Or, Why One Cannot Help But Admire Theresa May...
*For having willingly embraced a publicly-endorsed 'scheme' she'd previously (at least publicly) opposed.
*For having done so without reservation.
*She's doggedly stuck to the task (and 'to her guns') through thick and thin.
*She's steadfastly refused to glibly vilify her opponents...whether without/outside or inside/within her own party.
*For having gone the extra mile (and then some)...and pursued the understood goal to the nth degree.
*For having compromised her own personal preferences wherever and whenever possible.
*For giving and infusing new meaning (in)to the age-old mascot image of the British Bulldog.
Unfortunately the selfsame cannot - remotely - be said of her - soon to be *erstwhile? - Labour opponent, Jeremy Corbyn...
Though long - and from early on (and long prior, no doubt, if I'd heard of/known about him) a fan/supporter of Corbyn's brand of politics...for all sorts of reasons (and even having early on scribbled out a long-winded defence/support of him and his leadership style - sadly long since mislaid!)...on this all-important matter of the Brexit he's done himself absolutely no favours whatsoever...
Why forsooth? For playing petty partisan party politics with a matter deserving of much more gravitas...and moreover statesmanship. In seeking to score mere parliamentary debating points he's revealed himself a mere partisan politico...like so many others...to my own intense disappointment. At least viewing things from this considerable (Antipodean) distance...
Yes, I'd argue that Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has thereby missed his own 'opportunity of a lifetime'...to rise above sordid political partisanship and likewise willingly embrace the expressed will of the British people...the citizens of the United Kingdom...which, paradoxically enough, he **had actually (long since) fundamentally agreed with...
No, Mr Corbyn doesn't emerge with flying colours (from the Brexit debacle)...and certainly hasn't bedecked himself or his own political brand with reams of glory...
...which arguably, say, a Hilary Benn - the effective 'heir apparent' to that grand old 'Granddaddy' of left-wing British politics, his own father Tony Benn - would have...
And the salient, underlying lesson of 'the whole sorry saga'? Try to please everybody...thereby succeed in pleasing nobody!
*Referring of course to Ms May('s possible imminent departure), quite obviously, rather than Mr Corbyn('s); but - being the pedant that I ever am - that doesn't rule out the applicability of that word 'erstwhile'...relating as it clearly does to the 'relationship' between the two.
**I.e. Corbyn's apparently long been suspicious of the European Union and no 'Europhile'.
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