Thursday, July 14, 2016

Of (prime) ministers and moggies

After completely misjudging the whole Brexit thing last month and resigning as prime minister, David Cameron found himself having to move out of the official residence at 10 Downing Street sooner than he’d expected. That’s because the process of choosing his successor went a lot faster than anticipated—like a couple of weeks instead of a couple of months. Britain gets only the second female prime minister of its history.

Cameron left Number Ten yesterday after tendering his resignation to the Queen, who thereupon “invited” Theresa May to form a government.


(Can I just ask: this photo was taken in Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s home; why is she carrying a handbag? Why am I the only person asking this?)

May moved in and immediately started making very interesting cabinet appointments, including Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. BoJo was one of the leaders of the drive to exit the EU, and May’s putting him in charge of foreign policy. He can’t even manage his own hair.

She’s also proclaimed her intention to fight for those I imagine she thinks of as “the little people” (and I don’t mean the leipreachán). Looking with a studiously sincere face into news cameras she declared, “The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives. When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws we’ll listen not to the mighty but to you. When it comes to taxes we’ll prioritize not the wealthy but you.”

First of all, coming from the ex-Home Secretary who gutted the UK’s first responder infrastructure and who has repeatedly voted in Parliament to favor corporate interests, this represents quite the turnabout in her philosophy. Second, when she talks about giving people “more control” over their lives, I’m thinking that means “we’re cutting social services even more than we’ve done in recent years, so you’re on your own, losers.”

And as for turning a deaf ear to the mighty, and not prioritizing the interests of the wealthy when it comes to taxes—pull the other one, Terri, it’s got bells on.

Well, May’s the second female prime minister in British history and she’s a Tory. She’s got to prove herself tougher than Margaret Thatcher; there’s no escaping it. She could have been Mother Teresa instead of Theresa May, and she’d still be measured against the Maggatolah.

Meanwhile, although she’s replaced Cameron’s team in the cabinet and cleared out his kids’ toys or whatever (he and his family, apparently are temporarily homeless, as their private house was leased in the expectation they’d be in official digs for a good while longer), May has to share 10 Downing Street with the resident feline.


Larry the Cat was brought in from a shelter five years ago because there was a four-legged vermin problem at Number Ten. While it turns out that Larry isn’t much of a mouser—but has a bit of a rep for mixing it up with various other political cats and police dogs—he does go a long way towards making the human occupants look more, well, human.


(Tweeted officially by Cameron. Honestly.)

However, like Thatcher, May does not strike me as the sort of woman who intends to share the stage with any creature capable of grabbing the spotlight, including cute kitties. I think the RSPCA should keep eyes on Larry, and if he doesn’t show up every couple of days, they should check the back garden for newly turned-over patches of dirt.

And I'm starting a new Twitter trend: #PrayForLarry.




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