Theresa May to become British PM on Wednesday

Posted by Jim on July 11, 2016

British Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed he will officially
step down on Wednesday, months ahead of schedule. His announcement came
after it emerged his replacement will be Home Secretary Theresa May,
whose last rival for the leadership of the Conservative Party dropped
out this morning.

Cameron said he quit after Prime Minister’s Questions on July 13, and
May will then become Prime Minister on Wednesday evening.

Although Theresa May is a controversial figure who has modelled herself
on Margaret Thatcher, her advancement will be preferred in Ireland
against the more extreme candidates for the post, Michael Gove and
Andrea Leadsom.

However, she is a supporter of austerity which continues to increase
deprivation in the north of Ireland. She has consistently opposed the
Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights.

As Home Secretary, she’s been an authoritarian ‘securocrat’ who has
championed greater surveillance powers which have led to Britain being
described as a surveillance state.

Despite mutterings of reform, she has presided over draconian ‘stop and
search’ legislation which is routinely used to harass and oppress
Catholics in the north of Ireland. She has also been pushing an
“extremism bill”, based on a definition of extremism that she herself
has been unable to define.

At the Home Office, she has promoted anti-immigrant propaganda, while
her own immigration policies have failed dramatically. Her refusal this
week to guarantee EU nationals’ the right to stay in Britain displayed
a new level of extremist zeal.

Tory veteran Ken Clarke made unguarded remarks recently about her being
a “bloody difficult woman”, while colleagues have described as being
unpleasant to work with — but that she will usually “do a deal in the
end”.

Her rapid transition to becoming British Prime Minister gives very
little time for her to prepare for a massive agenda which involves. As
a first step, she will manage the British exit from the European Union.
She will then be presented with an independence referendum in Scotland,
which now appears almost certain to pass, as well as irresistible
pressure to end the obsolete Union with the north of Ireland and Wales.

Her performance over the next weeks and months will be closely watched
as an important indicator of the future direction of Anglo-Irish
politics.