Theresa May

[davepoth]

glazbagun said:

What to make of this? Cozying up to Trump before he starts his new job? Arms contract up for grabs soon with Israel?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38464800

http://news.sky.com/story/us-state-dept-surprised-...

Edited by glazbagun on Friday 30th December 19:30

Makes sense really. Obama has been acting like a petulant child these last few weeks.

[anonymous-user]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Rich_W said:

I don't have any problem with her blocking people who get snotty about her choices. It's not Politics, it's envy. It shows the complainant in very poor light. Not the sort of person that can be counted on when it gets tough

Or it could show May as childish and someone who wants surround herself with sycophants.

This exactly.

I couldn't care less about how much our PM spent on her trousers. I doubt anyone commenting on May's trousers is jealous or envious of them or the fact that she spent a grand on them. Presumably most politicians could find £1,000 to spend on trousers if they really wanted to.

I find it a bit worrying that May bans people from meetings in Downing st if they comment on it though. What kind of people will end up in her team.

She's running the country not some PTA coffee morning. It's all a bit pathetic coming from any adult let alone a prime minister.

[AmitG]

6 months in, what is the feeling about May's performance so far?

I still think she was the best candidate for leader, no question, and if there was a leadership election tomorrow I'd vote for her over any of the other likely candidates.

However - IMHO she's coming across as a bit of a ditherer. I'm not seeing a clear direction, or any game-changing vision for the country post Brexit. I'm not seeing a firm hand. It sometimes feels like she's just muddling through each day as it comes.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. She's been handed an absolute stfest of a job, and her predecessor - who chose to run away rather than deal with it - clearly wants her to fail. It can't be easy. And she's only had 6 months. People forget that Thatcher's early Commons performances as party leader were poor, to the extent that there was serious talk of replacing her.

[Jonesy23]

A bit invisible as a leader.

It sounds like she wants to have solid control of the levers of power. And one outcome of this has been a whole set if non entities in cabinet. I can't really remember who holds any of the key roles at the moment.

It also doesn't feel like there is much of a general plan or anything happening to implement anything. And I'm not really sure what she stands for. Certainly failed to deal with anything like union issues.

About the only thing that has gone through is her spying legislation from her old obsession with reading everyone's email.

Even Cameron appeared to have some sort of public plan and made statements about things all the time even if he never really bothered to follow though with anything, and clearly never cared about the job beyond actually having it.

[Garvin]

El stovey said:

PurpleMoonlight said:

Rich_W said:

I don't have any problem with her blocking people who get snotty about her choices. It's not Politics, it's envy. It shows the complainant in very poor light. Not the sort of person that can be counted on when it gets tough

Or it could show May as childish and someone who wants surround herself with sycophants.

This exactly.

I couldn't care less about how much our PM spent on her trousers. I doubt anyone commenting on May's trousers is jealous or envious of them or the fact that she spent a grand on them. Presumably most politicians could find £1,000 to spend on trousers if they really wanted to.

I find it a bit worrying that May bans people from meetings in Downing st if they comment on it though. What kind of people will end up in her team.

She's running the country not some PTA coffee morning. It's all a bit pathetic coming from any adult let alone a prime minister.

Morgan was effectively sacked from the cabinet by May. Morgan's response was not to knuckle down and try to get back a cabinet post but to resort to juvenile criticism of her leader's clothing. I strongly suspect that in any entity such a person would not be invited to attend any serious top level meetings particularly if any disagreements are then immediately discussed very publicly.

[JagLover]

AmitG said:

6 months in, what is the feeling about May's performance so far?

I still think she was the best candidate for leader, no question, and if there was a leadership election tomorrow I'd vote for her over any of the other likely candidates.

However - IMHO she's coming across as a bit of a ditherer. I'm not seeing a clear direction, or any game-changing vision for the country post Brexit. I'm not seeing a firm hand. It sometimes feels like she's just muddling through each day as it comes.

I think she set out a clear agenda upon becoming leader and has not put anything actually in place yet.

But in this she is not alone. The only ministers able to get anything done in the last parliament had to be willing to go to war with their own departments.

She has promised radical reform but one of the few Tory politicians who has actually achieved it (Gove) is spending his time on the back benches.

[Lucas CAV]

JagLover said:

AmitG said:

6 months in, what is the feeling about May's performance so far?

I still think she was the best candidate for leader, no question, and if there was a leadership election tomorrow I'd vote for her over any of the other likely candidates.

However - IMHO she's coming across as a bit of a ditherer. I'm not seeing a clear direction, or any game-changing vision for the country post Brexit. I'm not seeing a firm hand. It sometimes feels like she's just muddling through each day as it comes.

I think she set out a clear agenda upon becoming leader and has not put anything actually in place yet.

But in this she is not alone. The only ministers able to get anything done in the last parliament had to be willing to go to war with their own departments.

She has promised radical reform but one of the few Tory politicians who has actually achieved it (Gove) is spending his time on the back benches.

What successful reform did Gove put into place?

[JagLover]

Lucas CAV said:

What successful reform did Gove put into place?

Gove is hated by the teaching unions, and the public sector in general, precisely because he did achieve successful reform.

He removed the power of the LEAs and gave school's far more freedom to run their own affairs, if they choose to do so.

[Lucas CAV]

JagLover said:

Lucas CAV said:

What successful reform did Gove put into place?

Gove is hated by the teaching unions, and the public sector in general, precisely because he did achieve successful reform.

He removed the power of the LEAs and gave school's far more freedom to run their own affairs, if they choose to do so.

To what end?

[Lucas CAV]

To add...
I don't see that st stirring the easily stirred unions is any measure of success.
As a school gov in 3 schools I have not seen any education sec do anything to tackle:
Boys underperformance
Discipline/behaviour
Quality and skills of staff
Staff shortage

An ideological fixation with reducing union drag may be a positive but it's way, way down the list in terms of impact.

[frisbee]

Has she done anything other than say "Brexit means Brexit" and writing the no-leaks memo that got leaked?

Mildly useless is about all that comes to mind.

[All that jazz]

AmitG said:

6 months in, what is the feeling about May's performance so far?

The Brexit stuff she got in motion was impressive imho but then she ruined it all by forcing through all the new spying and snooping laws which I'm very much against and no-one asked for. That has ensured that neither she nor the Tories will ever see my vote again in the future (along with Labour).

[Lucas CAV]

All that jazz said:

AmitG said:

6 months in, what is the feeling about May's performance so far?

The Brexit stuff she got in motion was impressive imho but then she ruined it all by forcing through all the new spying and snooping laws which I'm very much against and no-one asked for. That has ensured that neither she nor the Tories will ever see my vote again in the future (along with Labour).

"Got in motion"
What has she actually put in motion?

[All that jazz]

Lucas CAV said:

"Got in motion"
What has she actually put in motion?

There are numerous Brexit threads on the matter where you can educate yourself if you so wish.

[Derek Smith]

Lucas CAV said:

What successful reform did Gove put into place?

He set up a department for micromanagement. All decisions went through him and he had to decide everything. He did the work his underlings were paid to do. That's got to be good, hasn't it?

He was something of a disaster in charge of education, floating pathetically silly ideas. He would say one thing and do something entirely different. The problem was that he could bully the teachers. However as Lord Chancellor, one of the great offices of state, he actually seemed to be ready to do something positive. My opinion of him changed. I thought he would be a disaster at anything he tried but I was coming to the belief that he might have been good at one thing at least. I was almost impressed.

I think the difference was that he was up against powerful people and he had to try a different tack. He looked promising.

He's now been replaced by Truss. Her performance has been dreadful, almost scandalous. I'm certain in my own mind that he would have come out fighting after the criticisms of the judges. Truss just got frightened and hid.

May has done nothing so far, but then she's not had much to do. She may be the best thing since sliced stuff, but no one can tell. On the negative side are her appointments: Gove removed and replaced by a mouse, Hammond - a safe if uninspired pair of hands - replaced by a clown, then the two new positions of i/c Brexit.

So what little she has done so far, i.e. choose her team, has not inspired confidence.

What can she do though? She's been delightfully vague - brexit means brexit means whatever you want it to mean - and I have no idea whether she has behaved this way because she has no ideas or else she is trying to stave off reaction to the vote.

She was known as submarine May when HomSec, i.e. not being able to be found when there was a problem. Let's hope she doesn't carry that into her new role.

[Garvin]

Lucas CAV said:

All that jazz said:

AmitG said:

6 months in, what is the feeling about May's performance so far?

The Brexit stuff she got in motion was impressive imho but then she ruined it all by forcing through all the new spying and snooping laws which I'm very much against and no-one asked for. That has ensured that neither she nor the Tories will ever see my vote again in the future (along with Labour).

"Got in motion"
What has she actually put in motion?

She rearranged the cabinet to specifically tackle the Brexit issue. Has been out and about round the world with trade missions hopefully paving the way for better non EU trade deals when required. I suspect, but don't know and only hope, she is building up a significant pool of trade deal negotiators to be unleashed post March next year. She also appointed Boris as the Foreign Secretary - a master stroke which has kept the press focused on his misdemeanours and not hers over the past six months!

Regarding spying and snooping laws I very much suspect that her actions came as a result of what she saw first hand as Home Secretary and the incessant fight to head off terrorist activity in the UK and keep us all that bit safer. It will always be a compromise on how far to go with such things and some will always see it as too much a restriction on personal liberty. We, the general public, will never be able to gauge whether it is a good thing or a bad thing as we don't get to see what is going on beneath the surface. However, in recent times the UK security forces appear to be doing a better job at heading off terrorist attacks than those in France of Germany . . . . . unless one believes that they are being targeted more than UK!

[Adrian W]

She's a female John Major, no one voted for her, no one will want to vote for her next time, but who else is there

[don4l]

Adrian W said:

She's a female John Major, no one voted for her, no one will want to vote for her next time, but who else is there

John Major was leader of the Conservative party when they won the 1992 General Election.

[glazbagun]

don4l said:

Adrian W said:

She's a female John Major, no one voted for her, no one will want to vote for her next time, but who else is there

John Major was leader of the Conservative party when they won the 1992 General Election.

He won the most votes in history- not even Blair in his '97 landslide won more, and he was Thatchers own choice of replacement IIRC.

May is up against Corbyn so will probably win by default... I can't think of much to say for her more than that.

The Snoopers charter which comes into effect tomorrow is something I'd normally criticize the Saudis or East Germany for, to think that we've done it is unthinkable.

[JagLover]

Lucas CAV said:

JagLover said:

Lucas CAV said:

What successful reform did Gove put into place?

Gove is hated by the teaching unions, and the public sector in general, precisely because he did achieve successful reform.

He removed the power of the LEAs and gave school's far more freedom to run their own affairs, if they choose to do so.

To what end?

LEAs had power without accountability and so contributed to the mediocre performance of the state education sector.

Parents can recognise the differences between individual schools (and make decisions accordingly) and will hold national governments accountable for funding, curriculum, exams etc. Successful schools should be given the freedom to flourish, with sufficient oversight to ensure public money is properly spent and that minimum standards are adhered too.