Goodbye to the Crying Lady

FAREWELL then to quite simply the worst Prime Minister in recent history. The crying lady’s body language wasn’t one of sadness but of bitterness she’d been evicted.

History will not judge Theresa May kindly, she was crowned as someone who ‘got the job done’, the vicars daughter who would reach out to those ‘just about managing’ and heal a country riven by austerity.

Instead she presided over the worst General Election campaign from a sitting Prime Minister, failed to marginalise the most ideologically-driven Labour leader since Michael Foot and deepened the divisions caused by Brexit.

And when confronted by her unpopularity, when the political winds demanded a change of course or an acknowledgement she could be wrong, she buried her head in the sand.

Politicians of all colours need a keen eye and ear to work inside and outside of the Westminster bubble, she possessed neither.

She called an unnecessary General Election in 2017. Jeremy Corbyn will never appeal to the centre ground of British politics enough to unseat a Conservative Government outright.

She began the campaign 20 points ahead in the opinion polls, yet ended with a loss of a majority which took the Tories more than 20 years to achieve.

During the campaign she was robotic, charmless and frankly boring. Corbyn meanwhile energised the youth, inspired his supporters and displayed his talents at rallies up and down the country.

When the Tory manifesto was scrutinised, instead of laying out the reasons for change, May backtracked insisting ‘nothing has changed’. A Prime Minister who offers the exotic tutti fruiti before racing back to plain vanilla is not someone who has leadership licked.

Confronted with the loss of her majority, May could and should have quit. Instead she sought a deal with the DUP, nothing wrong with that of course except it came with £1billion of cash for Northern Ireland.

The voters were rightly annoyed to see the Magic Money Tree sprout having been told ‘there’s no money left’ for seven years….

Faced with delivering Brexit, the biggest cultural shift our country has demanded in five decades, Mrs May displayed a tin ear of epic proportions.

The result was separated by just 1,269,501 votes. A majority yes but not anything like the 10 per cent difference showed by the Scottish people after their independence referendum.

Delivering the voters mandate therefore required political skill and courage, she lacked both.

Successful British Prime Ministers govern for all, not just those who elected them. Yet when she needed to carry her country with her, Mrs May marginalised everyone who voted remain.

In countless speeches she referred to delivering the wishes of the 17.4million who voted for Brexit. Had she delivered a Brexit for the 65million in this country, including all of Scotland which voted to remain, I dare say she wouldn’t be in this mess today.

We’re screaming out for leadership to carry us all forward as a country, to bring us back together. Because the British people didn’t do anything wrong, they were asked their opinion and gave it, no matter what side of the argument you are on that can never be a bad thing.

When her deal was published, it was rightly panned. It was a compromise she said, yet that wasn’t the binary choice on the ballot paper on June 23, 2016.

Faced with resignations, Mrs May acted tough, ‘My Deal or No Brexit’ she attempted to roar. Leaders can do that when they have the numbers to back the threat up with.

She never did, she presided over two of the biggest Parliamentary defeats in our history as her own party and her DUP partners baulked at backing the withdrawal agreement.

When she sought help from Corbyn, she expected Her Majesty’s official opposition to ride to the rescue in the ‘national interest’.

She didn’t for once think a) her party might be a tad annoyed at her legitimising a man they’ve deemed a threat to national security and b) Corbyn would go along with the talks but stop short of helping.

Labour doesn’t need to help her, Politics 101 tells you when the opponent is sinking never chuck a life raft.

She’s been doomed since a third of her MPs said they had no confidence in her in December, had they waited until the spring the number would have been much higher.

The simple truth is had the men in grey suits acted quicker, had the opposition been much stronger, her time as PM would already be over.

Britain deserves better than this. The question is can anyone out there rise to the challenge?

#WeStandTogether to defeat this evil no matter how long it takes

YESTERDAY was a dark day for the capital with innocent lives taken and others changed in ways we cannot comprehend.

Hopefully any broken bodies will heal and in time some of the horrors witnessed yesterday will be locked away deep in the recesses of the victim's minds.

The stories of the victims from the brave PC Keith Palmer who ran towards danger rather than away to the American man on a 'trip of a lifetime' to celebrate his 25^th wedding anniversay, are utterly tragic and emotional.

My heart goes out to their families and all those whose loved ones were caught up in this murderous rampage.

And I sincerely hope PC Palmer was welcomed to a higher plain with a pat on the back from his fellow fallen bobbies for bringing the target down. It's heartbreaking to think it cost him his life.

But already some on the right are seeking to make political gain from this, including Ms Hopkins and messers Farage and Nuttall, speaking from his home in......where does he live again?

'Britons are scared' 'Muslims need to do more', etc etc. The same old claptrap trotted out everytime something like this happens.

The problem is this mantra is so deeply flawed that actually if we dared ever take their views seriously we'd be playing straight into the so-called ISIS's hands.

Firstly, we aren't scared – look how quickly London has bounced back, nervous yes but normality has ensued today. Remember Hitler tried to flatten London and we simply drank tea and hit him with everything we had!

Secondly, terrorism is not a new weapon exclusively available to the Islamic world, it's been a cancer on all races, creeds and religions since the year dot.

When diplomacy and democracy don't work – the tapped amongst us turn to bombs and bullets.

Has it ever worked in the modern world? No of course not!

Do you really think the Muslim community across the UK is turning a blind eye to this radicalisation of young men? Of course they aren't. But a number of men and women are being sucked into a vicious vacuum where jihad is there only way out.

I recoil when the phrase Islamic Extremism is used – what happened yesterday and on other occasions is simply terrorism, it didn't work for the IRA (We never called that Catholic Extremism did we?) and it won't work now.

The terrorist failed in his mission yesterday, as well as multiple deaths on Westminster Bridge he wanted to take victims in the seat of our democracy and be taken down as a martyr.

Instead, thanks to the compassion and care of British people, the casualties were heavily reduced, although one wishes the only death had been his.

Look beyond the attacker's religion, give him no name other than 'the terrorist' and stand together with your fellow man and woman of all races and religions.

The threat we face today is not from Islam, from immigrants to our country or from people who look and sound different to us.

It's from people who don't accept our way of life, our values, our tolerance and our respect and have bastardized a peaceful religion to achieve their wicked aims.

All of us, in London, the UK and the rest of the world won't let them win.

#WeStandTogether, today, tomorrow and always....

Criticise Blair all you want, he's just become leader of the opposition...

IT'S INCREDIBLE that 10 years after leaving Downing Street, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair still provokes as much bile and vitriol as we have seen today.

His 'crime' this time? To dare to suggest the British people voted to leave without knowing Brexit's terms and conditions and opine that a space existed where he and other people could persuade voters to change their minds.

Basically the former PM is suggesting the sort of insurgency which has brought the likes of Farage, Nuttall, Le Pen and President Trump to the fore except this time in reverse.

His speech has predictably been ripped to shreds by the Brexiteers and the media who whip out their favourite 'affront to democracy' lines when anyone dares suggest Brexit isn't full of milk and honey.

However on this Blair is spot on. The British people did vote leave without knowing the terms and conditions of an exit and a space does exist to change people's minds....it's called the Her Majesty's official opposition.

In a single speech, Blair has done more to oppose Brexit than Jeremy Corbyn has since June 23, 2016 and shown a clear, decisive approach to what is a thorny issue for the Labour Party.

Let's remember the current 'opposition' to the Government have pretty much waived Brexit through the House of Commons, yes amendments were tabled but they failed and many Labour MPs still voted in favour apart from a hardy few who stuck to their principles.

The Liberal Democrats have been principled opponents as have the SNP but the overwhelming narrative is Brexit MUST happen. No, the ATMs must have money, our hospitals must have doctors and nurses and our schools must have teachers.

Against this backdrop, a tissue of lies and half-truths and hypocrisy has been allowed to be 'the norm' and to go unchallenged for fear of being labelled 'unpatriotic'.

It was wonderful to see the Foreign Secretary tear into Mr Blair....Because we all know Boris led the Leave campaign with facts, not with lies such as buses promising £350million extra for the NHS .....

This would be understandable had our nation voted overwhelmingly to leave, such as the 10 percentage point result of the Scottish referendum result. But Brexit was decided by less than the three percentage point margin of error used in all opinion polls.

It was also decided by a margin previously described by Nigel Farage as 'unfinished business' had it been the opposite way around......but shhh we aren't allowed to talk about that.

It's therefore right for someone to squeeze into the gap and pose the awkward questions, because Brexit should only mean Brexit if we can negotiate an exit which ensures our wonderful isle can continue to prosper.

That should be the message from the Labour Party but while Her Majesty's official opposition continues its breakdown, running scared of UKIP while taking even further away from its core voters, then the space exists for someone to exploit.

Ask yourselves this, if not Blair, then who?