Brexit, under Mrs May, will be tougher and more uncompromising than an EU departure led by any of the Brexit original team, particularly an instinctive pro-immigration, pro-globalisation figure like Boris Johnson.
So those Brexit backers who feel that the vote has been stolen from them should not despair...
Why Theresa May will deliver a tougher Brexit than any Brexiteer
Harry de Quetteville
13 July 2016
The Telegraph
Theresa May makes a statement on Monday after her rival Andrea Leadsom pulled out of the Conservative leadership race Credit: Bloomberg
When I was a correspondent in Jerusalem, elections were fraught affairs. Many of my fellow hacks, and some of the more idealistic voters I met, took the view that a new prime minister, leading a new government, could mean the difference between war and peace. In Israel, that is no idle talk.
Bitterly partisan, each side loathed the other. Broadly, peaceniks praying for a Left-wing triumph led by Labor poured scorn on the security hawks, who dismissed them in turn as hippy lunatics and kept their fingers crossed for Likud.
Life and death seemed to hang on the outcome. Winners, inevitably, celebrated feverishly. Losers took it hard.
But then reality intervened. The winners took office. And once in power they realised that the first thing they had to do to govern the whole country was appeal precisely to those voters who had backed the other side and were still weeping into their coffee.
This led to some odd situations. Left of centre governments, whose supporters yearned for a successful conclusion to the so-called “Middle East Peace Process”, set out instead to reassure sceptical hawks and establish their security credentials. Settlements were built not dismantled.
Then when the Right got into government, the reverse became true. So Israelis were treated to the spectacle of Ariel Sharon, military hawk supreme, ordering a dramatic withdrawal of settlers from Gaza and the West Bank.
Ariel Sharon
The medical profession has a term for this: “a paradoxical reaction”. It is used to describe drugs that produce the opposite effect to the one intended – tranquillisers stimulating aggressive behaviour, for example.
Since the Brexit vote on June 23, we have seen the paradoxical reaction in astonishing effect in British politics.
A small group of people brought off the most dramatic coup in the politics of this island since 1945, garnering the support of 17.4 million people in the process – the largest single vote of support in these isles for anything, ever.
The 17.4 million might reasonably have expected their heroes to be propelled unstoppably into the corridors of power. But we all know what happened next. Murder on the Orient Express looks a logical, credible thriller by comparison.
Now we have Theresa May, a Remainer, about to take office. As she does so, she will be dogged by Brexiteer critics who suspect she will do the dirty on them, and soft-soap the UK’s departure from Europe. But I bet on the reverse.
Brexit, under Mrs May, will be tougher and more uncompromising than an EU departure led by any of the Brexit original team, particularly an instinctive pro-immigration, pro-globalisation figure like Boris Johnson.
So those Brexit backers who feel that the vote has been stolen from them should not despair. This Remain PM will do a far better job than any Brexiteer, because unlike them, she has to prove, to show in the most unequivocal terms, that she can be trusted to deliver. The paradoxical reaction compels her to be uncompromising. It is a process likely to start with the formation of her Cabinet.
Talking tough: May (shown above on Monday) says the Brexit vote means freedom of movement to the UK must end
Why Theresa May will deliver a tougher Brexit than any Brexiteer
So those Brexit backers who feel that the vote has been stolen from them should not despair...
Why Theresa May will deliver a tougher Brexit than any Brexiteer
Harry de Quetteville
13 July 2016
The Telegraph
Theresa May makes a statement on Monday after her rival Andrea Leadsom pulled out of the Conservative leadership race Credit: Bloomberg
When I was a correspondent in Jerusalem, elections were fraught affairs. Many of my fellow hacks, and some of the more idealistic voters I met, took the view that a new prime minister, leading a new government, could mean the difference between war and peace. In Israel, that is no idle talk.
Bitterly partisan, each side loathed the other. Broadly, peaceniks praying for a Left-wing triumph led by Labor poured scorn on the security hawks, who dismissed them in turn as hippy lunatics and kept their fingers crossed for Likud.
Life and death seemed to hang on the outcome. Winners, inevitably, celebrated feverishly. Losers took it hard.
But then reality intervened. The winners took office. And once in power they realised that the first thing they had to do to govern the whole country was appeal precisely to those voters who had backed the other side and were still weeping into their coffee.
This led to some odd situations. Left of centre governments, whose supporters yearned for a successful conclusion to the so-called “Middle East Peace Process”, set out instead to reassure sceptical hawks and establish their security credentials. Settlements were built not dismantled.
Then when the Right got into government, the reverse became true. So Israelis were treated to the spectacle of Ariel Sharon, military hawk supreme, ordering a dramatic withdrawal of settlers from Gaza and the West Bank.
Ariel Sharon
The medical profession has a term for this: “a paradoxical reaction”. It is used to describe drugs that produce the opposite effect to the one intended – tranquillisers stimulating aggressive behaviour, for example.
Since the Brexit vote on June 23, we have seen the paradoxical reaction in astonishing effect in British politics.
A small group of people brought off the most dramatic coup in the politics of this island since 1945, garnering the support of 17.4 million people in the process – the largest single vote of support in these isles for anything, ever.
The 17.4 million might reasonably have expected their heroes to be propelled unstoppably into the corridors of power. But we all know what happened next. Murder on the Orient Express looks a logical, credible thriller by comparison.
Now we have Theresa May, a Remainer, about to take office. As she does so, she will be dogged by Brexiteer critics who suspect she will do the dirty on them, and soft-soap the UK’s departure from Europe. But I bet on the reverse.
Brexit, under Mrs May, will be tougher and more uncompromising than an EU departure led by any of the Brexit original team, particularly an instinctive pro-immigration, pro-globalisation figure like Boris Johnson.
So those Brexit backers who feel that the vote has been stolen from them should not despair. This Remain PM will do a far better job than any Brexiteer, because unlike them, she has to prove, to show in the most unequivocal terms, that she can be trusted to deliver. The paradoxical reaction compels her to be uncompromising. It is a process likely to start with the formation of her Cabinet.
Talking tough: May (shown above on Monday) says the Brexit vote means freedom of movement to the UK must end
Why Theresa May will deliver a tougher Brexit than any Brexiteer
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