Enough drama: let’s hope women can bring Brexit to a conclusion
Gwynne Dyer says the last woman standing will become British prime minister on Wednesday, and though she has pledged to carry out voters’ wishes and take Britain out of the EU, she may have no idea how to actually do it
It’s a bit like a Shakespeare play – specifically the final scene of Hamlet, when almost all the play’s major characters die violently. And now we’re down to one. Her name is Theresa May.
It has been barely three weeks since the UK (or at least, 52 per cent of those who voted) chose to leave the European Union, but all the Brexit leaders have left the stage. The Conservative Party has always been notable for its ruthlessness, and leaders who threaten to split the party get short shrift.
The first to go was Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the referendum expecting that a pro-EU outcome would finally make the anti-EU obsessives on the right of his party shut up. It was a needless, fatal blunder.
Cameron allowed some of his own cabinet members to campaign for Brexit, in the belief that they would return to the fold, chastened by defeat, when the country voted for Remain. Instead, the Leave campaign won, and Cameron announced his resignation the morning after the referendum.
However, he said that he would stay in office until October to give the party time to choose a new leader. Then the slaughter started.
Maggie May: Britain’s next PM emerges from Brexit carnage to follow in Thatcher’s footsteps
