Feature: History will show a day is a long time in British politics

Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson coined the famous phrase in the 1960s that a week is a long time in politics. Events in Britain this week have demonstrated that even a day is a long time in politics.

Breathtaking events unfolding on an hour-by-hour, day-by-day basis have seen Theresa May whisked into 10 Downing Street at a speed never seen before in politics.

May started the week unveiling a manifesto she hoped would win her enough votes to become the Prime Minister, only to learn later that day that with 48 hours she would be the new occupant at the country's best known address, 10 Downing Street.

People hoping that having Britain's second female prime minister at the helm would mean a gentle touch in the corridors of power, were soon in for a shock.

She swept like a new broom through Downing Street, dismissing many of the front bench cabinet members who had served under her predecessor David Cameron.

One newspaper commented that one of the few to survive the Downing Street shake-up was Larry, the famous Number 10 cat, hired to ensure the home of the PM is mouse-free.

As the casualty list became longer, May was compared to another prime minister from Britain's past, Harold Macmillan, known in the 1950s as "Supermac."

Conservative Macmillan, in 1962, carried out what was described as "the most brutal cabinet reshuffle in British political history." Commentators are already comparing May's axe with the so-called Mac the Knife episode.

Macmillan fired seven of his front-bench ministers in what became labeled as the "Night of the Long Knives."

Dispatched from the government by May over the past few days were Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale and Oliver Letwin who served as cabinet minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. A number of other ministers declined offers of alternative jobs or opted to leave the government.

May, it seems, has drawn a curtain over what became known in politics as the "Eton classes," a political hierarchy dominated by ex-pupils of Britain's most famous public school.

As the magazine the Spectator put it: "In terms of class, May represents a break from Cameron and Blair. It's true that she went to Oxford, and she is married to another successful Oxford graduate. But she isn't a member of the Notting Hill set or anything like that. She was a provincial grammar-school girl.

"Perhaps the biggest difference between her and Cameron and (Tony) Blair is that she has no gang: there aren't any Mayites."

May, adds the Spectator, is not an ideological politician. She has little time for labels or grand unifying theories. She is driven by a sense of duty. She is often characterized as a cautious politician.

Looking to the future, the magazine commented: "The Conservative party turned to Theresa May because she was seen as offering stability and steadiness in a time of great uncertainty. As the drama of the Conservative leadership contest intensified, her cool temperament only became more appealing. But she may well turn out to be an unexpected radical, ushering in changes to the UK that go far beyond Brexit."

May's Cabinet contains seven Brexit supporters, compared to just three in Cameron's top table team. Almost two thirds of Cameron's cabinet were educated at Oxford or Cambridge, compared to less than half of May's cabinet members.

May has also gone for "older heads" with 57 percent of her cabinet aged 50 or over, compared with just 41 percent who served under Cameron. Almost 60 percent of Cameron's team were aged 49 and under, while 22 percent of May's team are aged over 60.

The biggest shock of the week came with her appointment of former London Mayor Boris Johnson as her Foreign Secretary.

The tabloid Daily Mirror, lamenting Johnson's appointment carried an unflattering front page photo of the blonde-haired politician, dangling on a sky-rope over London. The headline read: "Sorry world."

The Daily Mail described May's appointment of Brexit-flag carrier Johnson as foreign secretary as a shrewd choice.

The vote of confidence from May, said the Daily Mail, represented an extraordinary rapid comeback for Johnson from a low point just days earlier when he had been forced to abandon his own leadership ambitions.

May, added the Mail, has got off to a flying start with her cabinet appointments. The paper says it has every confidence she will continue to rise to the challenge. Endit