Her intervention yesterday in the EU debate was pretty disgusting. Far from lecturing her party on its nastiness, May scraped up the foul-smelling discards of her "celebrated" 2002 conference speech and tried transmuting them into political gold. And, unfortunately - talking about it with @catherinebuca last night - it could just work. She trotted out the basic argument that leaving the EU would weaken the British economy, which is Remain's strongest suit. Sticking with the economic theme, she passed directly over into the crudest economism and said the European Convention on Human Rights "adds nothing to our prosperity." If that's the case, then why should we bother with the courts and, indeed, liberal democracy itself? Not that logic has ever been the bottom line to Tory politics - it's always about position-taking to defend and extend the interests of entrenched privilege. Yet reiterating the pledge to scrap human rights legislation and withdraw from the ECHR (where Britain will join the company of Belarus) is her wink to the Tory grassroots, that the EU stuff is cold pragmatism arrived at on the basis of facts when she really is one with them when it comes to dismantling workers' protections, and bashing immigrants. If the left have virtue signalling, the right have the malevolent wink. And if that wasn't enough, she raised the spectre of millions of Albanians and Turks descending upon the Jerusalem we've built in these fair islands. The only way to head them off is to take leadership in Europe to stop new member states from being afforded the right to free movement.
Immigrant-bashing and dog-whistling. Repugnant politics, but from the standpoint of succeeding Dave quite smart politics. As a known Eurosceptic, she has advanced a credible position for staying in that eschews any whiff of EU-enthusiasm. And she's got away with the usual idiocy about immigration without appearing overtly racist or xenophobic. Contrast this with Osborne, who has well and truly sunk his chances which, as a Labour Friend of George, I'm very sorry to see. And with Johnson, whose faux bonhomie has slipped (again) with a widely-condemned attack on Barack Obama, and who - as his fellow MPs know - only jumped into the leave camp for entirely opportunist reasons might have scuppered his bid. In contrast with the useless and the loud-mouthed, May cuts an austere, serious figure who knows what the thinning grassroots thinks, and appears competent in her brief.
When the time comes and the Tory MPs put their shortlist of two to the membership, don't be surprised if May is one of them.
6 comments:
But her speech made no sense at all! She argued that the difference between the EU and the ECtHR is that the ECtHR can 'bind the hands' of Parliament, but the EU can't. This runs into the problem that EU law actually is supreme over British law: the courts can and do annul laws passed by Parliament on the grounds that it's incompatible with EU law. May got round that by saying that the EU only has power over us because we've said it does; Parliament could pass a law any time saying that we're leaving the EU, and its hands would no longer be bound. But in that case the ECtHR doesn't bind us either, because we could pass a law any time saying that we're leaving it - which in fact is what she's arguing for.
Shorter: we should leave the ECtHR and not the EU because we could leave the EU any time, whereas we can't leave the ECtHR. It's like telling someone to remove their mascara because mascara isn't make-up, and then explaining that the difference is that make-up is removeable.
Contrast this with Osborne, who has well and truly sunk his chances which, as a Labour Friend of George, I'm very sorry to see.
You are whaaaat? Please explain. The linked to article doesn't contain your coming out as an admirer of G.O.
A Labour Friend of Osborne ... in the sense that he's a) rubbish b) awful c) the best Tory leader from the standpoint of us winning a general election.
Do you have a take on who would be formidable, in terms of being hard to beat in 2020?
I feel like Boris is a true wildcard, but he's been so unimpressive lately I feel like any time at the helm would tank his chances in an election. The Trump act could go either way.
There is too much outright bigotry and the politics of the gutter on the EU exit side to even begin to argue for a leave. If we vote to exit the initial victory wil be for the right wing. Though, as happened in Scotland it is a real possibility that a Yes vote will massively help UKIP. In this way they can't lose!
“If that's the case, then why should we bother with the courts and, indeed, liberal democracy itself?”
Indeed!
There will be an Election before 2020
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