Britain's new "Brexit means Brexit" Prime Minister sends in the clowns

Teresa May became Prime Minister by elimination. Everybody else eliminated themselves thus stopping the Conservative party grassroots making the ”wrong” choice. Given the spate of resignations following Brexit this must have been the best attempt at resignation the other candidates could manage, assuming the entire election was not stage managed. And Stephen Crabbe managed to join the resignation race by resigning as Minister for Work and Pensions citing family reasons, a term usually used to denote a fear of abruptly vanishing genitalia if remaining in post.

Or perhaps the other candidates were like the soldiers who, when volunteers for a very dangerous mission were asked to step forward all took one step back... except for one.

Countless cartoons compared Count Dracula (An Eastern European Immigrant but acceptable being rich and upper class with a posh accent) to Theresa May while some compared her to Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s impersonation of a human being was not particularly impressive and comparing most people to Thatcher is an insult but comparing May to Thatcher has to be an insult to Thatcher. And Dracula, for all his dietary failings had style.

One sort of evil is the grand Miltonian evil with cosmic overtones and a Wagne- rian sweep that calls even to those like the author who detest it. One sees it in the speeches and books of a certain German leader of the 1930s whose power to inspire people goes someway to justifying the ban, in Germany, on possession of his most famous book. Thatcher’s evil tended to this end of the spectrum: She was a mediocre politician who could carry people along with her.

The other type of evil is the petty, banal small town evil of Eichmann and the Little Stalins of the civil service who would send someone home to fill out an enormous form again because a single letter was out of its box and the grubby unrelenting self centred evil of Alan B’stard. The Evil of sanctimonious curtain

twitchers hounding someone to suicide, the hobgoblins infesting petty minds. It is this type of Evel to which May resonates.

But May, Like Thatcher is a middle of the road personality not an ounce of greatness in her body. She may prove otherwise but don’t hold your breath even if you are a pearl diver. We are living in an era of political pygmies.

One of the first things she did was appoint England’s formerly lovable Bumbling Boris as Foreign Secretary, along with sacking George Osborne, who, given his world class mathematical skills is doubtless regarding reverting to a back bencher’s salary, half that of a Chancellor as a significant rise. Lobbying is doubtless underway for Cameron and Osborne to receive peerages, this being the political equivalent of a stake through the heart and nailing down the coffin lid then burying it upside down.

One analysis of her appointments is that May appointed Leave campaigners to handle Brexit negotiations knowing that if they screw up they get the blame otherwise she gets the credit. When assessing this remember that while politi- icans may be bad at benefiting the country they exhibit a level of ruthlessness and ability to look after their own interests that can only (perhaps) be surpassed by some leaders of the Triads, Yakuza and the Mafia.

In the meantime true to form the government sneaked out notice of a scheme to monitor the spending of benefit claimants. Since the banks want the government to ban cash this has to be a sinister and ominous move and if this goes through other groups will be targeted for such surveillance.

David Cameron’s last speech was applauded by most of the House of Commons: like mourners who attend a funeral solely to ensure the deceased is really dead and would dance on the grave if they could. Even for a burial at sea. The SNP sat silently, having been told off for clapping in the House of Commons, and were told off for not clapping.

Meanwhile in real life, the part of the universe ignored as much as possible by the mainstream media, airports were exchanging pounds for Euros at a one to one rate, and Britain may have another brain drain as the foreigners the English import to do their thinking - something the English seem to have hated

since George the First arrived in England, according to Robert Wind in his book Bloody Foreigners - ponder staying in a country that has been telling and showing them they are not welcome.

A new Act of Union Bill was proposed with the aim of making a few cosmetic changes in the hope of preventing Scottish Independence. It seems a little strange that England is so keen to keep hold of a country it claims to subsidise heavily when they are unwilling to subsidise anything other than a state fu- neral for Margaret Thatcher and the proposed bill itself seems to be a classic confidence trick.

Brexiteer triumphalism seems to have vanished to be replaced by an embarrassed silence.

Slowly the English are becoming politically engaged. For the Establishment his could be the most significant and dangerous outcome of the EU referendum: Unlike the 60s - a period of revolt - we could have a real and hopefully peaceful revolution.

Next week seems likely to be equally diverting for Westminster Watchers trying to determine what, if anything, is going through the minds of our glorious and unelected prime minister and her acolytes.

Here in Germany it is cloudy and hot with wall to wall police and police sirens as the music of the night. Going for a walk around here, outside the rush hour at least, is definitely good mindfulness training: witnessing two street fights in a week does sharpen the mind.