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Paul Bryant's Reviews > May at 10: The Verdict
May at 10: The Verdict
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I’m not convinced that my dear goodreads friends are especially interested in the minutiae of British politics so I will try to be brief.
You might have been thinking that Boris Johnson was surely the worst British prime minister in living memory, but whilst he may have been an egregious selfserving wide boy who thought no rule ever applied to him, and has been quite rightfully booted out, Theresa May was much worse. This was because she didn’t have any of the qualities required to be a PM. None! She hated speaking in public. She hated being interviewed. She hated meeting the public. She hated most of her own MPs. She hated trying to persuade people to vote for her. It’s strange she didn’t ever notice that you had to do all these things when you are PM.
Why would she ever have wanted a job she was so profoundly incapable of doing? This is a mystery this nearly 700 page (small type!) book does not try to answer.
For political geeks like myself Theresa was endlessly entertaining with her perpetually collapsing government and her stupendously cringemaking moments, such as sashaying onto the stage at the Conservative Party conference in 2018 to the sounds of Abba’s Dancing Queen – my eyes! My eyes! Not all the therapists in the world could help me to suppress that ghastly memory.
You might have been thinking that Boris Johnson was surely the worst British prime minister in living memory, but whilst he may have been an egregious selfserving wide boy who thought no rule ever applied to him, and has been quite rightfully booted out, Theresa May was much worse. This was because she didn’t have any of the qualities required to be a PM. None! She hated speaking in public. She hated being interviewed. She hated meeting the public. She hated most of her own MPs. She hated trying to persuade people to vote for her. It’s strange she didn’t ever notice that you had to do all these things when you are PM.
Why would she ever have wanted a job she was so profoundly incapable of doing? This is a mystery this nearly 700 page (small type!) book does not try to answer.
For political geeks like myself Theresa was endlessly entertaining with her perpetually collapsing government and her stupendously cringemaking moments, such as sashaying onto the stage at the Conservative Party conference in 2018 to the sounds of Abba’s Dancing Queen – my eyes! My eyes! Not all the therapists in the world could help me to suppress that ghastly memory.
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Reading Progress
July 21, 2022
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Started Reading
July 21, 2022
– Shelved
July 24, 2022
– Shelved as:
politics
July 24, 2022
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Finished Reading
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Judith
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Jul 24, 2022 01:08PM
Sadly, Liz Truss even ghastlier prospect ...
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May & Johnson are hard acts to follow but Truss may do it - three in a row from the Tories...!
The complete inability of Johnson to tell the truth makes him a far, far worse PM in my book. Thoroughly awful.
I can't say you're wrong. It's like a philosophy debate - who is worse, the honorable bungler who sinks the ship or the dishonest rascal who got us through some difficult waters. Would Theresa have been any good during covid?
Thanks for this review. You read the book so I don't have to.I think a case could be made for each of the last three PMs being the worst in our history. (Liz Truss - hold my beer)
In my view Cameron shades it - for austerity and the referendum.
Without Brexit the other two would just have been incompetent cabinet ministers
Hi Timothy - it asks firstly how she ever got to be PM, and confirms that as we all knew she really was the accidental PM; and Anthony Seldon absolutely trashes her for her incompetence in his final Verdict chapter and concludes : Never again.Having said that, I may add that Corbyn was the accidental leader of the Labour Party too. If it weren't for that pesky rule change and those darned kids....
Cameron surely started this whole sorry ten chaotic years, I quite agree, by being afraid of Farage whilst at the same time being overconfident of winning his stupid referendum. So for that reason you may well think he is the worst.
Haha! But was it as bad as Boris closing the last PMQ with Hasta La Vista, Baby? This American is a devoted follower of podcasts the Bunker and Oh God What Now/Remainiacs. British politics is comforting for not being American politics!
Jane--yes. As an American now living in UK, try as I might it was always difficult to get outraged over Boris because the US is so comprehensively more terrifying with voter suppression, women being declared not actual people in half the states, one party becoming openly anti-democracy etc... I'm sure The Guardian would be quite disappointed in me.
Kirk wrote: "Jane--yes. As an American now living in UK, try as I might it was always difficult to get outraged over Boris because the US is so comprehensively more terrifying with voter suppression, women bein..."Sadly I think the UK follows the US with a time lag of a few years.
Seeing Kemi Badenoch trying to turn the leadership contest into a culture war was stomach turning, and the final two candidates seem to be outbidding each other in a race to the right.
The only solace I take is that Liz Truss as PM seems guaranteed to lose the tories the next election. As wooden as May, as intellectually incurious as Trump and as "flexible with principles" as Spaffer - I pray God she goes down in flames in 2024
Those with a sense of humour might have appreciated the last couple of days during which Nadine Dorries, supporter of Liz, saidShe (Liz) will be travelling the country wearing her earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire Accessories. Meanwhile… Rishi visits Teeside in Prada shoes worth £450 and sported £3,500 bespoke suit as he prepared for crunch leadership vote.
so one Tory criticising another Tory for being too rich, and meanwhile Keir Starmer fired his transport spokesman for joining the picket line of striking workers and therefore being too pro-labour. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
Delayed reaction after glancing at this review again: you read a 700 page book about Theresa May?? But gave up on Blood Meridian? I can only conclude that Anthony Seldon must be the greatest writer ever... or that other people are just unknowable.
well I did try to explain my issues with Blood Meridian. With May at 10 you don't have any massacres or rapes or trees with dismembered parts nailed on them so it's a lot more soothing. But I am looking forward to Cormac's upcoming Brexit : The Horror out next year.
No Country for Europeans?All the Pretty International Treaties?
Yes! it's a whole second career for him
