Theresa May will today give a valedictory speech on ‘the state of politics’.
You suspect this will be another attempt by the Prime Minister to craft some form of legacy from her desultory three years in power.
Though it would be a pleasant surprise if she also used the opportunity to offer her thoughts on populism, the tolerance of racists in the White House and her successor’s suitability for high office.
This may require a degree of self-awareness that has been noticeably lacking from Mrs May.
It was no surprise that a recent study found that of all the recent Prime Ministers she was the least likely to give a straight answer to a question at PMQs.
Mrs May’s defensiveness and opaqueness are her most defining characteristics.
They are partly why she threw away a majority at the general election but they are also partly responsible for the corrosion of trust in politics.
Her lack of candour contributes to the perception that all politicians have an aversion to the truth.
(Though it is usually the case that those politicians who claim to 'tell it as it is' are the most disingenuous).
The brutal truth is that Mrs May will leave office next week without any legacy of real substance.
She will be primarily be remembered for her failure to deliver Brexit.
If she wanted the history books to be kinder she has only herself to blame by taking a job which she should have known would have been dominated by the all-consuming task of trying to engineer our departure from the EU.
Otherwise she will be best known as a Prime Minister who had good intentions without the imagination or skills to implement them.
She spoke of tackling burning injustices but her definition of a burning injustice was blinkered and limited.
It was noticeable that when challenged by Jeremy Corbyn last week on her failure to tackle inequality and poverty she cited in her defence the introduction of the race disparity audit.
While a welcome policy it is hardly a corrective to the hostile environment she created or to the punitive welfare cuts she helped implement.
She deserves credit for her work on tackling FGM and the belated introduction of the Domestic Abuse Bill.
She has also championed LGBT rights though not to the extent of voting for same sex marriage and legalising abortion in last week’s Northern Ireland Bill.
Even her signature Modern Slavery Act, the crowning achievement of her time in the Home Office, has only been a partial success.
As Frank Field notes here Mrs May cut the weekly benefits to victims of trafficking from £65 a week to £37.75, while at least 570 recognised victims of trafficking were held in immigration detention centres in 2018.
The Prime Minister will point to the buoyant jobs market ( though not the condition of those in insecure work ), action on the environment, and the response to the Salisbury poisonings to claim some form of legacy.
She will wish to spend less time dwelling on the failure to reform social care, the rise in child poverty , the record A&E waiting times or the crisis in school funding.
The only thing that may help resurrect her reputation will be the performance of her successor.
That is not how anyone would want to be judged.
Today's agenda:
9.45am - Chris Grayling is quizzed by the Transport select committee, may be subject to delays.
10am - Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay is questioned by the Brexit select committee.
11am - John McDonnell speech at the Resolution Foundation on in-work poverty.
11.30am - Rory Stewart takes International Development questions.
12pm - Theresa May’s penultimate PMQs.
12.50pm (Approx) - Debate on Gemma White QC’s report into bullying and harassment in Parliament.
2.30pm - BBC Director General Lord Hall is questioned by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee.
What I am reading:
Alison Phillips on Donald Trump’s sowing of hatred
And
Rachel Sylvester in the Times (£) on Boris Johnson’s economic mishmash.
