From the Guardian's comment section

usedtolovelearning 

15

There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.

There is an element of truth in this for both Corbyn and May. Neither of them have the confidence of their own vision to drive forward this impasse.

May is beholden to the extreme elements of her party as unleashed by Cameron, together with the intransigent DUP. Her entire premiership has been bogged down by two issues; Cameron's Referendum result and her previous role. The legacy of her time at the Home Office lingers on every street of the UK and has tainted her successors precipitously. Her interpretation of the Referendum mandate in an attempt to appease the same elements that Cameron sought to cow has now utterly overwhelmed government.

Corbyn was plucked from the obscurity of the reactionary wing of the PLP to challenge the pseudo-Tory line up of the leadership campaign thrust on the party by Milliband. More accustomed to protest than planning, he faced a similar challenge to May: attempting to unite a fractured party haunted by the legacy of a past leader. Also like May, his leadership has been marred by attempts to unseat him. His ambiguity in public pronouncements on the relationship between Britain and the EU has steadily undermined his ability to respond coherently to legacy issues as well. So attempts to speak to the complexity of the Middle East situation have been cast in an altogether sinister light, further hampered by the actions of a portion of the party itself.

Both 'leaders' find themselves pulled rather than propelling. Britain's station in the world grows ever lower. The spectre of catastrophic climate change grows ever larger and any ability to respond requiring a concerted international response is hampered on this nation's part by its leadership's obsession with a single issue. Britain continues to be an unequal society with botched social security reforms, overwhelmed social care services, fragmented education services, a creaking healthcare system, an under-resourced and undermanned police and armed service, an economy limping forward, precarious employment and housing, .... All of which is largely ignored in this impasse.

More than anything else, May and Corbyn's interpretation of the local election result as a call by the electorate to 'sort out Brexit' insults the electorate further. Yes, like many I personally am fed up with Brexit. More than anything though I am angered by the reductionist approach of both of these politicians. I am fed up because Brexit has sucked the life out of British politics, damaged an already fragile democratic trust, unleashed xenophobic and populist forces that further damage communities and pulled attention away from a host of urgent issues that already threaten precipitously. I am disgusted at the way in which 'honourable members' have squandered their mandate on a single issue when there are more important things to deal with.

Author's permission sought.