Barbara Wesel writes:

[F]or British politics, May’s persistence, which has long bordered on stubbornness, is a disaster.

The prime minister deserves this defeat in Parliament because she herself is to blame. Brexit has divided and deadlocked her government and British politics in general — and that’s May’s fault, too. From the outset, as head of government, she only had her Conservatives in view. She spoke only to her own hardliners, trying to keep the party together at all costs. In doing so, she failed to build alliances, reach out to the opposition and sound out compromises.

May’s hostility toward EU workers in Britain and against the European Union itself, has only deepened the rifts. And she has not made any friends among her European colleagues, whose support she will be depending on when the UK leaves, as well as afterward. May lacks the stature of a head of government. She is not showing any responsibility for the future, or for Britain’s welfare. As a politician, she is too small-minded and too narrow, too rigid and unimaginative for the difficult times that Brexit has brought about. [Continue reading…]