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UK Prime Minister Theresa May Will Resign, Pass the Brexit
Theresa May has announced that she will resign as UK's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party:
Mrs. May announced on Friday that she would be stepping down as leader of her Conservative Party and then as Britain's prime minister, after repeatedly failing to win Parliament's approval for a deal to withdraw the country from the European Union.
A successor to Theresa May will be chosen before Parliament's summer break, the Conservative Party chairman said. She will continue as prime minister until the leadership contest is finished.
[...] Standing in front of 10 Downing Street, Mrs. May said it was in the "best interests of the country for a new prime minister" to lead Britain through the Brexit process. She announced plans to step down as the leader of the Conservative Party on June 7, with the process to replace her beginning the following week.
Previously: Theresa May: UK's Next Prime Minister?
UK PM Theresa May announces resignation amid fury over Brexit handling
foxnews.com/world/uk-pm-theresa-may-announces-resignation-amid-fury-over-brexit-handling
May spoke outside 10 Downing Street after a meeting with Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers. She said she will step down on June 7. Her resignation will trigger a party leadership contest, and whoever wins that contest will take over as prime minister.
[...] Her announcement could complicate the upcoming June 3 state visit by President Trump to London to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, where he will also meet with Queen Elizabeth II.
May will still be in office during that visit, meaning it will nix the chance for a new prime minister to forge ties with the American president at a time where such relations are vital. A U.S.-U.K. trade deal is a top priority for the U.K. as it looks to depart from the European Union and begin making its own trade agreements -- and Trump has said "the potential is unlimited" for such a deal.
(Score: 5, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 24 2019, @03:08PM (31 children)
Leaving the Brexit fiasco aside, she is personally responsible for immeasurable amounts of pain and suffering via Windrush, Hostile Environment, Universal Credit, Austerity and more. She was instrumental in dragging the Tory party to the far right in pursuit of Nigel Farage and pandering to the Brexiterrorists of the ERG. Her only saving grace is that she stood between us and Prime Minister BoJo, which is what we have to look forward to next. Hopefully parliament will have the nuts to call a vote of no confidence before that dishonest, unprincipled, opportunistic, incompetent clown has even opened the door to number 10, and he'll be quickly forgotten as the shortest-lived PM in history.
Theresa May will be remembered as someone who can only ever be quoted ironically. For example, during her last election campaign she repeated ad nauseum the phrase "strong and stable" and went on to preside over two years of weakness and instability. She claimed there was "no magic money tree" shortly before finding 10 Billion quid down the back of the sofa to bribe for the DUP. She promised to change the "nasty party" and battle "burning injustices" then spent 3 years belittling, attacking, impoverishing and humiliating the most vulnerable people in society. I don't think there's a single notable soundbite of hers that hasn't come back to bite her on the arse.
Her tears are not enough. Fuck Theresa May. Fuck her to hell.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @03:35PM (7 children)
Please, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @03:41PM (5 children)
Accurate [spiked-online.com] ... apart from wanting to fuck her.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @03:50PM (1 child)
Not merely fucking her, but fucking her to hell. That would be any man's most memorable ride, wouldn't it?
(Score: 3, Touché) by tangomargarine on Friday May 24 2019, @08:20PM
Is that anything like the scene in Doctor Strangelove where the guy rodeo-rides the A-bomb down to Russia?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @04:01PM (2 children)
Back again. Good link - but I clicked through to this article - https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/05/21/why-opinion-polls-keep-getting-it-wrong/ [spiked-online.com]
It seems to be spot-on.
(Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Friday May 24 2019, @05:31PM (1 child)
Opinion polls are tabloid statistics, not gauge opinion, but to form it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @10:10PM
And Runaway is the one whose opinion is molded, in more ways than one!
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @10:51PM
I'd have some sympathy for her if this entire debacle wasn't entirely of her own making. She's never displayed any understanding or empathy for anyone other than herself and she sure as fuck hasn't suddenly acquired a conscience. She's grotesquely arrogant, completely incapable of comprehending (or, worse, callously uncaring about) the effect of her actions, a master at doublethink and, in my mind at least, politically evil. On top of all this she had all the wit, charm and persuasiveness of an old condom filled with cold puke.
As it is all I see are crocodile tears at someone finally starting to coming to terms with the colossal magnitude of their own litany of failures. The political party that she loved so much, and was practically family for her, despises her. All of the hardline Breixiteers think she wasn't hardline enough, all of the sensible-centrist-lets-keep-the-lights-on-and-trade-running have been utterly alienated from the Tory party as it's taken a swerve to the right so severe that it'd give Goebbels whiplash. The Conservative Party will be lucky to survive in anything resembling its current form. She's an underachieving Mussolini with less humanity than things you'd normally see growing in petri dishes.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @03:44PM
Imagine - an American immigrant becoming the PM.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @03:44PM (15 children)
Maybe they can elect Khan? He's doing great for London. You know, part and parcel?
(Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Friday May 24 2019, @03:49PM (14 children)
No
1) He's not an MP
2) He's not a tory
3) He's not a quitter (and the tories love quitters)
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Friday May 24 2019, @03:59PM (13 children)
> 1) He's not an MP
Last time I checked, you didn't need to be an MP to be PM. They may have changed the rules, they keep mucking with the UK constitution.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NewNic on Friday May 24 2019, @05:16PM (4 children)
You don't need to be an MP to be PM, but if you are not an MP, then you need to have a seat in the House of Lords.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday May 24 2019, @05:43PM (2 children)
The last Prime Minister to sit in the lords was the Marquess of Salisbury, who left the post in 1902. The nearest we've come since then is Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who renounced his peerage when he became Prime Minister in 1963.
It's unusual for a Secretary of State to be in the Lords too, as it makes it difficult for the elected MPs to question them and hold them to account. The last example I can recall off-hand was Lord Andrew Adonis, who served as Transport Secretary circa 2009.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday May 24 2019, @06:28PM (1 child)
Probably the best transport sec we've had in the last 20 years
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday May 24 2019, @07:39PM
I agree wholeheartedly.
The fact that he went off on a one-week tour of the British railway network when appointed indicated that he was interested in his brief and making it work.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday May 24 2019, @05:51PM
The last PM to come from the house of lords was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, in 1902, who wasn't even referred to as prime minister.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday May 25 2019, @06:50AM (7 children)
You need to be a MP to run Parliament, though once PM, there's always someone in a safe seat that can be bribed to step down and allow the PM to run in the resulting bye-election. The odd time here, a PM or Premier has lost their seat while their party won the election, they always arrange a bye-election and get back in.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday May 25 2019, @08:42AM (3 children)
Not in UK. Balfour has already resigned.
In AUS YES, Howard in 2007 most recently, it that accomanpied a massive defeat for ther party so they wouldn’t be PM anyway.
Mackenzie King in Canada is the only one who comes to mind - won election but not seat.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:34PM (2 children)
The most recent I'm familiar with was Christy Clarke in the 2013 Provincial (BC) election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_British_Columbia_general_election [wikipedia.org]
As for the UK, I assume the same thing is still possible, though with some of the changes that has happened, perhaps I'm wrong
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:47PM (1 child)
Theoretically it's possible, but it hasn't occured for a century, leaders seats tend to be very safe.
Smaller parties can lose leaders, although even with the Lib Dem wipeout in 2015 Clegg was one of 8 LD MPs to survive (there were 50-odd before the election).
(Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Saturday May 25 2019, @05:32PM
Likewise, it is possible for someone to become leader of the majority party without a seat and then arrange a bye-election to get a seat.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday May 28 2019, @09:18AM (2 children)
No.
1. A peer can certainly run parliament. The modern era has seen this job more commonly done by MPs, but that is really a legacy of Walpole, and even since his time many many peers have been "prime minister"; Newcastle, North, Bute, and so on.
2. In principle the prime minister is a royal appointment. The queen can appoint whomever she sees fit.
They keep messing with the UK constitution so I may be a few years out of date.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday May 28 2019, @03:04PM (1 child)
A peer has a hard time appearing in the House of Commons for question period and such, so while theoritically they can run Parliament, in practice they need to show up in the House of Commons. Consider Alec Douglas-Home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Douglas-Home [wikipedia.org] who was the last peer who became PM. He renounced his peerage and won a bye-election to move to the House of Commons.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday May 28 2019, @04:34PM
I realise that practical issues exist. I don't believe there has been a successful Prime Minister who was not an MP since maybe Newcastle (1740s), and one might argue Pelham was really the power as he held First Lord of the Treasury.
My point is just that such a thing is legally possible.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday May 24 2019, @04:02PM (4 children)
> Austerity
AKA "spending what you earn".
Corbyn Corbyn the bankers' friend,
he loves to borrow and they love to lend.
Never mind the interest rate,
the kids will pay when they run the state.
(Score: 5, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 24 2019, @04:49PM (2 children)
Nonsense. The Tories have squandered billions. Their methods are inefficient and massively expensive. Thatcher sold of the council houses and didn't replace them. Now the taxpayer pays twice as much to private landlords for shitty accommodation. Same story with privatised trains, water, power... none of these things deliver price cuts or efficiency, they just shuffle the costs elsewhere or pass them on the to the next generation, while funneling taxpayer cash to politically-connected business people. And even if, in the short term, we appear to reduce expenses, at what cost?
Police: In crisis.
Courts: In crisis.
Education: In crisis.
NHS: In crisis.
Social care: In crisis.
Benefits: In crisis.
Homelessness, crime, poverty... have you seen the UN report from earlier this week? Are you not ashamed?
And all of this will cost billions over decades to fix - far many more billions than the Tories supposedly "saved". But that's in the future, and we're only looking at this quarter's figures. And we're certainly not looking at the cost in terms of human misery because, well, that's just poor people.
But don't worry, the Tories still found the money to give tax breaks to the rich.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @06:04PM
There really is no point engaging the "taxes are thefts" types. They are true believers who only care about taxes up bad, taxes down good. No amount of reality will change their opinions. Every bad result from their policy choices gets projected on to their opponents.
(Score: 3, Informative) by cmdrklarg on Friday May 24 2019, @08:50PM
Sounds like the US then.
This is vulture capitalism writ large on a national scale. https://lippittpolicyandpolitics.org/2018/11/04/vulture-capitalism-in-action/ [lippittpolicyandpolitics.org]
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Friday May 24 2019, @06:02PM
If you decide to save money by not buying your season ticket for your train ride to work, that's a good move - you've saved money.
However when the effects of that are you lose your job, that's a bad thing. You might have less outgoings, but you've got far less incoming.
If you save money by not buying new tyres on your car, that's good - you've saved money. If you then crash your car due to a lack of grip, that's bad, you've lost money.
Cutting costs does not necessarily save money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @04:38PM
You forgot the cat. An innocent creature tortured and killed by her. The cat put up a real fight though.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/06/sergei-skripal-cat-guinea-pigs-die-police-sealed-house-salisbury-spy [theguardian.com]
Nash van Drake, we will remember you. I am sure your adopted feline friend who, being a real Russian agent with an unspeakable name, managed to escape May's brutality, remembers you as well. Rest in peace. We will avenge you.