Theresa May cannot pretend the election didn’t happen – she must address the electorate’s demands
Prime Minister must admit that young people need a better deal and Britain wants more spent on health and schools
THERESA May cannot just pretend it didn’t happen. She needs to address why it did.
Her speech after telling the Queen she would seamlessly form a new Government with the DUP’s help was thoroughly disheartening.
The electorate sent the Tories deafening messages. That young people need a better deal. That Britain wants more spent on health and schools.
Mrs May addressed neither.
After the Tories’ suicidal campaign, based on attacking its core voters over social care and winter fuel payments, how could the Prime Minister not summon the humility to say what needed to be said? That she had heard Britain’s concerns and would act.
By contrast, the Scottish Tories’ charismatic leader Ruth Davidson said: “There are lots of issues we need to address with clear minds and at length.”
That’s not weakness, Mrs May.
It’s honest, natural and right.
Scots love Davidson for it, as her extraordinary gains there prove.
But, in keeping with her campaign, Mrs May offered nothing.
There is not yet an obvious replacement as Tory PM.
But Mrs May cannot possibly continue governing as she does, to the exclusion of her Cabinet and her party.
It MUST change today.
She must make the deal with the DUP stick.
They give the Tories a fragile but workable majority near to David Cameron’s in 2015 and are a more natural fit than the Lib Dems in the 2010 Coalition.
The pact is vital for the country’s stability, to deliver Brexit and keep Jeremy Corbyn’s Marxists out of power.
Why not cement it with a DUP Cabinet post?
Let us explode a myth or two.
This was not a collapse in the Tory vote share, which was higher than for 34 years.
It was a surge in Labour’s.
And for Jeremy Corbyn to claim victory is as ludicrous as Chelsea claiming they won the FA Cup 1-2.
He did better than Ed Miliband. That’s it.
He offered limitless, impossible-to-fund bribes and still lost, coming second in votes and seats.
His glee yesterday was partly relief that he doesn’t actually have to find the money.
The idea he is a political genius is laughable.
But that is not to say he didn’t put his finger on something.
Young people are sick of being short-changed compared with past generations.
Mrs May must fix it.
Or next time Britain will buy the Marxists’ fool’s gold — and the Tories will be helpless to prevent the inevitable horrors that will follow.