LIVE24SEVEN // Feature V I EWS – WI TH SANDR A PAUL Unbelievable! What a difference a year makes, says Sandra Paul
Every few months I’m drawn to writing about the unbelievable, almost surreal, times we are experiencing either at home or abroad. Each time I do, I caution myself about hyperbole. I.e. are we truly living in revolutionary times in the UK?
This time last year I thought so. I had just voted to Brexit with my heart filled with optimism, hope, purpose, and engagement. I even had my Brexit polling card framed, and it is hanging in my office – a proud statement of when those who dared to dream, did, and won! But no, we didn’t.
I voted to leave so Britain can be independent - without the political rule and the financial levy charged for being part of a ‘club’. I believe this ‘club’ is not structured effectively and any attempts we made previously to alter its course, ended in failure.
One year on from the Brexit vote, all that optimism for self-governance, etc. is being chiselled away. What a shower the Conservative Government is now. Where we once saw Theresa May as a strong Home Secretary, today we view her as a weak, battered Prime Minister; desperately hanging onto her seat of power while her colleagues and ex-colleagues, stab her in the back.
Almost all of the ambitious pronouncements she made on becoming PM have died a death. Instead of standing her ground, she has capitulated on her ‘beliefs’. The grammar school girl who once raced through fields of wheat (how naughty) but aspired to greatness promised the nation that the education she had enjoyed, would be revitalised and available to all, once again. We learn now, through well- timed leaks ahead of the political party conference season that this promise has been watered down. So, too, has Mrs May’s promise to put employees on the boards of their companies.
Each week, another ‘colleague’ launches a not-so-subtle leadership bid instead of supporting the person they elected, as their leader. Whether it is Boris Johnston or Jacob Rees-Mogg, Phillip Hammond or ex-Chancellor George Osborne (now editor of the Evening Standard who uses the front page to spout anti-May sentiments), there seems to be no heavy-politicos who actually support May and defend her. A Prime Minister always needs a Rottweiler at his/her side and this PM doesn’t even have a Chihuahua.
Mrs May didn’t support Brexit, but it is her duty to make it work and the country feel invincible. Well, she isn’t doing a great job of any of it. We would all have more respect for her if she sacked those who still, openly, drive for a different destiny. Mr Johnston should be first in line. I like Boris but his schoolboy antics and tendency to shoot his mouth off in long articles in The Telegraph, rather than do his job, make his position as part of Mrs May’s Government, untenable.
According to opinion polls, if we were to hold an election today, only 19% of young people would vote Conservative. The Conservatives have failed to heed the example of the Blair Government. PR does not stop once the election has been won. To maintain control, the appearance of unity and to implement at least one or two of the manifesto goals, the British public needs to be fed constant positive messages. What the Conservatives have done since the Brexit vote is leave a vacuum so that only the naysayers have been left to fill it.
There are bright stars in the Conservative party but I fear they are laying low while the turmoil of the next year and Brexit negotiations tear their party apart. As we get stuck into political conference season politicians must realise that the electorate is plain fed-up with all flavours of politicking.
My message to the Government? Grow up. We have had enough of politics and polling. We want unity, stability and a period of good news, please.
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Sandra Paul
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