Having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the British general election, Prime Minister Theresa May now has the gall to act as though she was, in fact, the victor. May has appeared outside No. 10 to tell the British that she has had a word with the Queen, and will be forming the next government with the help of some unsavory types from Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party. The British are gasping at her effrontery.

Like some mid-century dictator, May seems incapable of understanding that the people have definitively moved against her. May’s hubris, which propelled her to call for a snap election in order to accumulate power with which to negotiate the Brexit talks, saw her scuttle from the shadows of humiliation with the same leaden egotism and toe-curling self-importance that she demonstrated during the campaign—when May insisted that she alone could provide the “strong and stable” leadership required to guide Britain through Brexit and its many terror threats. The extent of May’s loss can be easily forgotten when you watch her, dressed in royal blue, claim the right to continue on as if nothing has happened. But it was disastrous nonetheless. When May called for the snap election, she had a poll lead of 20 points and a 17-seat majority. In six weeks, she managed to drop at least 15 points and turn a workable majority, which could have lasted three years, into a deficit. For the record, the Conservative party lost 12 seats, while Labor’s much-ridiculed leader, Jeremy Corbyn, surged on a tide of youthful enthusiasm to gain 29. Labor has 261 seats, not enough to form a government, perhaps, but vastly more than was projected.

Perhaps it should not have been such a surprise. As the campaign wore on, it became clear that May was incapable of communicating even her “strong and stable” leadership message to the electorate. About halfway into the campaign, she seemed to suffer a sudden collapse of self-belief. Her appearances were limited to tightly controlled events in bleak factory spaces, during which she said little of substance and refused to answer questions from the media, let alone explain her plans for the Brexit negotiations with the E.U., which formally get underway later this month. She refused to join the leaders’ TV debate, and reversed a major manifesto policy on the contributions made by those suffering from dementia.

Her campaign manager, Sir Lynton Crosby, helped build this strategy around May’s reputation for being a “bloody difficult woman” who would not allow Britain to be pushed around by the E.U. The trouble was, however, that the entire focus of the campaign was on May, and, when things began to go wrong, there was no one to step up and take the heat. She wilted under the public gaze and has only appeared to recover her old self upon returning to the safety of her advisers in No. 10. There she can be away from the British people, who, by the way, quickly cottoned to the arrogance and emptiness of her message. I knew she was in trouble when posters appeared around London a few weeks ago bearing phrases such as: “Strong and stable my arse.”

May lost the election for two other reasons as well. Her hard Brexit line is beginning to worry people, especially young voters who were strongly in favor of remaining in the E.U. Secondly, the austerity measures of the last seven years have created a sense of real inequality and hopelessness among a very large number of the electorate. Previously, their anger was directed at many targets—Europe, immigrants, and so forth. But, more recently, this frustration began to find expression in a properly socialist platform, one that coalesced around an old-style leftie who everyone, including myself, had written off. While May hid in her factories, Corbyn toured the country, drawing strength from ever-increasing numbers at his rallies. This movement, not entirely different from the one that Bernie Sanders helped launch in the U.S., is gaining significant energy—though it may have to move a bit to the center and become a bit more supportive of the E.U., if it is ever to win an overall majority in Parliament.

One of the few hopeful signs in this car crash, however, is the fact that the British electorate recognized what was important and what the candidates stood for. It was not distracted by two ISIS-inspired terror attacks during the closing stages of the campaign. Attempts to adapt May’s “strength and stability” narrative to include her reaction to terrorists cut no ice, either, especially as many voters realized that she was responsible for the reduction of some 20,000 police numbers. And her speeches suggesting that human rights must be curtailed in order to deal with terrorists gained no traction either, except in the tabloid press.

Nobody won this election, it is true, but among the biggest losers were the tabloids themselves, whose influence at election time, along with their sales, is on the wane. Politicians who are going to spend the next two years opposing “hard Brexit” will take heart from this new reality. When May announced the election, the tabloids obliged her by mounting a largely shocking and dishonest campaign against Corbyn. Like everyone else, I assumed the impact of the coverage in the Daily Mail, Daily Express, and Rupert Murdoch’s Sun would be crucial, but it turns out I was wrong. Corbyn’s message is aimed at young people, who would never think of reading one of these papers, much less pay money for the news they consume.

As May sermonized in front of No. 10 in her royal-blue jacket, it is impossible to know exactly how things will play out—whether she will cling to power or whether we will be forced into another unnecessary election anytime soon. What’s obvious, however, is that my country has been seriously diminished by its self-obsession and vanity during the last year. And if there was one moment that perfectly encapsulated the parochialism and small-mindedness of the present United Kingdom, and the regrettable state it is in, it was Theresa May, standing outside the prime minister’s house in that jacket, telling her constituents that she has a right to power even though she has been proven wrong in practically all her judgments. She is finished, and that realization will soon dawn.