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A week is a long time in politics, but the helter-skelter pace of politics in Britain since the EU referendum result on 24 June is measured in hours. In 19 days David Cameron announced his departure, replacements were whittled down to two, and an inexperienced runner withdrew leaving Home Secretary, Theresa May to become Prime Minister today.
Discontent with Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn also erupted. He stands accused of failing to persuade enough Labour voters to back EU membership. Many had no idea about Labour's position and a more enthusiastic appeal by Corbyn could have swing enough of them to vote for Remain. We will never know for certain.
Within days, 80% of the Parliamentary Labour Party passed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn as leader but he wouldn't go. He maintains he has a massive mandate from the membership and that MPs don't have the right to overturn that. They say his mandate is not a blank cheque for incompetence and losing votes. The polls currently put Labour 8 points behind the Conservatives at a time of deep division in the Conservatives and having just lost the most important strategic decision in decades.
A senior Labour MP then threw her hat into the ring and prompted a major battle about whether Corbyn should even be a contender. He scraped on last year because a few Labour MPs, who didn't agree with or even vote for him, thought his participation would encourage debate.
This undermined the long established partnership between the parliamentary and local membership wings of the party whose MPs choose candidates that command sufficient support in the Commons. Given he had lost the support of MPs, some argued Corbyn should have won that support before becoming a candidate. That was vetoed by the party's executive and Labour is about to embark on a two month campaign.
It will be a bruising affair, given the chasm between the MPs and members who feel that electability is a lesser priority and who are on the warpath against what they see as compromised, clinical and right wing leaders. It is difficult to see how Labour can stay together, and a split seems inevitable although no one knows who will keep the name or the assets. Either way, it is difficult to see how Labour can win the next election.
In the meantime, Theresa May will stamp her authority on the government and has already embraced policies that park her tanks on Labour's lawn by arguing big business should pay their fair due in taxes, and putting workers on the boards of companies. She had once said, as the party's Chairman, that the Conservatives looked like the nasty party. She now has a chance to persuade people that it is a party of compassion, justice and fairness at the same time as Labour implodes.
All this may look very different very quickly but it seems inescapable to conclude that the Conservatives have reverted to the ruthless unity that has made them a natural party of government for so many years.
May is an unknown quantity on foreign policy issues. But an important Kurdish priority was aired in the Cameron's final Prime Minister's Questions, which had a much bigger global audience than usual. By luck, a longstanding friend of the Kurds, Conservative MP Jack Lopresti, had a question on the order paper and devoted it to supporting the Peshmerga. He visited Kurdistan last year and met the Peshmerga on the frontline at Kirkuk.
He said the PM's "lasting legacy will include supporting the Kurds whose Peshmerga are bravely fighting Daesh in all our interests. Having visited the Peshmerga on the frontline, I know that our airstrikes, weapons and training are crucial, but Peshmerga injuries could be reduced with additional equipment such as body armour, respirators and front-line medical facilities, and we possibly could provide some beds in our specialist hospital in Birmingham to the most seriously injured. Does he agree that that is a relatively small investment that would make a huge difference to our allies in our common fight to defeat the evil of terrorism?"
The PM agreed that "the Kurds are incredibly brave fighters and are doing valuable work against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. I will look carefully at his suggestion of using the Birmingham hospital. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has excellent facilities for battlefield casualties. Our Army is already providing medical instruction to the Peshmerga to help them deal with the situation, but we will look to see whether more can be done."
The Prime Minister could not be expected to simply agree on the spot. But previous questions on these issues had been brushed aside by the junior Defence Minister and Cameron's parting shot has now put this vital issue on a new plateau.
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