Theresa May and her tears of departure

The London correspondent of CBS was asked this morning to describe what it was like when Theresa May made her short address outside Number 10 Downing Street announcing her resignation. He told the anchor presenters back in Washington DC that an exraordinary event had taken place, something he would not have expected from a British prime minister. She had tears in her eyes. Well of course, the American correspondent did not have a sufficiently long memory. Theresa May reminded everyone that she was the second woman prime minister of Great Britain. What she didn't say was that the first, the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, also had tears running down her cheeks when SHE departed following her enforced resignation in November 1990. Both women prime ministers cried when they lost the job they loved. But I guess the CBS correspodent can be forgiven for forgetting that. Theresa May's departure, while perhaps the most predicted political event for years, was indeed a sad moment. She will remain prime minister until a successor has been selected to be the new leader of the Conservative Party which means she will effectively be running the country until around the end of July. Donald Trump must have been confused by all the shenanigans going on in London, particularly since he is due to arrive for a state visit in London on June 3. However, he has been reassured that Theresa will still be the one to greet him in Downing Street. I don't suppose she is looking forward to the sympathetic pat on the back and kiss on the cheek when he turns up. But the way things are going in Washington for the president, perhaps she will give HIM a sympathetic pat on the back while avoiding the kiss. Now that she has finally resigned, at least she will no longer face the daily headlines about her struggles to get her Brexit plan approved. That is all over. But the bitterness will remain. The American correspondents are all saying that she resigned because she failed to negotiate a Brexit deal. Actually she succeeded in getting a Brexit deal after more than two years of negotiations with the EU. She not only brought a signed deal back from Brussels but won approval from her Cabinet. Then everything went wrong once members of parliament actually read the 480-page document. They didn't like it, particularly the stuff on the Northern Ireland border, the infamous backstop agreement. But the fact is she produced a deal but then failed to persuade MPs in the House of Commons to vote for it. But that was more about internal politics than the future status of the United Kingdom outside the EU. The Brexit deal, any Brexit deal, is and was doomed from the start, and I don't see how a new prime minister without a huge majority is ever going to find a solution to this problem. Meanwhile, thank you, Theresa, for all your unbelievable efforts. The tears and the choking sound in your voice showed that you truly cared. No one had really taken that on board while you were trying to sell your Brexit deal to the House of Commons and to the people.