{"id":2527,"date":"2017-06-10T09:12:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T08:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canterburypolitics.wordpress.com\/?p=2527"},"modified":"2018-09-10T14:08:31","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T13:08:31","slug":"mays-failure-blackadder-the-uk-general-election-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/2017\/06\/10\/mays-failure-blackadder-the-uk-general-election-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"May\u2019s failure: Blackadder & the UK General Election 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dr Demetris Tillyris is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University. He specialises in Contemporary Political Philosophy and the History of Political Thought. He also serves as the Director of Making Politics Matter.<\/em><\/p>\n

To say that the 2017 General Election results are surprising would be an understatement.\u00a0 When Theresa May called the election, most opinion polls suggested that we should, at the very least, expect a healthy Conservative majority, if not a landslide. This much was also reflected in the betting odds set by various bookmakers. Yet, opinion polls and bookmakers proved almost as bad at gauging public opinion as Theresa May.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What the election result makes clear is that May\u2019s gamble has not paid off. In fact, her failure can hardly be exaggerated. May hoped that, in holding a snap general election, she could capitalise on the weakness of, and bitter ideological squabbles within, the Labour Party, secure a landslide Conservative majority, and get a mandate that would purportedly strengthen her bargaining power in the Brexit negotiations. She has achieved the exact opposite: she has managed to throw away the narrow majority the Conservatives had in the last parliament, and to lose \u2018safe Conservative seats\u2019 to Labour – seats like Canterbury, which has been a Conservative stronghold since 1918, and which previously had a 10,000 majority.<\/p>\n

The result of the General Election, however, is not just striking because of May\u2019s unanticipated and epic political failure, but also, and more importantly perhaps, because it crystallises what became quite apparent during her disastrous, hubris-ridden political campaign: her failure of sound political judgement. Blinded, or perhaps misled, by the polls which suggested that the Tories were 20 per cent ahead of Labour, she took the electorate for granted. In stark contrast to Jeremy Corbyn, May appeared to be completely detached from political reality – the concrete injustices which plague our politics and society, and the plethora of insecurities and fears which now constitute a constant ingredient of our lives (see her \u2018there\u2019s no magic money tree\u2019 response to the underpaid and struggling nurse during BBC Question Time election special). Her detachment from reality and profound failure of political judgement are, perhaps, epitomised in the way in which she (and Lynton Crosby) conducted her political campaign.<\/p>\n

Theresa May\u2019s campaign brings to mind a rather amusing scene from Blackadder III (which is worth watching or re-watching), where Edmund Blackadder, Prince George\u2019s cunning, devious, and conniving butler \u2013 in an attempt to enhance the Prince\u2019s political power and influence \u2013 instructs Baldrick \u2013 the hopelessly na\u00efve, and innocent servant \u2013 to stand as an MP for Dunny-on-the-Wold: a \u2018rotten borough\u2019 which consists of \u2018half an acre of sodden marshland in the Suffolk Fens, with an empty town hall on it \u2026 three rather mangy cows, a dachshund named `Colin\u2019, and a small hen in its late forties\u2019. In an interview before the election, Blackadder captures an important insight which May and Crosby have, at their peril, failed to entertain:<\/p>\n

Blackadder: We in the Adder Party are going to fight this campaign on issues, not personalities.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interviewer: Why is that?<\/em><\/p>\n

Blackadder: Because our candidate doesn\u2019t have a personality.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P2MQEYrjmZs<\/p>\n

Blackadder\u2019s point is clear and straightforward: if your candidate does not have a personality, do not turn your campaign into a personality contest. May\u2019s and Crosby\u2019s strategy was heavily, and erroneously focused on her being a robust and tough, one-trick pony, who could\u00a0 be relied on to deliver Brexit. But May\u2019s lack of personality and charisma deemed her promise of \u2018strong and stable leadership\u2019 implausible. Indeed, the narrative of \u2018strength and stability\u2019 was even further undermined by her unwillingness to take part in head-to-head debates, her social care U-turn \u2013 four days after the launch of the Tory manifesto, and amid much fanfare about a fair Britain \u2013, and the fact that the Tory Manifesto and campaign were, at best, rich in soundbites but profoundly thin on substance.<\/p>\n

In her victory-defeat speech in Maidenhead, May has declared, in a crackling voice, her intention to marshal on. Her more recent statement confirms this much: the Tories will form a regressive alliance\/minority government with the DUP. But whilst May is still emphasising the importance of stability and certainty, her position has been immensely weakened, and not only with her own party. As a number of EU officials have emphasised, her authority to conduct the Brexit negotiations has been severely undermined. And, without the 12 unanticipated Tory gains from the SNP in Scotland \u2013 gains which owe little to May -, her position would be even worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Demetris Tillyris is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University. He specialises in Contemporary Political Philosophy and the History of Political Thought. He also serves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161081,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[229,969,981,997,2193,2233],"class_list":["post-2527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-blackadder","tag-ge17","tag-ge2017","tag-general-election","tag-theresa-may","tag-uk"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Anna Vanaga","featuredImage":false,"postExcerpt":"Dr Demetris Tillyris is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University. He specialises in Contemporary Political Philosophy and the History of Political Thought. He also serves […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3342,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2527\/revisions\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}