Why the reluctance to answer questions and face the real electorate ?

Someone on another forum pointed out a that everything must be taken in the context of the time in which it happened, which is why it's pointless clawing through the past and bringing up questions about that time. The fact is the Conservatives have a councillor [?] who was an active member of the IRA and condoned violence in every shape and form [very little mention of that anywhere]. And arguably the greatest Tory leader ever supported non other than General Pinochet.The issues facing us are those of people not being able to train as nurses because of bursaries/affordable homes not being built [another Tory uturn I believe]/police cuts [and rumours of parts of the force being privatised, but I can't back that up]/schools that can't afford textbooks [someone I know is, today, trawling the internet trying to buy with her own money books for her pupils because the school can't afford them].If Theresa may gets a huge majority next week I honestly believe that, in 5 years time we will not recognise the country in which we now live; and it terrifies me. It terrifies me far more than the thought of having a PM who has always been committed to multilateral nuclear disarmament and is prepared to work towards that goal....

The stars of the show last night were clearly some of the audience previously referred to, the partial sighted girl who said she had mental health issues and the girl who said she couldn't believe the obsession with killing. Teacher and nurse were good too speaking from the coal face as they say. May couldn't relate to them and patronised by using her new mantra "money tree". This must have replace S & S. I thought Boris Johnson behaved appallingly with Emily Maitliss on News Night later.

tegan and me. It will be a disaster.

Look what is ahead.

Evil cuts, threat to the NHS and a hard Brexit.

We know that the economy is beginning to tank. The Brexit chickens are beginning to come home to roost just as we said they would and were derided for saying so.

So trisher you are heavily biased and will not believe anyone ( myself or ww) who tries hard to be objective when watching a debate. If you notice, I don't say all good things about the Conservatives, but am honest and say they have run a poor campaign and produced an unpopular manifesto.T May is socially awkward as claimed when speaking to members of the public, but does her best (Brown was the same) it doesn't make them bad politicians though.Easy charm with Joe Public doesn't always translate to good rule.
I have no confidence in J Corbyn as leader ( along with about 165 Labour MP's)
Which is why I have to vote this time for T May and the Conservatives to lead us.

Yes Dimbleby did hang on didn't he.

I don't think last night will change many views. My hope is that it will spark the journalists into asking questions about the history of this Conservative government. May got away with all the talk being about May for the first few weeks and the LP then got ahead by talking about how parties affect our lives - more important than anything else to the majority.

When she saw May being May was actually a negative she tried to make it all about Brexit. She is on very shaky ground on the Conservative record but she was part of that government; she will have agreed to those decisions. Hopefully that is what we can talk about now.

I agree that it may not change all that many views in itself ( the debate from York) and I think it will spark journalists.....also into looking at Corbyns rebellious past, the company and friends he had, and at his anti-nuclear stance.All these things were just about (!) acceptable as a back bencher, but not for a PM.

rose believe me if there was anything to dig up about Corbyn it would have been dug months ago with knobs on. The gutter press will do anything and pay anyone including hacking phones to get what they want for their perverted agenda.

You are so right whitewave. IDS was trying to get in the fake news of a Garden Tax this morning but for once the BBC shot him down - how low will the Tories go.

We know about Corbyn and if you're are a warmonger you will probably not agree with him but if you want the world to be a better place you might.

This is from an article by John Harris in the Guardian.

'This is part of the reason the Conservative campaign has unravelled. Before the advent of social media, politicians could teeter on the brink of absurdity and repeatedly fall the wrong way, safe in the knowledge that we all had to wait for the next helping of Spitting Image or edition of Private Eye for their bubble to be burst. Now it happens instantaneously. Moreover, for all its flaws, the Facebook age is egalitarian in spirit. Woe betide the politician who will not turn up to the debate, or who seems to have an aversion to meeting the public.

In the midst of all this, what can politicians do? Be yourself. Do not dissemble. Forget the old idea that if you endlessly parrot the same lines, you can be sure that most people will see the message only once or twice: the likelihood is that the parroting will be edited into a 20-second video clip, and you will be rendered absurd. Treat the orthodox media’s rituals with a gentle mockery, which chimes with how most people feel about them.'

This is why May's soundbites don't work this time.
Off to buy my Guardian now.

Got mine - it gets delivered

This seems to me to be a fair summary of Theresa May's performance on Question Time:

- We demand that companies and the wealthy should have rock bottom tax rates because (and we won't budge on this) we absolutely insist on having terrible public services, nowhere for young people to live etc.
- We want the most aggressive leader we can find and - because we're GREAT BRITAIN, dammit - if we want to blow the world up we can, and we will, and no-one's going to stop us.
And furthermore:
- As a point of unbreakable principle, we refuse to take part in any concerted action with other European countries, even when we (theoretically) agree with them about whatever it is.

Oh! And they are supporting Corbyn in the election, which I find heartwarming as they have been quite look warm about him in the past.

Brilliant, Celia.
One more skwawkbox before I go.

skwawkbox.org/2017/06/02/corbynwins-then-goes-on-the-attack-over-dementiatax-ge17/

Rosesarered: Why do you think the General Election is about personalities? You May think Theresa May is more Prime Minister material than Jeremy Corbyn, but what about the policies? Do you want more of the same - food banks, millions of families living in semi-poverty and having to claim benefits despite working hard, a failing NHS, our grandchildren having to choose between a university education or years of crippling debt - or do you want something different? A Labour Government is not simply Jeremy Corbyn, it would be a Parliament that represents millions of people who want a better life for everyone, not just for the rich.

Do you really think a Labour government would abolish food banks? Dream on.

It might minimise the need for them.

I'm not even going to ask how.

I expect canteens giving free meals will spring up in every town and city .

A&E will no longer be packed with alcoholics saving the NHS millions, alcohol and drug rehabilitation centres will mushroom overnight, there will be no homeless some of whom have to be taken to A&E for trestment.

A Labour Government would certainly be ashamed and blamed if its manifesto did nothing to help the poorest in society. I haven't heard shame from the current government about the impact of its policies on all our public services. Nor on the huge increase in homelessness, mental health drug/alcohol abuse. We aren't training enough doctors, they have removed bursaries for trainee nurses, I won't go on because I doubt any prospective Tory voters believe what I'm saying

There is a touching faith that saint Jeremy will make it all better.Food banks were around during the last Labour government and no doubt always will be.
whoever is the PM is important IMHO as well as the policies.If it were as easy as Corbyn says then Conservatives would be promising all sorts of goodies.

Yes, we do have to start training more doctors and nurses and hopefully will do during and after we leave the EU.

People can't afford to train as nurses now they have to pay to do so....

Even while working and saving the NHS from paying them.

Can anyone please defend this governments insistence that nurses should have to pay to train to do this work? Or their surprise that people are no longer queuing up to do so??

Not a defence but don't doctors have to pay training fees too now, uni tuition fees and so on. Since all nurses have to have a degree now presumably they pay tuition fees like everybody else who goes to uni.