Is May a dictator? It is a moot point since there is no real opposition in parliament.
Her management style does suggest autocracy, it's true. Probably because no one else would touch the Tory leadership with a barge pole right now, so no real opponents in her own party either. Circumstances then, have conspired to allow May to operate within her comfort zone - she is not a team player or collaborator. She does not network - she's said it herself. However, I do not think she is temperamentally or intellectually capable of operating in any other way, and this for me, no matter what your politics, is extremely alarming at this important point in our history. 48% of the electorate did not want Brexit at all, and to hammer through a hard Brexit carries an enormous amount of risk. For me, this is a matter for the whole of Parliament to decide and instead May is single-handedly telling us what we, the British people, voted for in June and it is not a pretty picture. She could have walked a much more measured, careful, centrist line. I believe that, if she had wanted to (and she would have only wanted to if the Conservative Party would not shatter in the aftermath, kept us in the EU. Instead we have a shift to the right, and a flurry of incredible statements at party conference.
I am dismayed and shocked at the support for May on this thread. I expect more from MNetters. She is walking us over the edge of a cliff in my view, and employing a post-truth approach to politics in order to do so. Ignoring common-sense and expert advice, trashing one of the UK's core brands - its openness, liberalism and tolerance - in order to appease the right wing of her party and prevent the bloodbath within the party that anything other than a hard Brexit would trigger. I think Britain will be utterly transformed, and not in a good way, if she continues down this path.