbornness. And her stamina. I began by being casually unimpressed with her leadership, then annoyed, then even a little angry, before becoming more understanding and sympathetic, then seriously in awe of the woman.

History is not going to treat David Cameron at all kindly. I thought the same fate awaited May but I’ve come to believe that she’ll go down in history alongside Churchill as one of the greats. She’s the ultimate strategist. She’s playing a total blinder. 

I need to explain.

First, I haven’t posted here for a couple of weeks. It’s been a strange time, during which I’ve come to believe in ghosts - a story for another day. I lost my camera again but fortunately became reunited with it, once again, further endorsing my faith in the kindness of strangers. Everywhere I go I come across good people.

I spent some time at home when I turned my head off from the computer and for the first time ever watched the proceedings of parliament live from Westminster. It was the famous debate where the government was being held in contempt of parliament. I found it compelling viewing and I was left feeling very proud of our democracy. I experienced a kind of epiphany. Our MPs, on both sides, are good people. They are trying to do what they think is the right thing. Of course, what that right thing happens to be is becoming more and more elusive and debatable in our increasingly complex world. I have sympathy with the politician’s plight.

I thought this whole Brexit thing was beyond my comprehension. And then I realised that it’s beyond the comprehension of every politician too. Indeed, they are the people least suited to be able to understand it. Ambition, a thick skin and party politics get in the way of a nuanced understanding. The likes of you and I are actually better equipped to appreciate the full complexity of it all. The human mind has an extraordinary ability to believe what it needs to believe for personal survival. 

It was sometime in the summer when I realised that the leave or remain debate wasn’t about making the right decision. There is no right or wrong decision here. There are all sorts of reasons that can be argued for one position or the other. I have sympathies both ways. The world is now so unimaginably complex that it is literally impossible to predict the outcome of any of the possible scenarios that lay ahead.
 
I believe that Theresa May, on becoming Prime Minister, had an epiphany of her own. She understood that the first referendum was a shambles. The people were fed disinformation. The campaigns were both incompetent and corrupt. She appreciated how impossibly deep was the hole into which Cameron had plunged the country. She felt the unfairness of the spread of the vote where the more elderly demographic had stitched up the younger demographic. She could foresee a very uncomfortable future. By the time we left the EU, it would no longer be the will of the people to do so. What could she possibly do to prevent such a scenario?

We can now begin to see her genius. Her party had a sufficient majority and mandate to make Brexit inevitable so she had no choice but to call a general election to reduce that majority and shatter her mandate, sufficiently so to be able to justify getting the DUP on board with a supply and confidence agreement. That was crucial and, of course, she judged the mood of the electorate to perfection. She got the numbers she needed to pull off what looks like becoming an astonishing coup.

She kept her Brexit Ministers mostly out of the loop, protracting the negotiations for as long as possible, leaving them no choice but to resign when things got particularly sticky. Boris Johnson was always likely to derail her plan, not necessarily by intent but as the result of some bungle or blunder, so what better to keep him out of trouble than by appointing him Foreign Secretary. This is political savvy of the very highest order.

She got the best deal she was ever going to get out of Europe and that was always going to upset people on both sides of the argument. She kept getting agreement over clever forms of words around Northern Ireland which never actually meant anything but kept everyone around the table for as long as was required, until the final declaration of the backstop, when the words had to say something concrete and threw the DUP into a tizzy fit. She knew this deal would be unacceptable. She could never have persevered with such insane stubbornness unless she'd always been in precise control of what she was doing. She’s not daft. Forcing this through as the only deal on the table, and so late in the day, was her masterstroke

May has always rejected the idea of a second referendum, as has been completely necessary for authenticity. But the lady doth protest too much. This is her blinder. She will back herself into such a corner, surrounded by opposition on all sides, that she will have to fall on her sword and finally, reluctantly, admit that a people’s vote is the only way out of this terrible mess. She will tell us that she’s done everything she possibly can to deliver a Brexit, as the people willed, so she makes this final noble gesture to give back the decision to the people - as parliament has singularly failed her and never will find a majority to deliver any form of Brexit. This is the endpoint to which she has so singularly and secretly been steering us, 

And she ultimately trusts the people to vote to remain. The second referendum will be run legally. There will be clear and concrete options on the table as opposed to a vague abstract concept. The parties will be held to account. And, of course, the whole electorate has grown up. The majority should not be afraid of the divisiveness that will inevitably be stirred up by the minority. It’s all too important. It’s not a matter of the ultimate result being the right or the wrong one for each of us individually but being the right one because it was made in an informed way.

Theresa May will have to advocate for her deal but you now understand her brilliant private agenda. You know how she secretly wants you to vote come the second referendum. She can't fail.

Theresa May is a genius. You heard it here first. If it wasn’t for the association I will forever make in my head with Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, I might possibly have been able to come to love her.