Saturday 6 May 2017

Theresa May's psychotic divorce strategy


Isn't it strange how it's possible for bad situations to escalate gradually so that people don't actually realise how extreme things are getting until its far too late?

Watching Theresa May's approach to the Brexit negotiations become ever more deranged is a perfect example of the way social groups tends to accept a slow buildup of erratic behaviour until it reaches a crescendo of insanity, when an immediate outburst of insanity from the beginning would have shocked people out of their indifference and forced them to put a stop to it.

Just imagine for a moment that during the Tory leadership contest Theresa May would have outlined her Brexit strategy along the following lines:

  • We fob the electorate off with utterly vacuous "Brexit means Brexit" platitudes for around six months while we desperately try to cobble together some kind of plan.
  • Another important step in the process of securing a "good deal" will be to throw away the Single Market and Customs Union bargaining chips before the negotiations have even started.
  • We will announce a Great Repeal Bill that will give government ministers the ability to rewrite thousands of UK with no democratic oversight whatever.
A psychotic divorce strategy

To get a perspective on how mad this last point in Theresa May's descent into diplomatic insanity is, maybe try thinking about it in terms of a divorce: Your former partner wants to sit down and negotiate in a calm and open manner, putting the needs of the children (EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in Europe) above all else.

However you decide that this kind of approach is a sinister plot to undermine you, and instead of dealing with things calmly and in a sensible order, you're going to write them a furious letter going into great detail about all of the depraved schemes you've dreamt up to make them and the children suffer if you don't get what you what you want!

Do you honestly think that kind of approach would work? Do you honestly think that in real life you wouldn't get arrested if you tried sending a letter full of threats to your ex during the divorce process?

Boiling the Tory frog

If Theresa May had outlined this gradually escalating lunacy as her Brexit negotiating strategy during the Tory leadership election, she would have made the wingnut Michael Gove look like a sane and stable leadership candidate in comparison wouldn't she?

It's escalated to such a level that writing out a list of threats against the EU is now the actual approach being taken by Theresa May, and what's even more shocking is that nobody in the Tory party has the guts, or the sanity, to stand up to her and tell her to calm down and stop making threats that are absolutely certain to backfire in her face (and in the face of the UK public too)

The Tory party in its current state is like the (hopefully hypothetical) frog that doesn't realise it's being boiled alive as the water temperature in the pot is gradually increased.

Where are the sane Tories hiding?


There are sensible and level headed Tories. I disagree with them on their hard-right economic agenda and the social disregard they've demonstrated so callously since 2010, but they're not all completely insane. Some of them are liberal One Nation type Tories, others are libertarians who should be horrified at Theresa May's hard-right authoritarianism.

There have got to be some Tory MPs who understand that the more Theresa May threatens a catastrophic "nuclear Brexit", the ever more likely that economically ruinous outcome is becoming.

But because the insanity has built up incrementally over many months rather than all being launched in one lunatic outburst, the Tory party are still somehow actually going along with it, and the British public look likely to elect her with a significantly increased majority in parliament!

There's apparently nobody in the Tory party, or in the right-wing press, who dares stand up and question the astoundingly reckless game of brinkmanship she's playing with the UK economy, and the livelihoods of millions of people.

How much worse could it get?

Just think about it: If it's already got to such an intense level of insanity after less than a year with a slim majority in parliament, just imagine how bad it could get once she has a super-majority in parliament and the dire consequences of her reckless threats start to hit home?

Imagine the deranged ways in which she would lash out if her threat-based diplomatic toddler tantrum ends up in a self-inflicted economic meltdown.

Does anyone honestly think she'd apologise and resign in disgrace?

Of course she wouldn't, she'd divisively turn the blame on anyone but herself (the EU, people who criticised her threat-based approach, opposition parties, the judiciary, the unemployed, the Scottish ...) in order to maintain her grip on power. 
It wouldn't even have to make any sense at all, as long as the blame is deflected elsewhere. It would all be portrayed as a sinister plot to undermine her "strong and stable leadership"

How could anyone believe that she's a sane and mentally balanced leader who would deal with failure by doing the decent thing and resigning, when she's already managed to escalate the situation to such a level of chaos, divisiveness, insane conspiracy theory nonsense and threats in the space of well under a year?

The obvious conclusion

If you're horrified about how extreme this is getting you need to make sure you're registered to vote so that you can vote against the Tories in protest at Theresa May's ever more erratic behaviour. 


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