She is Britain's Weeble leader. Theresa May wobbles but she won't fall down.
The prime minister - just like the 1970s toy - has somehow, just somehow found an internal equilibrium that keeps her upright.
For nearly two and a half years Mrs May has kept power and, in public at least, her cool.
And she has done so as rival factions in her own party tried to pull her one way or another on the issue that divides her party and Britain: Europe.
Whatever your take on her politics, the PM's political balancing act has been truly impressive. She has broken the first rule of democratic power: she has displeased most of the people most of the time - and yet stayed in office. That is not easy.
There is, of course, a political explanation for her endurance. Her party does not want to fight a leadership contest that would be yet another battle in a decades-long civil war over the EU. Michael Keating, professor of politics at Aberdeen University, explains: "There could be no agreement about her replacement because there could be no agreement about Brexit."
Mrs May balances Remainers and Leavers in her own cabinet. And not always successfully. She has lost two Johnson brothers from her government, Leaver Boris and Remainer Jo.
The politics may explain why she has managed to stay. It must, however, take character to want to do so. Mrs May, even her enemies privately admit, has been dogged, determined, thrawn. She has stickability.
There is another word those complimenting Mrs May reach for. It is far from traditional praise: Britain's prime minister is, well, relatively normal.
In an age of demagoguery, of populism and of Twitter tantrums, Mrs May also stands out as much for what she is not as for much as for what she is.
Because - let us say it out loud - the prime minister is not Donald Trump. Imagine how America's thin-skinned president would have responded to the kind of pressure his UK counterpart has endured?
The prime minister does not have the folksy easy charm of a Blair, or even a Clinton or a Bush. Voters probably would not want a beer with her. Or even a sherry. She may be of the right, but she is of the mainstream right. She can still fit on to a political spectrum of a European liberal democracy. A replacement may not.
Speaking just as Mrs May was elected, PJ O'Rourke, the American republican commentator, through grinning but gritted teeth, endorsed Hillary Clinton. "I mean, she's wrong about absolutely everything," he explained. "But she's wrong within normal parameters.”
Would Boris Johnson be "within normal parameters"? Nigel Farage? Arron Banks?
Would Jeremy Corbyn? Maybe. But the Labour leader, even as the grim reality of Brexit becomes clear, cannot quite convince enough Britons he is PM material. Mrs May's Tories, despite everything, despite a raging binfire over Europe, remain clear in the polls.
David Cameron was blandly "within normal parameters". The Tory prime-minister-cum-PRman tried and failed his own balancing act between what was then called Eurosceptics and Europhiles. His solution was a referendum on EU membership. His Remainer side lost and he quit. Now there was a Weeble who wobbled and very much fell down.
Mr Cameron's party avoided a membership vote for a new leader - one Prof Keating reckons could never be won by a Remainer. Mrs May did not want Brexit. But she did want No10. Can she keep wobbling on?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel