Can we really Trust Teresa May with a blank cheque?

Do you mean rural villages where many 'workers' still live or do you mean people in the few large houses in the countryside?

The only rural area I know anything about is Northumberland, where the Duke still owns a big part of the land in in the county, and elsewhere.
One of my cousins farms there, and his farm belongs to the Duke, even though his family has farmed there for many generations.
If this is the same in other parts of England it's obvious that the "gentry" is in charge. And they're Tories, wanting to perpetuate the control of the ruling class.

And I must add that our 'well-known local person' runs a rural business and works extremely hard as far as I know.

And your point about wandering apostrophes was spot on, Jalima!

A thoughtful OP James but I am afraid there are some on here who think any degree of worrying about a landslide for May is verging on or even reaching err ... derangement.

However, there are those of us who do see the issues. May is certainly sly. Here is someone who, in her usual 'keeping her head down' mode professed to think the best thing was for us to stay in the EU - although, of course, she did not say it loudly nor did she say it often. By a very clever, but totally dishonest, slight of hand, she is now the heroine of Brexit, the Boadicea of Bashing the EU. It is because of this mask or removal of the mask - who knows - that she is attracting so many votes in to a coalition of the alt-right, the far right and the bewildered right.

However, as I have said elsewhere, what we will find at the end of five years of 'small government' and 'low tax society' will be poorer pensioners, more rough sleeping, the destruction of the NHS, the abandonment of the old and those needing care and the return of Victorian style benefits for those who cannot get jobs in a country with a shrinking economy. Our place in the world will diminish and all because May who has shown no sign of strength told us she was strong and the same woman who told us we would have a stable society will have people rising up against her because there is nothing else they can do.

Then, after five years of driving us down others will have to pick up the pieces.

Something akin to the 'keeping the head down' that Jeremy Corbyn did during the referendum?
The bewildered right......
This dystopian future you talk of is entirely in the imagination GGM2

Nobody is the hero or heroine of Brexit, but the Uk needs politicians who can get the best deal possible for us, and Corbyn just isn't that person.

I can't see that any poster has hoped for a landslide election.

Except that if Jalima learned about wandering or superfluous apostrophes, she wouldn't have taken her little chalk board into the school. They were left in the school and not taken home.

My grandfather was born in this village in 1870.

www.ripleycastle.co.uk/

It looks very much like it did then, with all the houses being of the same stone as the castle. Most of the people who live in the village either work in Harrogate or at the castle. Hasn't changed much either, apart from the fact that the castle decided they didn't need the railway station any more and closed it down.

Lots of farms and farmworkers, all owned by Sir Thomas still.
An interesting village to look at, James, if you want to tell your GS about feudalism.

I can't see that any poster has hoped for a landslide election.

I don't know what you have been reading roses but no one said they did. However, why do you think May called the election? Because she was happy to work in a Parliamentary manner? I don't think so.

They don't own all the houses in the village now Jen; some have been sold off. Also they run the castle as a business. Still a lovely village with the lovely ice cream and old fashioned sweets for sale and dreadful parking . You are right, it was a really good example of the old feudal system.

It's not May who will be doing the negotiating.

Yes, Gracesgran, it's a beautiful well-kept village or it was the last time I was there, eight years ago. Some of my forebears are in the churchyard.
I bet they still keep the village nice and clean.
The school would have been the one my grandad and his brothers and sisters went to, and the post office they used is still there.
Gives you a shudder to know that they were there, standing just where you did.

For my mother's 80th birthday, we paid for my parents to go to stay for a couple of nights at the Boar's Head. August prices; we couldn't afford any more!

I'll bet Jen. It's pretty busy in August so not the quiet village it is at off peak times. We take mum for tea there occasionally and she loves it although now she is in a wheelchair the cobbles at a bit much.

Back to the OP. You are right Daphne, it would not be May who will do the negotiating. It has been given to those who want a hard Brexit sadly.

More about Cambridge Analytica and how the company affects our political system.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

pbs.twimg.com/media/C_PbI3EW0AAVqeX.jpg

Food banks.

I wouldn't trust Theresa May with my shopping list and the change in my purse,she'll drag us all under ...well not all I see the rise in Billionaires is continuing under tory rule while peole are struggling to feed their families at the other end of the spectrum.Says it all really,if you're happy to see the rich get richer and the poor end up in a 21st century workhouse by all means vote for Mrs May ,if she wins it just shows that Thatchers greed is good philosophy really caught an and the people of the country have no social conscience left

Well said, paddy. At least we'll know we are not responsible while we fill up the foodbank trolleys and boxes in our local supermarkets.

Good post Paddyann. I think many people think they will be OK but she really has to start on the slightly better off and the better off now and, let's face it, she will not take anything from the very rich.

Sadly I am sure you are right about greed but I would also say some people have no idea what poverty is today. There are no little old people walking around dressed in rags and you rarely see children covered in filth so just how do you spot the poor? You can't? So they obviously don't exist do they.

Thank you for you varied and most interesting views, there is a slight academic snobbery from some that can be forgiven.

It is the lack of tolerence, rudeness, greed and growing lack of social concious that is eating into our society that I find most disturbing.

Thank you for your contributions, my GS will be fascinated by your frank comments

I so agree with you paddy, DJ and GG.

As we know they are there, the poor. Some have an aura of defeat about them, whilst others are fiercely proud and you'd be pushed to pick out their children in the schoolyard in their neat uniforms and spotless socks and shoes like all the other children. They are barely managing, yet their children are cared for by strength of character.

Sadly in others there is what I see as a poverty of spirit, which marks some out. Imagine having to go to a food bank to feed your children. We are so lucky if we've never known such poverty, but a charity I support got an emergency call to say they were running out of food at the food bank. What a disgrace! That's what some people are reduced to in this wealthy nation.

The Pupil Premium helps schools to a degree to provide what children in some areas would be missing out on otherwise. Didn't you find the idea of breakfast clubs truly shocking when they first came in? The notion that some parents couldn't afford a piece of toast and a drink in the mornings? Now they are commonplace.

I actually wish that a piece of toast and a drink wasn't used as a symbol of poverty.

I don't buy bread nor jam,but I think you can probably buy a loaf and a pot of "value" jam in Aldi for about a pound. It's not the healthiest, but would provide calories/energy.

The problems with poverty go much deeper and it is easy to fall into a state of despair and defeat, which can in turn contribute to depression and a disorderly lifestyle.

Although some people manage to hold it all together, it's really not a case of benefit sanctions forcing people to pull themselves up by the bootstraps.

You're right, Gg. Poor people aren't always identifiable. They're not forced to walk around in public with a "P" badge for poverty. Most still have their pride and, if anything, will try to hide their poverty from others.

I doubt very much that many (if any) MPs has ever known real poverty.

"Academic snobbery" -do you mean those posts with a bit of knowledge?

I think the best way to answer your question james is to look at Mays record to date.

dd my grandmother had a saying " no need to be poor and look poor" that is probably true of many still today.