\u00a0 It\u2019s nearly thirty years ago now but none of us who were there will ever forget the quiet dignity of Margaret Thatcher\u2019s final days in office. From the moment she won \u2013 won! \u2013 the first leadership ballot, through that dreadful Wednesday, and on to her triumphant final speech as Prime Minister in the confidence debate the following day, it was impossible not to be moved by her grace and poise. She had to go, not because she fell a few votes short of the ballot threshold, but because in the end she had lost the confidence of her colleagues. When your own Cabinet tells you that your time is up, it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Theresa May\u2019s time is up, and the sooner she goes\nthe better. Of course she should have gone earlier, after losing the first or\nsecond Withdrawal Agreement votes, or perhaps even earlier when only the\npayroll saved her in the December leadership challenge. That would have given a\nnew leader time to rework the Agreement and might have spared us the terrible\nlocal election losses this month and the European election results to come.\nClinging to office has diminished her and destroyed any remaining value in her\nlegacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is why Denis Thatcher and other senior\nadvisers turned down our pleas for Margaret to stand and fight. We wanted her\nto open up the second ballot to all-comers and tough her way through to the\nthird, transferable round. There was every chance she could have done enough to\nwin and stayed on as prime minister. But they knew that being honest about her\npolitical position was the only way to ensure that she wouldn\u2019t be humiliated.\nWho on earth has been advising Mrs May these past weeks and months? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rest of us now need to get on and choose a new\nleader as promptly and efficiently as we can. After the hustings, the\nparliamentary rounds should be telescoped into a single day, allowing the wider\nmembership a few weeks to hear and test the final two candidates. The new\nleader must be in place soon in order to make the most of the remaining weeks\nbefore the latest Brexit deadline at the end of October. They must also be\nsomebody who can give fresh impetus to the work we need to do with Brussels,\nDublin, Paris and Berlin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That will require courage and drive, but above all\nhonesty. Leaving the European Union cannot be either simple or quick: it has to\ninvolve transition, compromise and some difficult truths. I will vote for a\nLeader who can articulate the trade-offs involved on issues such as trade and\nmigration and then build a consensus behind them in Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most important task, though, is to rethink the\narrangements for the island of Ireland. Mrs May ignored the one parliamentary\nmajority that was achieved, back in January, for the \u201cBrady amendment\u201d. Work is\nalready in hand with experts advising our parliamentary commission (I am a\ncommissioner), looking again at how different customs checks might work for\nsmall traders and farm produce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brexit in the end, though, cannot be half-hearted.\nIf we are to take Parliament and the country on this course, it has to be\ndelivered with clarity and honesty but con brio, too. That points to our\nchoosing a Brexiteer, and one with the drive and experience to lead a fresh\nCabinet team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are not short of candidates, and I can see\nleaders of the future in ministers such as Matt Hancock and Penny Mordaunt. But\nmy vote will go to the candidate ready now to take us through Brexit and\nbeyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brexit should be the gateway to a bigger future.\nIt\u2019s a chance to rethink our capitalism and make it more inclusive. Home\nownership and proper pensions are becoming the preserve of the rich. Our\neconomy has become too metropolitan, with London sucking the lifeblood and\ntalent out of our northern towns. Challenger businesses aren\u2019t helped by timid\nregulators. A new chancellor should slash and burn our creaking tax system.\nOutside the EU, we will need stronger partnerships with our other allies and\nbetter ways of selling British brainpower around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it happens, I don\u2019t regret voting Remain: but I certainly will regret us not now maximising every opportunity that Brexit can open to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u00a0can\u00a0read\u00a0the\u00a0article\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0Telegraph\u00a0website\u00a0here:<\/em> \u00a0 It\u2019s nearly thirty years ago now but none of us who were there will ever forget the quiet dignity of Margaret Thatcher\u2019s final days in office. From the moment she won \u2013 won! \u2013 the first leadership ballot, through that dreadful Wednesday, and on to her triumphant final speech as Prime Minister in the … Continue reading “Thatcher didn’t cling on like this. We need a Brexiteer to lead us out of this paralysis”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2552,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions\/2552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/politics\/2019\/05\/23\/brexiteer-leader-can-end-painful-paralysis\/<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"