Can we really Trust Teresa May with a blank cheque?

The civil servants of course!! May will not be conducting the negotiations. The Tory Government should indicate to the civil servants the possible outcome and they will do their best to get it.

As you know fine well I'm looking for your suggestions for a person most likely to lead the country into the Brexit negotiations. Corbyn, Farron or whoever else is currently a political party leader.

Jane there is hardly any point raising a differing point of view on GN ( I find!)
As we seem to be stuck with an 'evil Tory' theme on here and most Conservative and even Lib Dem voters seem to have given up on it.So it's really the Labour Party faithful talking to each other.
Thankfully IMHO the rest of the country is not GN or social media shouting, but will result in failure for Corbyn and the Labour Party.
What the Labour Party will do after that is an interesting talking point though.

Jane10, the leaders do not lead us into Brexit negotiations, as whitewave said.
They are specifically excluded.

There you go again roses, telling us what will happen.

It's fairly obvious durhamjen

Well, given the fact that we are clueless as to what outcome May wants it's a mute point whether she is the best person. We know that Labour under Corbyn (the left wing of Labour have always been luke warm/hostile about the EU) want if at all possible a single market and membership of the custom union, which is something business is desparate for. We know that the Lib dems would like another referendum once the negotiations are complete and before the UK finally leaves.

So
1 party - leave but no idea of what they want
2 party - but membership of the single market and customs union as starters
3 party - hostile to Brexit - further referendum, hopefully conducted with more integrity.

Good summary whitewave. It seems a pretty clear choice for anyone who voted to remain or thought we could leave without a "hard brexit" and is now wishing we could have a say at the end of the negotiations. Obviously the best choice is party 3- telling it like it is and giving people an informed choice (because the EU ref did not do that) - vote Liberal Democrat.

Unless voting Libdem would let a Tory back in.

Sadly, until we reform our electoral system, that is true dj. We must take account of the situation in our constituency and in some places it is best to vote tactically if your aim is to displace the Tory candidate. If that means voting Labour, please do ask your Labour candidate if they support a change to PR.

Kier Starmer would be a far better negotiator or Hilary Benn or Ken Clarke - all better than her.

However the rules of play are that once A50 is triggered the country leaving has no further part to play in the decisions as to how the country will leave etc. They are not included in the talks but told what the other 27 have decided. I saw all this in various places before the referendum but of course it was all dismissed as scaremongering.

The way TM has been behaving to get the backs up of the other 27 states is not exactly clever. If she were reasonable then they would maybe bend the rules a little.

To be fair to the Tories, their manifesto is being published this week I think - so I may have to eat my words, and all will be clear with regard to what a Brexit UK will look like. I assume that no one would be willing to vote for the unknown, so really I suppose they will treat the electorate with a bit of respect.

Nobody on here has suggested who else would do a better job at present than Theresa May

Jane do you think we have a Presidential system because we don't you know. Why are we even discussing Theresa May. This is a woman who can only talk in marketing phrases: Brexit means Brexit, strong and stable, etc., what has she said that means anything?

Why do you believe the best remaining choice after the clowns had left the Conservative party is fit to be the government (all on her own apparently) for the next five years. She actually has to carry her party with her and we know how far to the right the Cons have moved. We are voting for MPs not Nanny May and after that we are voting for parties not Nanny May. Strong - I don't think so and nothing anyone has said on here has convinced me. Stable - that is very unlikely. So what do we have left? Right wing Conservatism.

Since the choice is between May and Corbyn I think the country will be voting for May ( in fairly large numbers.)
The electorate also see that Labour spends most of it's time in-fighting, so strong and stable versus weak and unstable.Whatever political colour you are that is what people see and hear.

The choice isn't between May and Corbyn. It isn't a presidential election. It's between promoting an elected dictatorship and providing a strong opposition.

Polls have shown that the Leader matters a great deal Maizie and although we vote for a Party overall, the person leading that Party has to be popular to win.

In which case, roses, we are not voting for a party.

Why is nobody complaining about Fallon getting his maths wrong? Accused of 'accounting deception' by the military chiefs.

"The most fatal point for Fallon’s – and the Tories’ – credibility came when Marr read out a letter from military chiefs accusing him of being ‘disingenuous and quoting irrelevant statistics‘ on defence spending and, even worse, of ‘accounting deception‘ and ‘damaging’ the armed forces. In other words, lying and hurting our servicemen and women."

Is this not considered to be important enough to Tories who support the armed forces?

The dreaded May is now offering time off for carers. No pay, but you can ask for the time off ... a year ... so tell your sick relative not last beyond that time. She is so completely out of touch. I am sure she could afford a year without pay but how many 'real' people actually can? Does this mean any attempt to improve the care service will stop under her - of course it does.

Anything that can pull the wool over the eyes of the people she seems to treat as proles - just how arrogant is she going to be before she has finished.

Far too many people believe she is strong and stable instead of struggling and sulphurous.

The only proposal so far to help the low-paid is on social housing.
Who created the social housing problem? Oh, the tories.
Is there any more money in it? Don't be silly.

I don't hear any tory voters on here suggesting she should say how she is going to fund this proposal. They must know she isn't going to.

'It is a recognition that there are currently 300,000 fewer homes for social rent than 20 years ago. However, there will be questions over the extent of real funding for the project.

“A Conservative government led by me will not duck the big challenges we face as a nation and there are few issues that are greater than the need for good-quality, affordable housing,” May will say on Sunday. “Whether you rent or buy, everyone needs the security of a place to call home but too many ordinary working families are stuck on council waiting lists, facing unaffordable rents and struggling to save for that first deposit.” '

Who took that security away from people?
Does she really think people will be taken in by this?

Strong and stable or weak and wobbly? I know who I'd choose!

There doesn't need to be much government money invested in the building of social housing. Councils build social housing, not governments.

ATM they can borrow at historically low interest rates and start collecting rents as soon as homes are built. Building provides work, which means more taxes are paid directly to the government, more money is spent in local economies, who themselves pay taxes...and so it goes on.

The barriers to building aren't all financial, because many are caused by planning laws and infrastructure.

This was originally in the leaked (far left ahem!?) Labour manifesto.

We all know who you'd choose, niggly.
She's becoming less strong and stable by the day.

Laughably today she has said she will keep all the workers rights from the EU.
I am sure all brexiteers voted for that.
Her promises are the "greatest in Tory history".
Possibly because there aren't any promises on workers rights in Tory history.

Just read on Business Insider that employers expect wages to rise no more than 1% over the next year, yet May promises to increase the national minimum wage in line with median earnings until 2022.
I bet she knew that they were not going to rise much before then. Easy promise to make.