Theresa May is both a coward and a horrible person – here's why

In the wake of the events of the last week, here’s a question for you. Is Theresa May:

A) a coward
B) a bad person
C) both 

I know, I know. Right now lots of you are saying something like: “Isn’t it obvious? C, C, C.”

I feel it incumbent upon me, however, to justify such an accusation as opposed to simply throwing it out Daily Mail- or Twitter-style. There’s a little too much of the latter around, as I’ll touch on when we come to “B”.

In the case of “A” I might simply point to the way the compromise agreed with rebel Tories over the EU Withdrawal Bill was trampled over as soon as the party’s pitchfork-wielding Brexiteer zealots got within earshot of Number 10.

But I also want to highlight something that May says a lot that is both deeply mendacious and pathetically craven. A variation on it was heard at the press conference she held as the latest G7 get-together was wrapping up, when most of the attention was focused on Donald Trump’s latest hissy fit.

This is the version on May’s Twitter feed: “We will deliver on the will of the British people and get the best Brexit deal for our country – securing the greatest possible access to European markets, boosting free trade with countries across the world, and delivering control over our borders, laws and money. It is the people of this country who have voted to leave the European Union and we will deliver…”

It is blatantly dishonest because what she is “delivering” is not the will of the “British people” at all.

Some 52 per cent of them who expressed a preference in a referendum voted to leave the EU, about 37 per cent of the electorate.

What the country is now being presented with isn’t even the will of all of them, however. Some, such as the Remainer Now community on social media, thought they were voting for something very different to what May is actually offering up.

If you’re being charitable it is the will of a minority of the British people. If we’re being honest, however, it’s very much the will of the extremists in her own party, and that of Vladimir Putin and various hard-right-wing press barons.

But it’s worse than that: in making that statement she is seeking to avoid taking any responsibility for her actions. May is supposed to be a leader, the prime minister of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. This is her government’s central policy. It is her party’s project. And yet she’s saying: “This one’s on you.”

Is it just me or could that not come in very handy when it all goes wrong and, as someone else is trying to pick up the pieces, she’s fielding offers for the memoirs ex-prime minsters like to write to influence the verdict of history and fatten their pension pots.

That, I believe, deals with A. For B (and thus C) I think you need to hold me to a higher burden of proof because it’s a more serious charge.

I’m also bearing in mind a course I took with Adam Raphael, the former political editor of The Observer, while at City University’s journalism school.

Even 25 years ago he was moved to voice concerns about the tone of political coverage, so goodness knows what he thinks now.

He also expressed the view that most MPs work hard and try to do their best, or words to that effect. It was a long time ago now, but what he said stuck with me, and, as a result, I thought very carefully before writing this.

On the other hand, it can’t be escaped that politics does attract some people who are very bad. Just take a look around the world.

I’m not trying to suggest May is in the same league as a Kim Jong-un, or a Bashar al-Assad. But her rap sheet is rapidly lengthening.

Consider the tone of the country since she took office, and the sheer nastiness that some of her friends and colleagues indulge in. While I was writing this, the news broke that a private member’s bill to make the practice of upskirting a specific criminal offence was killed by one of those pitchfork wielders, the deeply repellent Christopher Chope.

MPs from her own party have been threatened with physical violence and death, not for seeking to overturn the referendum result, despite the way their actions have been characterised by the Brexit press, but simply for daring to oppose the extreme form of it she has chosen to pursue.

I would argue that she has set the stage for the dog whistle incitements to violence published by certain newspapers, and the Twitter storms that follow in their wake, with the threats and warnings she issues just about every time there is a crunch vote that looks as if it might not go her way.

Want more? How about the “hostile environment” migration policy she pursued at the Home Office. It led to the Windrush scandal in which British citizens were threatened with deportation. Meanwhile, a growing number of people who have lived here for years, worked here, contributed to our society, and paid taxes, are being treated disgracefully when they seek the citizenship or permanent residence that ought to be theirs.

Oh, and Grenfell. Let’s not forget Grenfell, an avoidable tragedy on her watch for which nobody has been called to account. No, she did not cause it. But despite repeated promises, there are still two families yet to be housed, and even minor concessions have had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of her government, a point made by Labour MP David Lammy in an interview with PoliticsHome.

In it he also highlighted the “shrill, pernicious and nasty Little England mentality” that has seeped into the mainstream and flourished on her watch.

Racists, thugs and trolls have felt validated, and have emerged blinking into the sunlight. The face May’s Britain is presenting to the world, and to the mirror, is bigoted, and bitter.

One is left wondering what happened to those “British values” of fair play and decency we’re always being told about.

Under this prime minster they are being throttled. She should be held to account for that.

So yes, all those who answered “it’s obvious – C!” at the start, I think I’ve provided sufficient evidence to justify that.

I could have added a lot more, but it’d take a book to fit it all in.