Pissed-off protestors sum up Theresa May in just one sentence
- Text by Michael Segalov
- Photography by Bex Wade
The mood in Britain is tense. We’ve barely got a government – Theresa May’s kamikaze mission to increase her majority in Parliament backfiring – and now it looks as if the Conservative party, without enough MPs to govern solo, will be entering into an agreement with the ultra-conservative (and anti-LGBT, anti-abortion and climate change sceptic) DUP.
Add to this the ineptitude of May and her team in the aftermath of the deadly, harrowing Grenfell Tower inferno, there’s anger coming from all directions, and understandably so.
Following Friday’s protests in Kensington and in Whitehall, this Saturday thousands took to the streets outside the PM’s London residence, to say no to a coalition of chaos led by zombie PM May. While speeches from Labour MPs, drag queens, journalists and activists came echoing through the crowd, chants of “Tories out, Tories out” erupted.
What motivated those who hit the streets to sweat it out in the sun varied greatly, that much was obvious from looking at the placards, listening to the speeches, and conversations amongst the crowd.
But there was one overarching message from all of those blocking the traffic: Theresa May has to go. To find out why, we asked pissed-off protestors to sum up our Prime Minister in one simple sentence.
Amrou, 26 “Having Theresa May as Prime Minister is nothing short of embarrassing.”
Carla, 31: “Anti women, anti LGBTQ+! She didn’t even know what that meant, she didn’t know how to say it!”
Fernando, 40: “ For many years I’ve been hearing people say that the Tories are so out of touch, and I didn’t know what that meant until now.”
William, 9: “I think she’s a very very massive butt.”
Imelda, 25: “I feel Theresa May has been an extremely poor ally to her sisters: We’ve seen multiple cuts to crisis centres, mental health services, the NHS – you name it, she’s cut it, and this disproportionately affects women’s’ lives… So I think she’s appalling.”
Jesse, 23: As the leader of the party that could do this country so much harm, I don’t like her. The youth, we don’t like her, she doesn’t respect us, she doesn’t even believe we deserve housing.”
Pat, 70: “I’ve always been a labour supporter (apart from once when I went sideways towards the Greens), and I’m completely behind Corbyn, I’m totally against May, and everything she stands for.”
Victoria, 37: “Every day you learn something new about her to show she has absolutely no empathy, and no humanity.”
Paul, 41: “In the party, everyone calls her submarine, because when there’s trouble she always goes under.”
Jonn McClure, Reverend and the Makers, 35: “I had a baby 3 weeks ago, and I don’t want my son to grow up in a country that’s governed by people who are homophobic, misogynistic, who would deny the existence of climate change – and I lay the blame squarely at the door of Theresa May. Time to go.”
Sophie, 19: “Theresa May should not get into bed with the DUP because I’m from a place where they’ve held us in the past for the 30 years, and England and Great Britain doesn’t deserve to go back into an archaic age of no pro-choice and no marriage equality.”
Victor, 24: “A terrible piece of human being.”
Additional reporting by Bex Wade and Briony Cartmell
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