May: the case against.

When you look at the things that contributed to Theresa May's slow-burning self-immolation - at least the things for which she and her campaign were responsible - it's a sobering thought how easily the bleedin' obvious eludes us all, including the expert and experienced, and how hard it is to think outside the box until it is crushed with us inside it.

Just look at the charge sheet:

Cynicism. Blatantly putting party above country and calling it "the national interest". Even though Cameron had done the same a year before. And lost too.

Stupidity. See above.

Complacency. That the landslide was assured.

Arrogance. Accompanying the above, and amplified by posing as a presidential candidate.

Cowardice. Compounding both of the above by then dodging the presidential duty to debate. (How obvious was THAT?)

Condescension. Towards both her opponents and the electorate.

Inconsistency. Accompanied - and amplified - by absolute certainty in her professed belief in each contradictory position: a Remainer who went native as an arch-Quitter; a non-game-player (remember her accusations against the SNP over their entirely justified if politically naive demand for a second Scottish independence referendum?) who called an election after swearing she wouldn't; a conviction politician who changed her manifesto in mid-campaign AND THEN SAID SHE HADN'T.

Inhumanity. Because humanity isn't that hard to fake and if you can't then why go into politics anyway, let alone assume that people are going to trust you?

Disrespect. Endlessly repeating a conspicuously rehearsed mantra regardless of the question asked of her. Voters see through that. (She was at it again tonight: Q - "Do you feel any sense of disappointment after the election result?" A - "What I feel is that there is a job to be done and that THE PUBLIC EXPECT [my capitals; her chutzpah] that we have to get on and do it ... bla bla blabbedy bla" etc. etc.) Except that chutzpah is chutzpah only when it works. If it doesn't it's just embarrassing.

Anality. Insistence on pronouncing your "t"s even when it makes you sound like a dick, and worse, as the kind of dick who ranks pronunciatory precision higher than sounding human. Gove does it too, by the way. You know: the kind of people who pronounce the "d" in "Wednesday". It's COMPLETELY unacceptable in today's world. It's even worse than those college-educated socialists who DROP their "t"s.

Given the mood of the electorate at the moment, I give grea'est weight to the last.