If a picture paints a thousand words then the stark marginalisation of Theresa May at the G20 summit in the Chinese industrial city of Hangzhou supplied enough copy for a text book on the loss of national power.
Sticking Britain’s new Prime Minister in the family photograph on the end of the second row next to the similarly unelected Saudi deputy crown prince – not even the crown prince but the deputy crown prince – symbolised her country’s looming place in the world after Brexit.
Germany’s Angela Merkel, America’s Barack Obama, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s president, Xi Jinping, were awarded pride of place in the middle of the front row. David Cameron, May’s predecessor until he accidentally lost Europe, used to enjoy central billing though his standing never guaranteed a premier position.
May was the kid in the school photo who the cool children struggle to name when they peer back at the class momento, trying to identify the nerds and geeks who were largely ignored. I bet the Saudi deputy crown prince has forgotten Thingamjig already. And he won’t be alone.
It was almost comic when she appeared to bow her head subserviently to the Chinese dictator at the end of a filmed encounter, overawed by the occasion as the woman without a plan.
Because May’s “Brexit means Brexit” slogan is an empty mini-soundbite, when the Prime Minister is clueless about what it means, is as frightening as it is funny.
She never wanted Britain to leave the European Union and critics attacking Jeremy Corbyn for not yelling his Remainer support should direct more of their fire at a former Home Secretary, who locked herself in a dark room for the duration of the referendum campaign, mumbling little vocal backing for Britain staying in the EU when migration – her baby – was the hottest issue.
What does “Brexit means Brexit” mean? Theresa doesn’t know. She knows what it doesn’t mean, we learned. It doesn’t mean an Australian-style points system for migrants. She binned that. Promised in the Out lies by among others her new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, she betrayed what Downing Street really thinks of the Buller Boy by chucking his headline policy in the trash.
In itself that’s sensible when the Oz arrangement is patently unsuited to Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe, migration into Australia proportionately double that into this sceptred isle and points covering only a minority of the entrants.
Nor will there be Johnson’s promised £100m extra a week for the NHS let alone the £350m saving that May’s Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, pledged on the side of his Leave campaign’s fib bus and in many an interview, including a clash with yours truly on BBC 5 Live’s compelling political show with Jon Pienaar on Sunday mornings. The PM refused, admittedly to her credit, to commit to spending money which doesn’t exist when the Quitters fraudulently inflated contributions to Brussels.
Indeed May hinted that a deal, when it is invented, could involve Britain paying Norwegian-style into the European Union to secure access to a giant trading market on our doorstep in what would be a case of taxation without representation.
Britain will lose its voice in Europe – walking out of the Commission, Council of Ministers and European Union – and thus the opportunity to shape everything from paperclip regulations to cross-border economic and environmental policies in our corner of the world. Policies which will continue to impact on our jobs, prosperity and lives. Well done Brexiteers.
But how will migration be curbed, as the Brexiteers demand, and Britain trade with Ireland, German, France, Italy, Spain and the rest? May is clueless, clueless, clueless.
As is David Davis, her Brexit Secretary and a long-term Eurosceptic. In the words of Tim Farron, a Liberal Democrat leader with a nice turn of phrase, he took a long time to tell us nothing during two-odd hours in the House of Commons. Davis meeting TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady is encouraging. Theresa May agreeing to meet O’Grady even more so. But I’d put my 2p on the TUC leader strolling none the wiser out of the proposed tete-a-tete with the PM.
I’ve no doubt the two-year Article 50 clock will be formally set ticking next year so Britain is Europeanless in 2019 ahead of the General Election that May’s required in law to hold in May 2020.
I hope we know by then.
