The Tories proposed a lot of hard necessities people didn't want to hear, whereas Labour offered popular goodies. The fact that the Tories were talking sense didn't persuade everybody.
I have to agree with you there, OG, but perhaps there is a way to present things so there is a little sugar in the bitter pill.
May has been, justifiably I think, accused of tryng to be presidential - to my biased mind she sounds more Thatcheresque in her presentations and her actual voice every day. To start with I was for her but, well, we all know what power can do, turn the most reasonable and rational person into a despot. And keeping the likes of Boris the Buffoon on the staff . . . ?
There must be a balance between a hard rein on off-shore banking, exporting profit and the like and the cost of social needs. At the moment both major political parties are at opposing ends of that balance. For as long as parliament is split that way (though it seems many Tories are not 100% behind May) there will never be strong and stable government. Hard and rigid or soft and squishy when firm yet plastic are needed.
As has been said many times recently, up until the Brexit referrendum we were amongst the most stable countries in the world, growing nicely with something of a future. Now we are weak and directionless, with no definite plan for the future and possibly ridiculous expectations of what Europe owes us. All in a matter of months with May at the rudderless helm.