# I'm late. I resign in disgrace.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-late-i-resign-in-disgrace/807909>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 31, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-late-i-resign-in-disgrace/807909 "2018-01-31T21:33:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-late-i-resign-in-disgrace/807909/21 "2018-02-05T13:59:45Z")

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> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> So you had to drive off in a minute and a huff? 😃

Hey, that’s _my_ line! 😉

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-late-i-resign-in-disgrace/807909/22 "2018-02-05T14:14:23Z")

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It’s a very House of Lords thing to do. He screwed up and missed the session he was supposed to be at. But an apology would have been seen as insufficient, so by offering to resign _even though he knew the resignation wouldn’t be accepted_ he was signalling that he accepted that he had screwed up, while also opening himself up to the sort of gentle chastisement of his peers for his grandiose gesture that serves as an actual proportionate punishment for his mistake. The wording of the Downing Street response (I mean, the phrase “with typical sincerity” is drily hilarious) supports this interpretation.

Ironically, if the PM had accepted the resignation, \*she \*would have been seen to be overreacting to the incident.

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