Theresa May: Tories were not prepared for snap election

[T_i_B]

Well why the flying chuff did she call a snap election then?

The lack of self awareness from our Prime Minister is actually quite disturbing. Especially as she made the Tories general election campaign all about herself.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/28/tories-werent-ready-snap-general-election-theresa-may

Theresa May has conceded her party was not ready when she called a snap general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority despite a hefty lead in opinion polls.

The prime minister said she had failed to communicate the message she gave on the steps of Downing Street after winning the Tory leadership last year, and that her words about making the country work for everyone “didn’t come through in the election".

The prime minister hinted that she believed there had been too much top-down control in the campaign, which delivered the Tories a net loss of 13 seats and forced May to strike a pact with the DUP in order to remain in power.


“There weren’t the links with the centre [of the party] that there should have been. That’s one of the issues we need to look at,” she said.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. If another Tory said all that, it'd be seen as a leadership challenge saying she's incompetent

The amount of times she talked about people outside her constituency voting for her was almost Trumpian. Tory strategy was basically wheeling her out to repeat "strong and stable" and to refuse debates. And the Mirror's article on the interview points out she seemed to be whining that elections aren't so focused on debate these days.

[T_i_B]

2. The Tory general election campaign....

...was based on stifling debate, not enabling it! Theresa May also spent the general election doing very stage managed events for very carefully selected Tory activists. She actively ran away from anything difficult such as debate.

And the Tory campaign wasn't just over centralised, it also focused far too heavily on Theresa May as a person. Which is awkward as she did not come over very well in that regard in the slightest.

The whole charade backfired on the Tories, and their own blunders have served to undermine much of their arguments against Jeremy Corbyn in the process.

Strong and stable my arse!

[Voltaire2]

3. I thought that was the point of a snap election.

[Denzil_DC]

4. Hmmm ...

Well, the Tories in Scotland seemed to be ready from the off - they had pre-printed generic election addresses out before any of the other parties, and didn't seem short of funding (unlike the other parties, which were still reeling after the hard-fought council elections).

The dysfunction between May's now-sacked cabal of spads and the party on the ground have been well documented - e.g. https://www.democraticunderground.com/108813256 - and smacks of arrogance, weak or absent leadership on May's part, and an assumption of an easy win as long as they did nothing to frighten the horses. Then they did frighten the horses anyway with the inexplicable unpopular non-Brexit policies they floated then had to abandon after the public backlash.

May's invisibility during the campaign is one reason why her message "didn’t come through in the election" (the other is her lack of a coherent message, which is a whole other story). She scuttled around from private gathering to private gathering, spouting the same old trite talking points, secluded from the media and the public, as if ticking off a formulaic campaign itinerary: it's Friday, it must be ...

It felt like she was seen as a liability, and the less the public saw of her, the better. They were probably right!

There's something seriously wrong with that woman. It comes across as some sort of agoraphobia and social awkwardness that goes beyond shyness. People can generally muddle through life like that, but it isn't helpful in a leader on the campaign trail.

[T_i_B]

5. I don't think May lacked visibility at all!

There was far far more of her ugly mug all over campaign literature than the local candidate, the boards in farmers fields all proclaimed that the local candidate was "STANDING WITH THERESA MAY" and other senior Conservative politician's (with the exception of Amber Rudd and maybe Ruth Davidson in Scotland) were not highlighted in the campaign.

I got deluged with Tory junk mail, and Theresa May was an inescapable, insufferable presence on Tory leaflets. Issues other than whether or not Theresa May is or isn't the Brexit messiah were ignored. The top down Tory campaign also had the effect of portraying Tory candidates as Theresa May's lickspittles. Although my newly elected Conservative MP is doing his best to live down to that.

[Denzil_DC]

6. Well, yes.

I was talking about her public appearances, in person or even in the media. When she wasn't absent, she was utterly robotic.

May was overshadowed up here in Scotland by Ruth Davidson's ubiquitous prominence in campaign literature, gurning and cavorting for the cameras, and ceaseless chanting of "SNP BAD" and "NO SECOND INDYREF" (which Labour and the Lib Dems joined in with) whatever the issue she was asked about.

On May's private brief visits to tiny village halls, the most we saw of her was Davidson circling her like a craven sheepdog as they pretended to deliver leaflets to a few twee-looking doors in rural areas for the benefit of the cameras - I think they abandoned that when the small number of people who happened to be in their gardens responded "No, thanks", and those who may have been in hid behind their curtains when they knocked.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Yes. My then Tory MP (glad to say she lost her seat) sent me a leaflet..

which mentioned the Conservative Party once, and the strong and stable Theresa May, and why we should back her, loads of times.

I also got a letter supposedly from May herself, which urged me to back her; was full of her strength and stability and how bad Corbyn was; and had only one mention of the Conservative Party, and none of the local MP. It was like a cult of personality, except that May is an odd target for a cult of personality, not really having one.

[Denzil_DC]

7. Not worth a thread of its own at the moment, but related:

Tim Shipman of The Sunday Times is busy on Twitter plugging his new book, Fall Out, currently being serialized in that paper (which is mostly paywalled, so I won't quote it directly here).

Here are some snippets:





All of which (if true, of course) chimes with conclusions many of us here drew as events unfolded.

Great timing - looks like The Sunday Times et al. have decided we need a new Prime Minister.

Shipman's Twitter feed is here: https://twitter.com/ShippersUnbound (which is where I found these excerpts, so I guess they're now in the public domain)

[T_i_B]

8. The thing that I noticed on that front page...

...was the story about Boris Johnson being "on maneuvers", which has been a major theme coming out of the Conservative Party conference.

The other big things to take from that are Theresa May's car crash speech and the governing party in this country clearly being utterly removed from reality.