Let's look at Theresa May

By: Jack Johnston



After months of political turmoil, Theresa May is the 'safe pair of hands' that our country has been yearning for, right? Wrong. It's important not to be conned by the new Tory look. With the biggest right-winged government that Britain has faced since the war by her side, it's time that we analyse what kind of politician our new Prime Minister really is.

First of all, Theresa May is the same politician who wants the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. For those who don't know, this is the same convention that: prohibits torture, protects the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression. This doesn't sound like a 'safe pair of hands' to me. Of course, I'm not presuming that Theresa May is going to condone torture like some evil fairytale witch, however, I don't see why any sensible leader would want to leave a convention that protects such vital and fundamental human rights?

May also voted against allowing same-sex couples to have the right to adopt children and against an equal age of consent. Many would argue that she did eventually support equal marriage, yet she also voted in favour of Section 28, which prohibits local authorities from 'promoting homosexuality'. Personally, I don't want a leader - which most of us didn't vote for - who isn't prepared to treat everybody equally and fairly.

She is also the same politician who backed and pushed the Snooper's Charter, keeping record of 12 months Internet activity for each person and giving the government full access to it.
And finally, our new Prime Minister allowed vans to be sent around ethnically mixed communities, all painted with a 'go home' slogan that has been thrown at immigrants and non-white people by racists and xenophobes for decades. I don't want our leader to be scaring honest and genuine people from continuing to live their lives in Britain.

If that doesn't make you think about our new PM, then look at her first decisions that she made in the role. Boris Johnson, remember him? Like many others, I was relieved to have gotten rid of him following the aftermath of the EU Referendum. But he's back, now under the title of 'Foreign Secretary'. Yes, Boris Johnson is Britain's voice to the rest of the world all courtesy of Theresa May. Just let that sink in for a moment. This is the same man whose outrageous comments described Africans as "Piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles". Blatant racism.

And just when you think it couldn't get any worse, Jeremy Hunt is still Health Secretary. The Government that has your best interests at heart has kept Jeremy Hunt in charge of something as vital as health in the UK. Are we expected to simply forget about everything that he's put the NHS through in recent years? He brought misery on to the National Health Service by imposing unworkable, underpaid contracts to conveniently make way for his idea of private health companies and the destruction of the NHS. Seriously, he wrote the book on how to dismantle the NHS. No, really, he did. Look it up. But that's fine! Keep him in charge of health and everything will be fair for everyone!


So, what have we learned? Well, our new government is no better than the old one. Our old government was a lying group of Tories claiming to represent everybody rather than the privileged elites. An our new one is a lying group of Tories claiming to represent everybody rather than the privileged elites. And while Labour are too busy fighting each other rather than the Tories, which a strong, ideal opposition would be doing right now, there is nothing that we can do about it.
Let's look at Theresa May Let's look at Theresa May Reviewed by Student Voices on 23:13 Rating: 5

1 comment:

  1. I have to take issue with you on a few things you have raised in your article that hasn’t been helped by the rose tinted glasses you are wearing.
    • The Convention on Human Rights; you make it sound like the Tories want to remove it and replace it with nothing else. This is simply not the case – Cameron banged on enough about it to make it clear that it would be replaced with a British Bill of Rights – that would include the likes of ‘fair trial’ and ‘freedom of expression’.
    • ‘Most of us didn’t vote for [May]’; actually none of us voted for her apart from her constituency of Maidenhead. We don’t vote for Leaders; we vote for our local MP and entrust the political parties to organise the leadership themselves. May taking over during midterm is hardly something rare for the British public – in the post-war period we have seen Eden taking over from Churchill, MacMillan from Eden, Douglas-Home from MacMillan, Callaghan from Wilson, Major from Thatcher, Brown from Blair.
    • Boris Johnson; I think (and a lot of political commentators also believe) that putting BoJo in the Foreign Sec seat allows May to keep close reigns on him rather that let him cause chaos from the back benches.
    • Jeremy Hunt; although I share you frustration with his continuation of the Health Sec role, the accusations of NHS dismantling are another urban myth. The privatisation of the NHS (which most of the time doesn’t involve private companies at all) is happening at levels only minutely higher than the Tony Blair/Brown govt – check the Kings Fund website about this please. I would also add under the Tory govt we are seeing record levels of spending on the NHS.

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