Opinion / Andrew Tuck
Vultures circling
Monocle has always believed that Britain should be in Europe. We campaigned for remain and ever since the 2016 vote have been vociferous in our belief that the country’s best interests are served by a close union with Europe. So watching Theresa May’s premiership was never good for the nerves. Here was a PM unable to face up to the hardcore Brexit MPs in her parliamentary pack or to compromise and find consensus with other parties. There was clearly no reason for her to malinger at 10 Downing Street but the line-up of posturing potential replacements make it clear that in the coming weeks we will get a new Brexit fundamentalist PM with no plan or intention to heal a deeply divided nation.
Instead we will have a PM who only plays to anointed followers and is happy to press a nuclear “leave” button. What’s just as frustrating is that for a huge number of centrist voters there is still nowhere to turn. The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn fails to speak with clarity on the issues of the day, the Liberal Democrats are enjoying a revival but are a terrible passion project – they always let you down in the end. And Change UK may need change to its plan in the coming days as it has failed to inspire voters.
We need a new generation of leaders who can speak across divides but for now we will have finger pointing Brexit purists to contend with. But one thing that unites everyone – Theresa May proved to be pretty useless.