Theresa May – What is she good for?

Theresa May’s Record as Home Secretary

Before Theresa May became Home Secretary in 2010 there had been five others in six years.  That she lasted 6 years goes to show that she is a survivor.  What has sunk others was a stepping stone for her to the top job.  The media was broadly supportive, and the general public seemed to think that she did well, or well enough.

Police numbers and Theresa May

When Home Secretary she cut police numbers by 20,000.  She was vilified by the Police Federation.  She said that they were “crying wolf” over the cuts.  However, while she cut the police numbers crime fell.  Obviously, TM was right.  Except, the crime reduction was in line with a drop in recorded crime internationally.  Also, the spread of CCTV and more secure vehicles would have helped. 

The recent meteoric rise in knife crime has not persuaded her that she was wrong to push the cuts through.  Only within the last couple of weeks she said There was “no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers”, and. “What matters is how we ensure that police are responding to these criminal acts when they take place, that people are brought to justice.”  This obviously true (as someone said cutting the number of police on the street would have no effect on financial fraud), but it does have a direct impact on street crime. 

The present Home Secretary disagreed with her, he said that the police must be given the resources to tackle violence.

It is not just the bobbies on the beat that have been sacked.  Out of about 7,000 armed officers in 2010 almost 1,500 had gone by 2016.  As most of the remaining armed officers are in metropolitan areas there were real fears that those of us outside of London would have no protection in case of terrorism. She promised to employ another 1,500 in 2015, so that is alright then. It would have been so much better if they had not been sacked in the first place!

 Talking about terrorism, what was the point of the Tpims (Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures)?  No body uses them.  That should make us all feel safe in our beds.  Also, she had a huge row with Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary.  He wanted the “drain the swamp” of Islamic extremists, her approach was more conciliatory (which I agreed with).  Later she reneged on that position saying that there had been “too much tolerance of extremism”.  So, she was saying that she was wrong and Gove was right!!

Immigration and Theresa May

Theresa May’s approach to immigration and refugees was to talk tough and when the going got tough to hide.  One of her Immigration Acts was supposed to “create a hostile environment” for illegal migrants.  It included landlords checking on tenants’ status, among other things.  Remember the Go Home vans touring “immigrant” areas?  The whole expensive, repugnant exercise resulted in just 11 people leaving the country.

As for dodging the brickbats.  When the immigration figures came out and the government’s targets were missed, did she front up?  Of course not, she sent poor James Brokenshire to face the press and Commons. When she failed to tackle rising immigration effectively it was not her fault, she blamed the rest of the government.  When they wanted her to remove the overseas students from the target I (a classic Thatcher tactic to make employment figures look better) Theresa May refused! On the other hand she did keep deporting people who did not earn enough, which split up an estimated 33,000 families.  She also refused to limit the time anyone was held in detention centres.

Crime and May

There was a time when Theresa May could be seen as a “liberal” remember her speech at the Conservative Party’s conference warning them about becoming the “nasty party”? That was obviously a blip.  Referring to Ken Clarke when he was Justice Secretary she said “I lock them up, He lets them out.”

She pushed through elected police and crime commissioners.  That worked so well, catching the imagination of the whole nation.  Can you remember who your commissioner is, and di you vote in the election?

Oh yes, the last thing that she did as Home Secretary was to ensure that any inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave would not take place for years and years.  Somebody has to protect Thatcher’s memory, too many skeletons in that cupboard, obviously.

Conclusion

But to answer my question in the title, what is she good for?  Absolutely nothing (to quote Frankie)…..

Next time I plan to talk about Theresa and the European debacle. As a taster here is CNN’s report of her record defeat on Brexit. Poor old Theresa things go from bad to worse…

Tags: immigration, police numbers, Theresa May