Theresa May's holiday snaps exude all the relaxed charm we've come to expect of the PM

The Prime Minister wears the look of a woman not thinking about very much at all, and for that we should all be grateful

Tom Peck
Political Sketch Writer
Tuesday 25 July 2017 21:32 BST
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Theresa and Philip May take the air in Lake Garda on Tuesday: perhaps mindful of the fateful decision taken the last time she took a holiday, the PM may be keeping things light this time
Theresa and Philip May take the air in Lake Garda on Tuesday: perhaps mindful of the fateful decision taken the last time she took a holiday, the PM may be keeping things light this time

Theresa May has always exuded that casual laid back air of a natural-born leader. The one who is completely fine with the idea that part of being a politician in the 21st century is to have a photocall with a pooled press photographer, and that a small, completely artificial selection of the subsequent holiday snaps should be centrally distributed to the press.

Just look natural. That’s the main thing. Just like you’re walking down a pleasant street in Lake Garda in Nothern Italy, having a pleasant time. Just make sure you don’t look like you’re grinning through gritted teeth, determined for the whole phoney shambles to be over so you can get back to the hotel balcony and stare into the middle distance in agonised despair about the choices you’ve made and how they’re going to pulverise you, your legacy and the hopes and dreams of the nation you somehow lead.

It’s a nice dress, isn’t it? Pink linen. Very summery. Very a la mode, and only gently needling away at that generalised sense of doubt about a woman who simultaneously maintains her one great extracurricular interest in life is high fashion but who has gone on the same alpine hiking holiday every year for the last 20. In more straightforward times, there would be time to notice there’s something not quite right there. But these are mere hillocks of doubt, and when the whole jagged range of high disaster is spread out against the horizon, calling us forward, such trifles tend to disappear.

Would too much meaning be drawn to suggest the Prime Minister wears a carefree expression? Previous holidays have been, and we are thinking of a very recent one in Snowdonia at Easter, a chance to think about things, to make big decisions. The sort of decision that can paralyse a government and render a nation even more ungovernable than it was before. It can also cost your two top advisers their job. Could it be that she has concluded that this particular holiday will be one in which not to think too much about anything at all? As Yoda never quite said, thoughts lead to decisions, decisions lead to chaos, chaos leads to David Davis.

For the time being, we should all be grateful that the Prime Minister appears to have absolutely nothing on her mind.

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