BACK in January, when Theresa May was filmed walking hand in hand with Donald Trump down the colonnade at the White House, I was tempted to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt.
After all, most women – me included – know exactly how it feels when some old geezer that makes you want to wretch invades your personal space. It’s usually a randy colleague at the office Christmas party rather than the president of the United States, of course, and the world’s media is rarely watching your every move and catching it for posterity. I almost felt sorry for Mrs May.
But that was most definitely then. Following the blank reaction to Mr Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Treaty on climate change, I realise that it was not a look of awkwardness on Mrs May’s face on that cold day in Washington, but submission. That day clearly set the tone of their relationship. And at the moment I hate to think where that unequal relationship will lead a prime minister whose judgement is being exposed as poorer by the day. Where this could eventually take the rudderless country she is in charge of – for the next few days, at least – just doesn’t bear thinking about.
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel was signing a letter protesting Mr Trump’s monumentally terrible stance, and making a characteristically thoughtful but muscular speech on exactly why it is so wrong, why the Paris agreement is so crucial to this environmental, economic and geo-political moment, Mrs May spoke wanly of “disappointment”. That’s the word you use when your kid gets a B instead of an A for physics. Or when you don’t get the internal promotion you went for. It is certainly not how you describe the decision of the biggest carbon polluter in history to walk away from a global climate change deal that might actually start to make a difference. Even Russia and China have signed up.
Aligning himself with the sort of wacky climate change deniers you’d cross the street to avoid, Mr Trump is crushing the younger generation like a fag end under his overly-entitled foot. Lest we forget it was his generation that kept burning the fossil fuels like there was no tomorrow even when scientists were warning of the catastrophic damage to come. And now a pay-squeezed, austerity-weary, debt-ridden younger generation will have to pick up the pieces.
Trump’s withdrawal doesn’t even make economic sense, since it is green energy sector, with its massive research and development arm, rather than fossil fuels, that is providing the sort of skilled jobs and technological potential at home and abroad that can expand entire economies. Scotland should and could be at the forefront of this.
Mrs May is trying to appease and cosy up to Mr Trump post-Brexit, desperately looking for a trade deal just as the European allies that have shared half a century of peace, economic and social progress with us are backing off in their droves. And little wonder. Under Mrs May, the UK is on its way to becoming a pariah and a laughing stock.
At least, I suppose, Mrs May didn’t describe President Trump’s decision to screw over the rest of the world as “strong and stable”. Which brings us back to judgement and leadership. Successful leaders in all walks of life possess these two qualities in spades. Over the last few weeks in particular, with the never ending dead-eyed mantras and scrambled U-turns, Mrs May has shown herself to have neither. She has gone from the solution to the problem in record time.
The decision to hold this Thursday’s general election might yet vie with David Cameron’s EU referendum as the most arrogant and ultimately stupid political move in British political history. At least Mrs May has shown us her fatal flaws now – I only hope the voters don’t choose to ignore them.
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