Theresa May played and won…but lost

It seems that Theresa had played a hard poker game, thinking of having all the winning cards, but Corbyn came up as the fancy winner.

Snap Election

Theresa May, last April, told she needed  a  bigger mandate in order to have a “strong” support  in the Brexit negotiations. She announced a snap election on 8 June.

But this was an election that wasn’t supposed to happen. As she said, in September 2016, “I’ve been very clear that I think we need that period of time, that stability, to be able to deal with the issues that the country is facing and have that election in 2020”.

Absolutely confident she will win

It  really seemed  that this  election was  her chance to enhance her prime minister status quo. It  was as she was saying “I’m Theresa May and I’m the best person to be a Prime Minister”. I would bet that  she was totally sure that Tories can win a bigger majority in England.

What really went wrong?

The “strong and stable leadership” slogan of May campaign just failed to gain impressions.

“The choice is clear: every vote for him is a vote for a chaotic Brexit; every vote for me is a vote to strengthen our hand in negotiating the best deal for Brexit”, claimed at 26th April.

At the time when country needed a bit of stability yet Theresa May called for general election. She was invited on debates, that majority of British People wanted but she arrogantly refused.

“The cold hard fact is that if I lose just six seats I will lose this election, and Jeremy Corbyn will be sitting down to negotiate with the presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of Europe”.

Corbyn the outsider

On the opposite side, Jeremy Corbyn, won on the young voters and  gained  popularity that no one thought he could achieve. It seems that Theresa had played a hard poker game, thinking of having  all the winning cards, but Corbyn came up as the fancy winner.

Were Conservatives much more unpopular than they realized?

By and large, general election proved to be a high risk decision for May, as Conservatives have lost their overall majority. As for Corbyn, Labour Party increased number of seats for the first time since 1997. It seems that United Kingdom’s iron lady didn’t gain high impressions on her campaign, which was started confidently back in April and  focused on the need for May’s strong leadership as the country  had to deal with Brexit negotiations.

The right person in the right time

Strong and high strung, Theresa  May seems that,  back in July, was the right person in the right time. Following  Cameron’s resignation, after Brexit vote, Theresa May emerged the right person to lead United Kingdom into Brexit.

“She is strong, she is competent, she is more than able to provide the leadership that our country is going to need in the years ahead, and she will have my full support”, claimed Cameron  last  July.

“Theresa May will provide the authority and the leadership necessary to unite the Conservative Party and take our country forward in the coming weeks and months.” said Boris Johnson.

She appeared as a promising new leader, indeed as the second woman in country’s  PM history, following Margaret Thatcher. Declared feminist, ambitious and competent, holding a tough-talking style, seems that the ex-home secretary was ambitious enough from an early age to cherish the opportunity to be UK’s Prime Minister.

“I cannot remember a time when she did not have political ambitions. I well remember, at the time, that she did want to become the first woman prime minister and she was quite irritated when Margaret Thatcher got there first”, said her University friend, Pat Frankland @ BBC Radio 4.

Who is Theresa May

Theresa May was born in Sussex on 1st October 1956 but raised largely in Oxfordshire, studied at Oxford University, likewise Margaret Thatcher, married to Philip May and  prides herself on being such a good cook, as she said she owns 100 recipe books.

“I grew up as the daughter of a local vicar and the granddaughter of a regimental sergeant major. Public service has been a part of who I am for as long as I can remember.”

Originally worked at the Bank of England, between 1977 and 1983, afterwards, from 1985 to 1997, as  a financial consultant and senior advisor in International  Affairs at Association for Payment and Clearing Payments. May has served as Member of Parliament for Maidenhead since 1997. Moreover, she was a member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1999 to 2010, and from 2002 to 2003 was the first female Chairman of the Conservative Party. In 2010, she was appointed Home Secretary, a position which she held for 6 years before becoming Prime Minister in July 2016.

“I first met her in 2010. I was sitting in my Treasury office, overlooking St James’s Park, me in one armchair and the home secretary in the other, with no officials present. She looked nervous. I felt she was surprised to find herself as home secretary. Frankly, I didn’t expect her to last more than a couple of years”, former Lib Dem minister David Laws says @BBC.

Steady and a very systematic thinker, she was the co-founder of Women2Win (2005), a group that supported David Cameron’s engagement to  provide Tory women with more chances for election in the Parliament. Afterwards, she was appointed Minister for Women and Equality (2010) and in 2014 she announced a raft of changes to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM).

May’s record as Home Secretary

May’s record as Home Secretary was, largely remembered for accomplishing  radical cleric’s, Abu Qatada, deportation, who was first arrested in the UK over alleged terror connections in 2001.

“Mrs May was good at her job but a “bloody difficult woman”, a bit like Mrs Thatcher”, said former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke.

What May Thinks

Responding to Ken Clarke: “Politics could do with some “bloody difficult women”

Brexit: “Brexit means Brexit”

Muslim women: “Feel free to choose whether to wear hijab. What a woman wears is a woman”s choice”

Women in Work: “If we fully used the skills and qualifications of women who are currently out of work, it could deliver economic benefits of £15bn-21bn per year.”

About her meeting with Trump: “Haven’t you ever noticed, sometimes opposites attract?”

Women &Politics: “I’ve always championed women in politics. We just get stuck in; politics isn’t a game. Politics isn’t a game. The decisions we make affect people’s lives, and that is something we must all keep to the forefront of our minds”.

BREXIT

By and large, Brexit process is on the way: What is needed to consider for UK is  what sort of deal this election result might produce. The new government has many issues to deal with, as arranging a fair trade agreement, clarifying if UK is legally obliged to pay an exit bill to European Union, making it clear about what kind of  legislation will United Kingdom keep and what will need to be reformed and defining immigration policy.

The issue is if Britain holds all the best cards in Brexit negotiations, now that Emmanuel Macron, after his election victory, will definitely play a key role in the Brexit process, as he has been a clear opponent for United Kingdom’s exit from the EU.