May is now stripped of all political power. But the political pot is at boiling point with many elements bubbling around. Here are some of them.
A spokesman for the DUP has said his party’s toxic attitudes to abortion, sexual orientation, climate change and other issues, were shared within many parts of the Tory party. If that idea takes off, the Tory party is electorally dead.
The DUP is anti austerity, pro triple lock, pro universal winter fuel allowance, anti dementia tax, anti hard Brexit and pro an open border with Ireland. Hardly an ally of the Tories surely?
The Scottish Conservatives are anti austerity, pro soft Brexit, pro triple lock and winter fuel allowance and anti dementia tax. All of that is opposite of the Tory manifesto.
The Cabinet is split between soft and hard Brexit supporters. But negotiations are about to begin. The threat to walk away is simply ridiculous. The other side knows May is on borrowed time and parliament would force her back to the table. There is absolutely no majority in parliament or the country for a hard Brexit which damages the economy even in the short term.
The reality is that the whole political agenda and conversation has now swung Labour’s way. There are more members in parliament broadly in sympathy with its new vision of a different political and economic settlement, than there are in sympathy with the old vision of the Tories. May will be able, we imagine, to get her Queen’s speech through, although it could well suffer amendments. She will get her budget through only if austerity is rolled back and it contains significant measures to stimulate the economy, which means more printing and borrowing. She cannot have her grammar schools. Free school lunches will stay. The list is long and growing.
So May, her cabinet and and the unhappy Tories in the Commons will bear all the burdens of office, but the power is already with Corbyn. And after nearly forty years in the Commons he knows where all the levers are and how to pull them. That is why he looks so chipper.