Where is the Prime Minister.Where is leadership?

Where is the Prime Minister? Where is leadership?

At a moment when the nation is crying out for strong leadership in Britain,with challenging Brexit negotiations and as some say a faltering economy, just at this time of major issues requiring an forceful and able Prime Minister in Downing Street, we have the calamity of Ministerial inquiries on harassment of women and even a resignation. 

Women in politics

The Conservative Party, once the very bastion of "inside privilege and entitlement" for men, has strangely always been entirely comfortable with the idea of a woman at the helm.To women too, it was the pinnacle of power. To many it was also the moment when the tide was changing for women in British politics. Impressive performance of female politicians around the world ,Angela Merkel in Germany, Aung San Sui Kyi in Myanmar ,Nicola Sturgeon nearer home in Scotland, of course not forgetting Margaret Thatcher who made history in 1979 by becoming Britain's first female Prime Minister, women like to surround themselves with powerful,charismatic men.

Some have called it the "Queen Bee" syndrome, the tendency of women in positions of authority to be more critical of subordinates who are also women. Others assign it to the "bitchiness" of powerful women, who find it difficult to share power with members of their sex, because of rivalry.

How much has changed?

A rule of thumb in politics as in business, is that anyone who announces in advance "I'm not a quitter," is not in a strong position to negotiate. Senior Tories cast doubt on Theresa May's long term future as leader. May's situation according to "The Guardian" is particular, not generic. In many respects she is said to be in the weakest position of any Prime Minister of "the modern era." She has lost an election that she never have called.Her failings have been ruthlessly exposed. Her party and some say her Cabinet is divided. "They have no special loyalty or affection for her,or her signature policy on Brexit," which is in tatters and going nowhere. Even the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, a Canadian, has said that 75,000 jobs will disappear from the City of London, if there was no deal on Brexit. 

How is power manipulated?

Women could very well think that to hold on to power in a man's world, they have to do something extraordinarily brave? They rely on a coterie of powerful men who are masters of manipulation. 

In one sense, or in essence these advisers, the so called "Grandees" say that Theresa May is surprisingly secure as Prime Minister.She could be a "long lived lame duck" if she is skilful about it.  This is really the harassment that she is undergoing in silence. 

Harassment of sorts

Theresa May's trusted men tell her on the one hand what is the alternative for her to cling to power. The overwhelming  reason is to not change horses (Prime Ministers') midstream in Brexit. 

So what does a woman in  her position do? What do women do?

They have ambushed her for their own reasons. One of May's strongest weapons is to put the "fear of God" in her party's M.P's. As a Home Secretary, she was well trained over six years to do just that. But as a Prime Minister she has to use her Whips to cleverly keep her slim majority intact, if only to remain in office.

Paradoxically, the very electoral system that gave her a slim majority is her strongest support, her strongest weapon. To do her job, she is told, perhaps,commandeered, to  need a "baby faced assisin" in the  Conservative Whips office to frighten the daylights of her M.P's.

"The Black Book"

Every private school boy knows what is a Black Book. Every Whip has a secret Black Book of all the worms in the cupboard of every MP. What do Whips do? Whips use the well tried and tested method of control. The simplest way is "character assassination."

This method by another name is blackmail. It creates the fear of an election. Even the powerful of the powerful men fear it. A Tory leadership election would only hasten demands for a general election. It would split the party in ways that makes a Labour Government in power more likely?

Harassment is a cover up?

There is a saying that you really cannot fool women, all the time. Women in politics are not naive, they are powerful women, they have fought every inch of the way to enter ;politics and the insensitivities of innuendo,character assassination, harassment are hardly enough to make them collapse. It is the men who will fall foul, not women in politics?

Victor Cherubim