Denster wrote:I read an article a couple of days ago. It gave the opinion that May essentially doesn’t have to worry about the Tory rebels etc because she knows she isn’t going to fight the next election in 2022.
They drew comparison with second term US presidents - who know they have a fixed amount of time left and so it frees them to a certain extent. She also doesnt need to appeal to the electorate either - specifically the Leave voters. So she can get a so called soft Brexit and the Leavers can piss and moan all they like. She’s got nothing to lose in the long term. Her successor would have to deal with it.
She could go with the 40 billion and say to the europhobes - that’s the deal, it’s a compromise. If you don’t like it back me or sack me.
The question is whether she has the stones to do that.
That’s what I’d do. At least then she’d salvage some dignity and self respect from this mess.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a tough stance. The EU have. Thst tough stance can them be softened with negotiation and compromise and we reach a deal.
The problem is is that the Brexiteer lot — particularly some of the Tory ones - don’t want compromise. You can’t negotiate with that stance. It’s strawberry floating idiotic.
Then you get gooseberry fool what Grayling came out with. A stupid sound bite from a man who knows nothing about the industry he has speaking about.
It makes us look stupid and amateurish and downright petulant and infantile as well.
I think you are right that May knows she will not be the leader at the next election and that sort of frees her up.
But (and it’s a big but and I cannot lie) she is not a President and she doesn’t get to make the decisions by herself. Anything she agrees with the EU will have to go through the cabinet, her party as a whole and Parliament. If the Sun, Mail and the rabid Leavers out there don’t like the deal, then she will be scuppered long before anything is finalised.
Her “no deal is better than a bad deal” soundbite will come back to haunt her if the hard right wing of the Tories and/or media decide that they don’t like whatever she has cooked up with the EU.
I am not sure that the EU have taken a tough stance either. They basically said “no trade talks until the other stuff is sorted” and stuck to it. That’s not really tough talk, it’s just somebody with a royal flush who knows their opponent only has 2s. Britain’s problem since the referendum has been trying to talk tough while having nothing to back it up.